By the early 1970s, the Fiat 124 – a brisk seller – was aging. Fiat originally planned to replace the 124 with a Pininfarina design, but Bertone stepped in with the economical Fiat X1/9. Fiat shifted the Pininfarina project to Lancia and after a few fits and starts including a V6 version killed by the oil crisis, the car was introduced at the 1975 Geneva Motor Show as the Montecarlo. In European trim, it received the Lampredi 2.0 liter four-cylinder from the 124 coupe, mounted mid-ship and tuned to generate 120 hp. Once the car hit the shores of the US, though, emissions and safety regulations took a toll; even Chevrolet’s ownership of the “Monte Carlo” name caused problems, forcing a name change for the US version to Scorpion. Here on eBay is a 1976 Lancia Scorpion with bidding up to $5000, reserve met. Located in Concord, New Hampshire, this car lost its garage and was stored outside during the winter – the first time it had not been garaged while in the seller’s possession.
In order to sell the Scorpion in the US, several changes were required. Rather than the 2.0-liter motor, Lancia used Fiat’s 1.8-liter alternative, still a twin-cam, but with a lower compression ratio and a smaller carburetor, making only 85 hp. Additionally, the car was burdened by 5 mph bumpers and a pop-up headlight arrangement that added some 130 lbs to its weight. On the other hand, the car has a five-speed manual – not the four-speed of most of its competitors – and disc brakes all around. The seller indicates that this car used to run well and will now start up but dies when warm. It has new Koni struts, a new electronic ignition, an upgraded fuel pump, and Ansa exhaust tips. The seller stresses that the timing belt should be changed and the car needs a new battery.
The interior has been attacked by vermin, who feasted on the sheepskin seat covers. Under these, the original leather seats are torn and faded, requiring reupholstering. The rest of the interior is in decent condition. A sliding cloth sunroof was standard on all Scorpions; this one has a slight tear but otherwise works well.
The front trunk supplies room for a bit of luggage. Perhaps the little guy who chewed up the seat covers was lodging in here; other than the debris this view is pretty tidy with good seals, paint, and carpet. Only about 1800 Scorpions were sold in the US, partially because they were priced at twice the cost of an MGB, but also Lancia/Fiat didn’t have an extensive geography of repair facilities and these cars were not perfectly reliable. Today, many Scorpions have been upgraded to Montecarlo specs – a vast improvement. For a buyer not intimidated by a low-production Italian car, this price is a bargain.
The author is too kind, but the REAL reason why they never sold, people had a bad taste from Fiats, and for all practical purposes, this was a fancy Fiat. Kind of funny how our automotive designs changed, and seems everyone jumped on the mid engine bandwagon. All fun, yet dismal vehicles, except, I think the MR2.
“Starts and runs until warm, then dies”? Oh,,,too easy to pick on, what’s the problem, Tony?
Dies after warm-up sounds like a stuck/inoperable choke mechanism, maybe as simple as replacing a collapsed/plugged coolant hose feeding the auto-choke element.
“People had a bad taste for Fiats” ?… Not everyone… Had, and still have a 124… owned 3, X1/9s over 25 years. Fiats were no worse than other cars available at the time regarding reliability and longevity… Just a bunch of old wives tales perpetuated by people who never actually owned one. I’ll compare any of my mid/late ’70s Fiats to any of the dreck coming out of Detroit during the same period… Nothing rusted faster than a Plymouth Duster / Dodge Dart… The only real problem with Fiat was a weak and unreliable dealer network in the US… Always wanted to add Scorpion/Montecarlo to the fleet… would still do it today if I had the room.
The reliability rumors for 70s era Fists are a bit inflated. They had one great problem and that was failure to mention cam timing belt life. The timing belt, invented by Fiat but not perfected by them was only good for 25 thousand miles. Shocking news when your newish car suddenly needs a top end overhaul including valves. Other than that they ran like a Swiss watch.
If you can put aside your cultural instinct to disparage Italian cars, just for a moment, and recall that British cars of the era suffered from quality control problems that were just bad (if not worse), I think you’ll realize that the author is right, and lower costs are the real reason why people preferred the just-as-poorly-built (+ dynamically inferior) MGB, etc.
When I read the description of critter damage the first thing that came to mind is that god awful smell of crap and pee. To make things worse for me I am extremely allergic to mice. Disgusting creatures that cause so much damage. Beyond that the Scorpion/ Monte Carlo is one of the best looking cars. It was such a shame our version was a let down in pretty much every aspect. When I worked at the Alfa dealer the owners son had a beautiful Scorpion for sale. He wouldn’t sell it to me because he said you don’t really want that car implying you would not be happy with it.
I understand where Howard is coming from. Italian cars are generally more fragile than a domestic product and to own one you have to be passionate in order to look past the shortcomings. However once you do they are brilliant and full of character. I used to daily drive Alfa’s and not once did I ever break down along the road. I drove them hard but I never beat on them.
Alfas and Fiats love to be driven hard. Properly maintained (something most Americans don’t do) they are reliable and a joy to drive.
A joy to drive, yes! Reliable? Not so much, to be charitable.
I agree. My 1977 Beta Berlina was a daily driver. the (desmogged) engine was a gem provided you replaced the timing belt every 17.5K miles. My Berlina was a dependable ride for over 12 years and a delight on a twisty stretch of blacktop.
Until very recently, a local “storal” had one of these parked outside with an X1/9 on its right side. The Lancia was gutted, though the glass, instruments and dash were still intact. It was a project that had gone by the wayside with the idea of an X1/9 transfusion. As our area grew exponentially over the past 6 years this storage complex and others have changed hands and these two disappeared-as have many of the more interesting rigs parked around them.
