Carlo Abarth was born Karl Alberto Abarth, in Vienna, Austria, on November 15, 1908 (He would go on to change his name to Carlo when he moved to Italy after the war).
In his teens it was seen that young Karl had a talent for engineering. He became an apprentice at Degan, in Italy, designing bicycle and motorcycle frames.
He then moved back to Austria to work at Motor Thun Motorcycles. His job was to prep race bikes for competition. This led to a position as a test rider. When a factory rider became ill and was unable to compete, young Karl was tapped as his replacement. During testing Abarth set fastest lap time twice in a row…the team riders were none too happy with this. On race day Abarth’s mount was a replacement bike that suspiciously gave out midway through the race. Abarth presumed sabotage and parted ways with Thun.
Abarth got himself a used British bike and went to work on it. His first win was in Salzburg in 1928, he did this single-handedly. A year after that he built the first bike to wear his name. By his mid-20s he was the European champion five times over.
But, in 1930, a serious accident ended his solo motorcycle racing, so he built a sidecar. He twice raced The Orient Express on the 1300-km stretch between Vienna and Osted. But another significant crash in 1939 put Abarth in the hospital for a year ending all motorcycle activities. So now on to the safety of four wheels.
After the war ended, Karl returned to Italy and became Carlo.
He reconnects with old friends at Porsche and becomes a representative of the Porsche design studio. Around this time Abarth also connected with Piero Dusio an industrialist and moneyman behind the Cisitalia company. Nuvolari had been competing with Cisitialia’s D46 racer against more sophisticated cars and winning. Dusio tasked Carlo, and ex Porsche engineer Rudolf Hrushka, to build an innovative single-seat racer based on designs by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche.
The Cisitalia 360 was a 300-hp, mid-engined, twin supercharged 12-cylinder racer with a seriously complex four-wheel drive system, but it also was a serious drain on patron Dusio’s bank balance. The company went into receivership and Dusio headed to Argentina with the prototype, before it had a chance to turn a wheel in anger.
Carlo took what was left of the company and in partnership with racer Guido Scagliarini created Abarth & C. SrL in 1949.
The company’s logo would be a stylized version of Abarth’s birth sign the Scorpion.
Abarth created free flow exhausts, camshafts, pistons and other speed equipment, as well as complete “tuner” kits, for the more plebian offerings from manufacturers like Fiat. As the ’50s progressed Abarth and Fiat joined forces and became a force to be reckoned with.
His engines were built on Fiat blocks but Abarth had the unique ability to generate maximum power out of minimum size. Until 1956, his chassis all wore custom bodies provided by Italy’s finest carrozzerie, from Allemano to Zagato.
April of ’56 saw Abarth’s first Fiat-bodied car appear at the Turin Salon. The 600 had been a big hit the previous year, but Carlo’s cars had a secret. The engine was enlarged from a 600-cc, 22-hp motor to a “monstrous” 747-cc 51.5-hp race winner. Everybody wanted one, but it was impossible for Abarth’s small staff to keep up with demand, so it was decided to offer conversion kits.
In 1960, Fiat came out with the 600D, now the motor was 767-cc, so Carlo upped his game
And brought the motor up to 847-cc. Even with the fairly steep price of the kit and other add-ons, it was still cheaper and quicker for the average enthusiast to buy the kit and do the work themselves than have the factory do it for them.
Which brings us to the little buzz-bomb you see here, a 1962 Fiat Abarth Derivata. It has a number of the speed goodies without going full concorrenza. You get a front-mounted radiator to help with the cooling and rear deck stand offs for even more airflow to the motor. Inside the very basic interior you have racing style seats to hold you in place while you saw away at the Nardi steering wheel and the Abarth/Veglia performance gauge pack keeps you up to date on what is going on with the internals.
When you turn the key, Dio mio!, that doesn’t sound like a diminutive 4-cylinder, it has a purposeful bark. The shifts are quick and tight and you move along rapidly. You definitely get the feeling of moving faster than you are, but you also get the feeling of not being surrounded by much macchina, an early VW Bug has more heft. But it is a wonderful play thing to terrorize Gin road on your way to the Hamptons beach club, or to make a quick run for your artisanal, curated, free trade gelato. Just don’t hit anything. It may be a Fix It Again Tony, but it is also an Abarth, so the cool needle is in the red.
Specifications
| Wheel base | 78.7 in |
| Front track | 45.7 in |
| Rear track | 45.7 in |
| Ground clearance | 5.5 in |
| Weight | 1367 lbs |
| Engine | Inline 4-cylinder |
| Carburetion | Single Solex 32 PBIC |
| Bore | 62.5 mm |
| Stroke | 69 mm |
| Torque | 39.8 lb-ft @ 2800rpm |
| Power | 52 hp @ 6000rpm |
