Upper Middle Petrol Head:

Sadly, Lancia Betas of this quality and condition are nearly as rare as angels’ poop today, many having succumbed to rust.  This is especially true of the model in the UK, where they corroded so badly that their engine subframes not uncommonly became loose, often when the cars were still quite new, resulting in Lancia buying them back and pretty much destroying the marque’s name in Britain.   Whilst rust is the worldwide scourge of Lancias of that era - and don’t go all “yes, we know - the Italians used Russian steel” (we’ll get to that in a minute) - the problem isn’t as bad Down Under, very probably because we don’t salt our roads.  In this respect, Australian vehicles are very much like the fabled “California cars” or those from South Africa, often being significantly sounder than examples from countries whose roads ice over or that are, at the opposite end of the spectrum, very humid.  It's likely that today's Beta coupe - brought to us by SEQC PeteR, as are the next two of

  Team UMPH will stop posting pics of EH Holdens only when we get tired of doing so or our readership tell us that they've had enough.  Fortunately, neither scenario seems to be particularly likely! Today's example - captured at a cider brewery (a "cidery"?) on Wilsons Promontory, Victoria - was right up there with the best of them.  It was simple and elegant, a great example of the model!  Did you enjoy this post?  Are you a bit of an EH or early Holden fan?  If so, why not check out the rest of the fairly extensive showing of EHs and other Holdens from 48-215s - aka FXs - through to HXs, WBs and early Commodores via the search facility on the top right-hand corner of the UMPH homepage? U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) iPhone images. And this is Rob.  He's not a dentist, which is why we can show his face.