1966 Abarth 1000 SP

The company's logo, the Scorpion, was sourced from when Karl Alberto Abarth was born. He was born on November 15th of 1908 in Vienna, Austria, under the astrological symbol of the scorpion. At an early age, he began showing a talent for engineering, and at the age of 16, he began an apprenticeship with Degan in Italy, designing bicycle and motorcycle chassis. The Abarth Company was formed on April 15th of 1949 in Turin, Italy.

During the 1960s, Abarth was quite successful in hillclimbing and sports car racing, mainly in classes from 850cc up to 2000cc. Along with their racing endeavors, Abarth also produced high-performance exhaust pipes and later diversified in the production of various tuning kits for road vehicles, mainly focusing on Fiats. On July 31st of 1971, Abarth was sold to Enzo Oscella. Currently, Abarth is now part of the recent alliance between Fiat and Chrysler.

In the mid-1960s, Abarth introduced their 1000 SP Barchetta racer. Power was from a twin-cam 1-liter engine that was sourced from the Fiat 600D. With proper tuning, the engine produced over 100 horsepower. The engine was placed low in the tubular frame and mounted mid-ship, providing excellent performance and handling. Twin radiators were placed on either side of the engine to allow proper cooling.

The body was fiberglass with a wrap-around Perspex windscreen. Using these materials made the car light. Disc brakes were found at all four corners.

As the 1960s came to a close, the 1000SP continued to earn many race victories, often scoring class victories at many famous circuits such as the Targa Florio, Monza, and Nürburgring.

This vehicle is an Abarth Barchetta Tubolare. It has a hand-made aluminum tubular frame and was a very successful race car. In 1965 alone, Abarth and their performance cars won almost 900 races.
By Daniel Vaughan | Aug 2009