Could Abarth be the most under-appreciated racing make?

Carlo Abarth – born as Karl in Austria 110-years ago, but embraced by the Italians as one of their own – was one of the leading post-war vehicle tuners, working on Porsches, Simcas and Renaults, but most synonymous with Fiat, which successfully revived the revered Abarth brand name a decade ago in 2008.

The staggering collection of Moll’s Abarths at Retromobile concentrate primarily on the Fiat-based road and race cars, with Carlo Abarth’s tuning mastery evident in familiar Fiat road cars such as the 1960s 600 (through a purposeful 1000 TCR-Radiale GRS) and 850 Coupe (in its fearsome 185 bhp twin-cam OT 2000 ‘America’ form, with its exposed front spare wheel).

These are backed-up by a very strong selection of the famous ‘double bubble’ Zagato coachbuilt Fiat-derived coupes, including a delightfully dinky and rare 1959 500-based Berlinetta, plus Carlo Abarth’s personal Allemano-bodied 1965 Fiat 2400 Coupe.  

Competition Abarths form the mainstay of the Paris feature though, with highlights including the Pininfarina-built 500 Record that broke 23 international records over ten days and 28,000 kilometres in 1958, plus the unusual cigar-shaped 2500 Monoposto record car of 1965.

Successful Abarth racers include the 1966 1000 Sport SE04, 1968 OT 2000 Periscopo, 1969 2000 Sport Spider Prototipo, 1969 2000 Sport 4-FARI, 1972 Osella 2000 Spider, 1974 Pininfarina 2000 Prototipo, plus a sole Simca-powered 1300 GT Corsa of 1963. The real star of the themed display, however, is a prototype 610 bhp, 6-litre V12 engine, planned for the ‘Type 140’ Fiat-Abarth 6000 Prototipo Le Mans project that was canned late in its development phase due to technical regulation changes.

Photography by Tom Shaxson.