1967 Abarth 1300

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 hill climbing and sportscar 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.

The 1300cc Abarth used a twin-cam 1288cc engine that featured dry sump lubrication, meaning that it could be mounted lower in the chassis achieving better weight distribution. The engine had five main bearings and twin-choke Weber carburetors. Disc brakes were fitted at all four corners and the bodies were typically constructed with lightweight materials and given an aerodynamic design.

The Abarth-tuned components would make the 1300 successful; elegant and purpose-built body designs from several renowned coachbuilders would make them legendary.

by Dan Vaughan

Hatchback Coupe

Carlo Abarth, born in 1908 in Austria, is often named 'The Italian Horsepower Magician.' In his early days after World War II he worked for Porsche and Cisitalia before opening his own performance shop in 1949. His specialty was tiny, extremely light sports and race cars based on Fiat models - and small engines tuned to the maximum power output at extreme revs. With those shrink supercars, Abarth abased many manufacturers of much more powerful competition cars for decades. In 1971 he sold his business to Fiat. Today Abarth is still the legendary nameplate for car tuning parts and high-performance Fiat models such as the new Fiat 500.

The 1300 OT is Abarth's mild racing version of the ravishing Fiat 850 Sport Coupe which was best known as the 'secretary's pocket Ferrari' back then. Instead of the yet sporty 843cc 47 horsepower inline four there is the engine of the mid-size sedan Fiat 124 in the rear. With 75 horsepower from the 1290cc engine, it was good for a top speed of 111 mph.

The Abarth 1300/124 has the distinction of being the last Abarth model to be Fiat powered. Known in Europe as the Abarth 1324, it was engineered by Carlo Colucci. He ingeniously used the 1300 engine from the Fiat 124 (which was a front-engined model) placed it in the rear of the Fiat 850 and reversed the direction of the engine. It became known as the 'Poor Man's' Porsche.

Lorenzo Auidano, CEO of Abarth later said it was his favorite model of all editions that were introduced under his guidance. This particular car retains its numbers matching AB204 Abarth block and a mostly original interior. It has been restored to factory stock condition.

This example is one of less than ten Fiat Abarth 1300 OT in the USA and carefully restored to a very correct standard. The history and documentation of this car are topped off by the decal on the windshield from the Abarth Registry of America as the 21st car in the registry over 45 years ago.