When Lancia is acquired by Fiat at the end of 1969, Ing. Sergio Camuffo is given the task of developing a new model. He assembles a team to have a car ready before the end of 1972, and it succeeds: the Beta. A year later follows the compact Coupé and another year later the Spider appears. Where Pinifarina is responsible for design, Zagato is responsible for production. And the "typical Italian" way of working does not end there: the bare bodyëns of the coupé go from Lancia to Zagato to be converted into Spider. Then they go back to Lancia for rust prevention to, yep, then back to Zagato for paintwork, interior and related items such as bumpers and the like. Then the car goes wéér to Lancia itself, for engine assembly and final things. As you can no doubt imagine, Lancia loses money on every Spider built. In the end, fewer than 10,000 are produced.Eéone of those 9,390 Spider built is now for sale with us, in Brummen. A pretty late specimen from 1981. Whereas the Beta Spider was available in the early production years with 1600 and 1800 cc metering four-cylinder, this later Lancia is equipped with the beloved 2-liter with carburetor. This makes the Beta downright sporty because 120 hp may be enough today, but in the early 1980s it is simply very sporty. Although the Coupé like the Spider has a beautiful line, the Spider has a clear additional "unique selling point": a targa roof for when you want to feel the wind through your hair (whether present or not) and for the real open feeling you can also take off the rear part of the roof. What remains is a convertible with roll bar.This Beta Spider comes in the most Italian color you can imagine: Rosso Racing! The car was completely tackled in 2020 and 2021, when the entire technology was overhauled, the bodywork was restored and the interior was also brought back to top condition, with great seating as the only consession to the original design. From the restoration is a pack of invoices present to say "you" to. As a matter of course, the body is in optimal condition with a flawless paint and neat fits of doors and other parts. Chrome work and plastic parts are also in top condition and the car stands on the original wheels. The targa roof and rear convertible top are also very nice. Because of all these things, the Beta Spider makes a very fresh impression. The interior is very clean, everything functions as it should and there are no nasty damages present. The top of the dashboard is covered with nice looking Alcantara. The Recaro seats sit great and match the 80s interior of the car very well. The fabric upholstery is in perfect condition and so are the original door trim and rear seats.Are things just as clean under the hood? You can already see that in the photos, we suspect. The technology has been completely taken care of and the 1,995 cc four-cylinder runs and performs just fine. In addition, the optical condition is very fresh and the engine block is soó clean that you could eat from it, although we personally would rather mét drive this Beta to an Italian restaurant. The torquey twin-cam feels properly powerful and makes the Lancia a very enjoyable driver's car. No car manufacturer has produced such fine front-wheel-drive cars as Lancia and this Beta is a prime example of that.With the original instruction booklet, a stack of leaflets and the already mentioned stack of invoices, this is a very good example of a "complete package" with the bright red Beta Spider as its centerpiece.