Abarth & C. S.p.A. or popularly known as Abarth, is a road car and racing car maker established in Bologna, Italy in 1949 by Italian automobile designer Carlo Abarth. It is better recognized by its logo that is a shield embossed with a scorpion in front of a yellow and red background. This car company is a division of FCA Italy S.p.A., which is also a division of a bigger company, the Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles.
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When Cisitalia, an Italian factory racing team fell down financially in 1948, sporting director Carlo Abarth took over and restarted the whole company. He decided to give it a fresh start by changing its name into Abarth & C. The logo with the scorpion embellishment is actually Carlo Abarth’s astrological sign.
The remaining cars of Cisitalia were then revamped and built into Abarth cars. They also added new members to the racing team including Franco Cortese, Piero Taruffi, and Tazio Nuvolari. To add up to the finances of the company, Abarth also included the production and marketing of accessories and parts to their activities. Their clients include Lancia Automobiles, Fiat, Cisitalia and Simca.
Image source: wikimedia.org
Abarth moved their headquarters to Turin in 1951 and began with their tie-up with Fiat, a largest automobile manufacturer in Italy a year after. More success have led the company to produce cars for sports car racing and hill climbing. Their competitors include the Porsche 904 and Ferrari Dino. Strengthening its partnership with Fiat, Abarth started producing high-performance exhaust pipes for them, specifically for the Lambretta models which are now sold as collector’s’ items. Abarth then also supported Porsche Automobil Holding SE, a German car manufacturing company and Simca in building their racing and sports cars.
It was 1971 when Carlo finally decided to sell his company to Fiat. Since Fiat was not into joining racing events, they assigned Enzo Osella to take over this activity of Abarth. This then ended the racing career of Abarth and started the Osella racing team instead.
Here are some of Abarth’s most popular car models
- Autobianchi A112 Abarth 70HP
- Abarth Allemano 750 Spider
- Abarth Grande Punto(2007)
- Abarth Grande Punto SS (2007)
- Abarth Monomille
- Abarth OT 1000
- Abarth OT 1300
- Abarth OT 1600
- Abarth OT 2000 Competition Coupe
- Abarth Punto Evo
- Abarth Punto Supersport (2012–2013)
- Abarth Simca 1300 GT
- Abarth Simca 2000(1963)
- Abarth Zagato 750
- Abarth 124 Rally
- Abarth 1000
- Abarth 1000 Berlina(1961-1967)
- Abarth 1000 Berlina Corsa(1961-1964)
- Abarth 1000 Bialbero Zagato
- Abarth 1000TC Berlina Corsa(1964-1969)
- Abarth 1000 TCR Berlina
- Abarth 1000 TCR Berlina Corsa(1970)
- Abarth 1100 Scorpione Spider (Boano)
- Abarth 1300 Scorpione(1969)
- Abarth 1500 Biposto(1952)
- Abarth 2000 Coupe
- Abarth 2200
- Abarth 2400
- Abarth 3000 Prototipo
- Abarth 204A Berlinetta
- Abarth 205 Monza(950-1951)
- Abarth 205A
- Abarth 205A Berlinetta
- Abarth 207A Spyder
- Abarth 209A Boano Coupe
- Abarth 500
- Abarth 500C
- Abarth 595
- Abarth 595 SS
- Abarth 695 SS
- Abarth 750
- Abarth 750 Berlina (Derivazione)(1956-1959)
- Abarth 750 GT Zagato
- Abarth 750 Zagato Monza
- Abarth 850 Allemano coupe
- Abarth 850TC Berlina(1960-1964)
- Abarth 850TC Corsa(1964-1968)
- Abarth 850TC Nürburgring(1961-1963)
- Abarth 850TC Nürburgring Corsa(1961-1963)
Photos of Abarth’s different types of cars
(Photos Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/)