You bring up a good point, Michelle, in that these upgraded are great fun and worth the value if you can do the maintenance yourself.
The Scorpion in the storage lot may have been a shell but with the right transplant it’d be even more of a fun project, say, a Lancia Beta Tribute or even a mongrel transplant of a hot V-6..?
Copypasta of my comment from another recent Scorpion listing:
These have a rather fascinating development history — in a nutshell:
Fiat wanted a replacement for their aging 124 Sport Coupe, so they solicited proposals from Pininfarina and Bertone, under Fiat internal development project codes X1/8 and X1/9 respectively. Bertone’s X1/9 proposal got approved, retaining its codename for the actual production model.
Pininfarina wasn’t ready to give up however, as their X1/8 bid had become a bit of a pet project for them, being their first attempt to fully design and develop an entire car (not just body shells) for in-house series production, aside from the powertrain and running gear to be provided by Fiat. Originally intended to have a 3-liter V6, this was scaled back to a 2-liter plan when the ’70s oil crisis hit, and the project was re-designated as X1/20.
Fiat had also recently acquired Carlo Abarth’s tuning/racing shop, which they tasked with developing a couple early prototype X1/20 bodyshells into racers to compete in the Giro d’Italia for promotional and “racing improves the breed” purposes. These became the Abarth 030, equipped with an Abarth-tuned version of the 3.2L V6 from the Fiat 130, mounted longitudinally to a ZF transaxle. One of these finished the competition second only to the mighty Lancia Stratos; the other 030 was a backup car and never raced. This project would continue, ultimately culminating in the Lancia Rally 037.
That racing effort aside, the series-production side of the X1/20 project was eventually transferred under Lancia’s wing, Fiat having saved that storied firm from looming oblivion in late 1969 by acquiring it for a token 1 Lira per share. As the X1/9 had proven the viability of putting a series-production transverse FWD powertrain (from the Fiat 128) into a rear-mid engine configuration, Fiat recognized they could do the same with the new Lancia Beta’s FWD powertrain for the X1/20 and thus market it as a Lancia, which would also justify other comfort, equipment, and refinement upgrades to better distinguish it from the X1/9 and position it upmarket for a more profitable price tag.
Ultimately, the production car debuted as the Lancia Beta Montecarlo, to lend some extra sporting cachet to the Lancia Beta line which provided its powertrain (though the rest of the running gear under the skin was mostly shared in common with the X1/9), and became the first series-production model to be fully manufactured to completion entirely in-house at Pininfarina, just as they’d hoped and planned for all along.
These are nice cars. I had a brochure for them (featuring Sandro Munari), and they also went on to be the basis of the 037.
Needs a K20 swap. No car that looks this cool deserves to be so slow.
Scorpions were very slow when new, and comparatively even slower now. Lancia specific parts can be hard to come by. My two year experience with a Scorpion in the early eighties revealed at least several things – beyond being bog slow, the interior parts are very delicate, two seaters with no storage behind the seats are a real pain, cars with such exotic looks generate uncomfortable (to me) stares and a seemingly a level of resentment/police attention inconsistent with this low-budget car, and finally, while I really like Lancia’s and Fiats (having had 3 and 1 respectively), a Scorpion will never be on the menu again.
FWIW, engine parts are mostly common to other versions of the Fiat twincam engine (Fiat 124/131/etc.), running gear (suspension/brakes/steering) is mostly common to the Fiat X1/9, and The Monte Hospital now exists to supply many other Scorpicarlo-specific bits.
The headline of this post says it all. “Needs a garage…” With a full time mechanic.
This is one of those cars with far better handling than they had power. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I have at the present time a couple of Lotus cars and according to many both have a similar problem. I find it strange that I can run away and hide from them under most conditions. I agree with a couple of the authors who posted earlier that these cars are almost criminally fragile but that doesn’t mean they are not and can not be a great deal of fun.
I also agree that the swap to the larger engine and additional power is an extremely good idea but another problem with this design is the braking. Look up the TOP GEAR episode about Lancia and the problems they had with the brakes locking up. Been there and done that. This is a car that DEMANDS a deft touch and balance and will behave badly if it does not get what it needs. Much like an open wheel formula car. My Europa is of a similar bent. Truly slow off the line but when moving sticks like glue. Because of that you often do not need to slow down for turns. This car while heavier is of a similar bent. I drove a friends and with my long term experience with the Europa I got performance out of his car he could never achieve. An LS engine transplant will not solve everything sometimes balance is the key.
Indeed, the initial series of Montecarlos and Scorpions were inexplicably equipped with vacuum-boosted power disc brakes only in front, leaving the rear discs unboosted. No mere “easy way out” solution, they deliberately designed a rather complex hydraulic system to make this half-boosted setup possible with a remote vacuum servo:
https://www.lanciamontecarlo.net/images/brake_circuit.gif
With the engine, fuel tank, and spare tire all in the rear, the front wheels didn’t have much weight keeping them planted, allowing those power front brakes to lock up a bit too readily when driven in anger in the wet or when road traction was otherwise marginal, which the motoring press made great sport of deriding, perhaps more than was likely to actually affect most owners day-to-day.
Fortunately, it’s a fairly simple matter to bypass the circuit to the vacuum boost if one is so inclined; The Monte Hospital sells a kit for it, part # MH3277. Also, X1/9 brake upgrades are an easy nut’n’bolt swap, such as the popular Whoa! Brakes retrofit kit using Wilwood calipers.
Second-series Montecarlos omitted the brake booster entirely and upgraded to larger 14″ wheels allowing for larger discs, though the US Scorpion variant sadly would not resume production by that time.
Lancia in name only
Ended: May 06, 2023 , 1:00PM
Winning bid:US $8,400.00 [ 30 bids ]