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 Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2010