Believe it or not, the Lancia Beta Montecarlo started life as a Fiat. Codenamed X1/8, the car was a Pininfarina styling study designed to be a new Fiat sports car. At the same time, rival stylists Bertone were working on Project X1/9, a smaller and more delicate design that ultimately became the one chosen by Fiat. 

But all was not lost. The X1/8 was still considered beautiful, and with Lancia needing a new sports model to not only expand its range but also give it something to base its next rally car on as a successor to the Stratos.

Thus, the Beta Montecarlo was born – not Monte Carlo as it is often mistakenly written. Introduced in 1975, the model was offered as both a Coupé and a targa-topped Spyder, the former being by far the more common. 

In 1978, a Series 2 model appeared and it was this model on which the famous Lancia 037 rally car was based, hence making it more desirable than the earlier cars. The later models were also more potent with 118bhp, the see-through rear buttresses being the main point of identity between each series. 

The later cars also dropped the Beta name, so this 1983 car is simply a Lancia Montecarlo. It’s a cool thing, fresh into the UK from South Africa, where it has been owned by just one person from new.

This is a genuine low-mileage Montecarlo bought new in Gauteng Province, South Africa, by an associate of the vendor in 1983 and has been used as an occasional car by him for almost four decades.  

It has been imported by a collector who used to live in Cape Town and uses his contacts there to source unusual vehicles. 

The vendor will have had the car MOT’d and serviced prior to sale and it is ready to be UK-registered, which requires a simple V55/5 form to be sent off to the DVLA. 

All duties and VAT are already paid and the import paperwork complete, but the vendor hasn’t UK registered it yet in case the eventual buyer wishes to import it elsewhere. If it stays in the UK, he is more than happy to help register it.

The car comes with all of the import paperwork complete and a NOVA declaration showing that all due taxes have been paid. 

At the time of writing the listing, all other paperwork relating to the car was still on its way via surface mail from South Africa, other than the registration document declaring legal title to the vendor. As such, we are unaware as to what bills and history might be available but will update the listing if it arrives in time.

The Montecarlo has to be one of the best-looking Lancias ever made – and that’s going against a back catalogue of some pretty stunning vehicles!

It was the first car to be both designed and built fully in-house by Pininfarina for Lancia and was a beautifully executed thing, with delicate detailing and a timeless trapezoid profile. 

This one is a Spider, which means it has a black canvas lift-out panel in the roof – it’s not a convertible, but it’s a certainly one step beyond a sunroof…

It’s an unrestored car, garaged from new and loved and looked after by its one and only owner. As a result, it has a couple of very slightly faded areas in the paint, but for a 39-year old Lancia it’s pretty incredible really. The Champagne Metallic paintwork retains a great shine, the trim is all in good order and the wheel are unblemished. For a car that has never been painted or restored, it’s quite remarkable. 

The beige cloth interior is in excellent order with no major problems, the only minor fault being a slightly loose piece of door trim on the passenger door.

The seats and carpets are excellent, as befits a low mileage car, and all of the controls and switches are in great order, including the characterful rectangular gearknob. 

A further bonus is fully functional air conditioning – the system has been maintained to cope with the South African climate so still works as well as it did 39 years ago. 

There’s something wonderfully eager about the 2.0-litre Twin Cam, which fires up instantly and chatters away enthusiastically waiting for you to blip the throttle. This one has covered less than 63,000km, or about 39,500 miles from new.

The ‘Lampredi’ engine makes an enchanting noise and runs brilliantly, as you’d expect from a low mileage unit that has been lovingly maintained throughout its life. 

All of the gears engage correctly and that the steering and brakes feel suitably fit for service, while the vendor describes it as ‘an incredible car to drive’.

The Montecarlo is one of Lancia’s finest cars of the era both in terms of looks and performance, and this has to be one of the absolute best ones left. A completely original, unrestored, rot-free, right-hand-drive example is a very rare beast indeed, and the fact that the entire history of this car is known from Day One is even more incredible. 

The most important thing is its overall condition. Lancias of this age earned a reputation for rot that, sadly, was far from unfounded. Finding one that’s not a festering heap of rust is a rare and unusual delight. Finding one like this, which hasn’t been restored and has only has one owner, is nothing short of a miracle. It’s a very special car indeed.