Number 27 - Why This Car Was Doomed From the Very Beginning... The Lancia Montecarlo

When he mentions the Scorpion, the photo of the dirty engine bay with the gold-colored Cromodora spare is my car just after I bought it. The photo was posted here on the forum. Looks a bit different now.

Then:
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Now:
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That video was fun to watch and I do agree with his assessments. Fortunately in 2023, we can fix all the issues he mentioned. I definitely have the motivation to build a killer engine for mine, especially after driving my red car with the stock 1.8. The 77 has a 2.0 with some unknown upgrades and is definitely faster, but deserves a proper high compression engine and the set of 42 DCNF's I picked up recently.
 
I enjoyed the vid , but I think he may have missed an important factor. Styling. He praised the overall shape of the car, and a couple of other features 👍, but he missed a couple of main features that I think are/were polarizing. The wheels and the steering wheel. They are both a matter of personal preference, so they aren't "wrong" but in 1976 they were "out there" in terms of what was popular at the time. I think they were both a "bridge too far". I believe Lancia chose both of those items to influence preferences, instead of delivering what folks wanted. I think it's possible that many potential customers may have been turned off by those two unusual items. At least they are to me. YMMV
 
Mike you have made good points, I do think that the aftermarket could help with the steering wheel and road wheels.
even in the 1970’s. I remember my Dad looked at a 1977 new at a dealer. At the time he had a 1974 Alfa Spider.
on the test drive we took the car on, it was apparent that is had very little power. After talking with the salesman. He did suggest that after the warranty expire, we could raise the compression and install hotter cams. In the end dad passed on the Scorpion
 
Ron, Yes, customizing the wheels and steering wheel are some of the most common mods folks make to make their car "their own". And yes, my car has neither the stock wheels or steering wheel. For the consumer, back in 1976, just getting around those stock items may have been difficult. "You want how much for a car that needs - wheels - steering wheel - modified engine?" Hummmm...let me think about it.
 
The truth is that throughout the mid-late 70's very few of the affordable sports cars of the day had much in the way of performance. HP numbers kept going down on many of these cars in comparison to their European counterparts. The British sports cars of the day were even worse as their low tech engines were handicapped with emission controls that were not well thought out. So the Scorpions with their 81 HP engines, down a whopping 39 HP from the Montecarlo's 120 was unfortunately the norm for the day. No doubt it contributed to the low sales numbers as the story about Ron's dad clearly shows. Personally, I like the styling including the wheels and steering wheel, the real issue with these cars is the low compression, emissions version of the Lampredi engine. If this car had come to market with the original Fiat 130 V6 engine, few of us would be able to afford one today. Even with the emissions controls of the 70's, this would have offered incredible performance and a true exotic car experience.

IMHO, in 2023, the Lancia Scorpion is still an affordable semi-exotic car and pretty much a clean slate to build it into what the factory could not do back in the 70's. I have one that will remain stock, except for an engine rebuild to let it run properly and the other car will get the full treatment to make it into what these cars could have been from the factory.
 
I like my Scorpion, very much. But it's performance, even with all the mods it has, is not up to par with the Datsun Z car, especially the 240s. While the Z cars had more conventional styling, they were still quite stunning in the day. (Still look pretty good to me.) I don't know how they compared to the Scorpion at the time in terms of price, but the Z didn't really lack power at all. And the brakes worked pretty good too. So if you had to choose between a new (260? or 280?) Z in 1976/77, or a nice used 240Z? Well, you had to really like the Scorpion to choose it.

One nice thing about the failure of the Scorpion to catch on back in the day, is that today it turns more heads than a Z car. They still look exotic - at least to me.
 
Totally agree that the Z car performance was really good, definitely better than pretty much everything in it's price range back in the 70's. And when you factored in the price of over 9K back in 1976 for the Scorpion they were non-competitive. Agree with you today, that while a nicely restored Z-car is pretty sweet, but the Scorpion is a completely different wow factor as no one knows what it is and it looks and sounds exotic. I can't judge the performance until I get one of mine properly built up, but I suspect that with a built Lampredi, I'll be pretty happy with how it performs and sounds.
 
dherr said:
IMHO, in 2023, the Lancia Scorpion is still an affordable semi-exotic car and pretty much a clean slate to build it into what the factory could not do back in the 70's. I have one that will remain stock, except for an engine rebuild to let it run properly and the other car will get the full treatment to make it into what these cars could have been from the factory.
Click to expand...
The factory also did this. They called it an 037.
 
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