1957 Abarth 750GT Coupe

Carlo Abarth's small GT gems were the scourge of under-one-liter GT and sports car racing. A svelte 'double bubble' body by Zagato and Abarth's genius for tuning small engines turned the pedestrian Fiat 600 into a class winner in World Champion races. This car is the only survivor of one of the most romantic yet darkest days in the World of Championship sports car racing.

Setting out from Brescia on May 11 at 12:46 AM Sunday morning in this car, Luciano and Vittorio Gianni began the third round race of the 1957 World Sports Car Championship, the 1957 Mille Miglia. Thirteen hours and 46 minutes later they were back in Brescia finishing 77th overall in the Mille Miglia's 750 GT class outrunning the Panhard HBR, winner of the one-liter GT class, by two minutes. They were the third of a three-car Abarth 750 GT sweep! It was the 24th and final Mille Miglia. The legendary 1,000-mile race around the Italian peninsula was discontinued after a Ferrari crashed, killing its driver, navigator, and ten spectators and injuring 20 more.

After WW II, Carlo Abarth returned to his family origins near Merano, Italy, and established Abarth & Company in Turin on April 15, 1949. For the next 20 years, his factory was immersed in every phase of automobiles, from high-performance tuning to complete cars, until being absorbed into Fiat in July 1971.

By then, his 'sign of the scorpion' logo had long been premier among small-displacement Italian cars, particularly Fiat, and had reached world renown for performance-enhancing equipment in an extensive catalog that included exhaust systems produced for many sports and racing cars, and accessories empire that supported a long and successful program of Abarth world speed record cars.

Beginning about 1955, Abarth modifications of the four-seat Fiat 600 produced small cars of sensational performance. Coachmaker Zagato was brought in to redesign the Fiat body as a two-place sports coupe that created a legend in the 'double bubble' 750TC (Turismo Competizione) Berlina. With coachwork in aluminum, the 'bubbles' increased headroom and produced an aesthetic triumph that turned the Fiat 600 into the Fiat-Abarth 750GT on which the 'bubbles' continued to the engine cover as twin forward-facing air intakes.

One of approximately 20 'Corsa' factory lightweight competition racing versions of the 750 Double Bubbles, this car was delivered on March 4th of 1957 to well-known Genoa, Italy-based gentlemen racers Vittorio and Luciano Gianni. The car had a brief, but very successful racing career including a third-in-class finish in the last Mille Miglia in 1957. So dominant were the Abarth 750 GTs in the Mille Miglia that all top three finishers (including this car) finished ahead of the winner of the 1000cc class.

In May of 1958, this car was sold back to Abarth and exported to the United Kingdom where it was converted to RHD. Two owners and nine years later it was taken off the road and stored in a garage in West London where it would remain for over 35 years until it was discovered in 2005. A sympathetic refurbishment ensued and the car remains incredibly original due to its long-term storage. In 2011, the car was converted back to its original LHD configuration and Mille Miglia livery.