In reply to BoxheadTim:
The lancia 2.0 twin cam is a bolt in for a bit of a power bump. I have friend a with a really mint scorpion who dropped in the engine from a trashed Beta Zagato and he loves it. The engines are severely detuned in stock form and respond well to desmogging. As other posters have said returning these to euro spec is a huge improvement.
Engine swap blah blah blah. Just turbo it. The stock engine is plenty capable of moderate boost levels and it will scoot just fine. Change it over to a Spider 2.0 injection system if you want to avoid the carb issues. Plenty of room in there for any plumbing, though getting cool air to an intercooler may be a challenge.
I drove one of those for a weekend, and it was a shock to park it next to a X1/9 and find it isn't really any bigger. Frankly, I think the Fiat is more fun, but the exoticar looks of the Lancia will fool people into thinking it's a Ferrari or something.
Interesting. As someone who has owned a couple of X1/9s and wouldn't mind another, I'm curious as to why you'd prefer the X1/9?
mad_machine wrote: the biggest issues these cars have, aside from rust, are the brakes. Who in their right mind would take a light weight, mid-engine car, and only add power assist to the front brakes? To say it takes nothing to lock the fronts is an understatement.
I had read about this somewhere. Supposedly, it was fixed in the Series 2 Montecarlo, but by that time Scorpion sales in the US had ended.
In reply to mad_machine:
Todd at TCE Performance has made a couple kits for these fitted with Wilwoods. Nice set up.
http://www.tceperformanceproducts.com/
Since the car was originally made for a V6 I think that is the way to go. There are a couple different ones out there with the ALFA being the most popular.
I have seen Alfa V6 powered Scorpions online.. that engine looks right at home in there
The Lancia 2.0 injected will get you about a 25% power bump (~80 up to ~100). Turbos and megasquirt could move you significantly higher. If you want to go just there are reverse port Euro 16 valve turbo versions (Lancia Thema, Delta, Integrale or Fiat Croma, Coupé) that can make insane outputs. While probably readily available in European junkyards, getting one here would be pricy.
Looks like this one got away on account of me not being able to get in touch with the seller and get down there in time 
. Oh well, sometimes having a "regular" job and being half a days' driving away from the good deals sucks.
mad_machine wrote: the biggest issues these cars have, aside from rust, are the brakes. Who in their right mind would take a light weight, mid-engine car, and only add power assist to the front brakes? To say it takes nothing to lock the fronts is an understatement. Curious thing, supposedly the Japanese version had power assisted -rear- brakes only.. that seems more in keeping with the weight distribution
thats how you know its italian.
BoxheadTim wrote: Looks like this one got away on account of me not being able to get in touch with the seller and get down there in time
Bummer, that was a nice lookin Scorpion. Italian cars are like crack. It's better if you don't start.
Oh, at last count I've already owned ...
< wanders off to reminisce >
... eleven Italian cars? I think, but I might have forgotten one or two...
So I'm guessing I'm a little past the "not starting" stage 
.
In reply to BoxheadTim:
Oh wow, I had no idea you were already a full on crack head. Looks like you should be giving me tips on how to quit.
My attempts at quitting had me start buying Porsches, but they're out of my price range by now 
. I'm not sure that's the way to treat an addiction like that .
I owned most of the above in the 90s when they were still cheap to pick up, but I basically gave up on them because the parts situation was pretty bad in the 2000s, at least in the UK. That made for cheap cars, but they often turned into cheap lawn ornaments. That's when I went to Japanese cars, a couple of Porkers (a 924 first, then a 911 Targa) and Japanese cars.
BoxheadTim wrote: Interesting. As someone who has owned a couple of X1/9s and wouldn't mind another, I'm curious as to why you'd prefer the X1/9?
Just one of those seat-of-the-pants things. I thought the X1/9 felt more nimble, and the Fiat shift linkage was better than the Lancia. The difference wasn't vastly better, but given the higher expense of the Scorpion and the difficulty in getting parts I didn't see it as any real advantage over the X1/9. The one I drove was a desmogged 1.8 and it wasn't really notably faster than the little SOHC Fiat, which was the biggest complaint about them.
I could've bought that car for $3500 way back when I drove it, which was strong but fair money for it. I've owned something like 23 Fiats over the years (they were once so cheap people would give them to you). Multiple 124 coupes and spiders, 128 3p, 128 wagon, 850 spider, X1/9s, and a 1959? 1200 OSCA Cabriolet. Tried hard to buy a Brava for awhile but the guy never would sell it. Parted and junked quite a few of everything. Fun times.
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