70 Years of Abarth in motorsports

Tazio Nuvolari was a celebrity in the period between 1920 and 1950, and as a ‘flying Mantuan’ (‘Mantovano volante’) he regularly filled the sports section of the major daily newspapers. There were almost no television broadcasts of motorsport events. Nevertheless every car enthusiast of this era knew his name. He began his racing career on motorcycles and switched to cars in 1924. With Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Auto Union he won victory after victory. During World War 2 he developed severe asthma, but after the end of the war he nevertheless got back into racing cars, among others from Cisitalia and Ferrari. He drove for the last time on 10 April 1950 in an Abarth 204A in the hillclimb race at Monte Pellegrino near Palermo, competing only for the class victory up to 1.1 liter cubic capacity – which he finally won. In the overall classification he took the impressive fifth place.

This success and the fact that it had been achieved by the ‘flying Mantuan’ brought the small company of Carlo Abarth, founded one year before, much attention. Abarth was created from the remnants of Cisitalia, a racing team around Count Dusio, who broke off his tents in Europe at the end of the 1940s and emigrated to Argentina. Carlo Abarth had previously been race director in this team and had already proven his genius. He had completed the 204A racing car only shortly before the hillclimb event. In addition to the rudimentary bodywork, he was primarily responsible for the tuning of the 1.1-liter four-cylinder engine, which produced around 59 kW/80 hp. Nuvolari remained brand ambassador for Abarth for the next few years until his early death in 1953.

In addition to thoroughbred sports and racing cars, Abarth primarily developed tuning kits for everyday vehicles from Fiat and Simca. Many of these were also used by their respective owners for motorsport events such as slalom races, hillclimbs, circuit driving and rallies. No miracle, nevertheless a slogan of Carlo Abarth read: “Sunday on the track, Monday in the office”. His thoroughbred racing cars became Manufacturers Champions in the Sports Car World Championship six times in succession between 1962 and 1967. With conversions such as the Abarth 1000 based on the Fiat 600, a total of more than 10,000 race wins were achieved worldwide. Added to this were the title of European Brand Champion (1972) and four times winning the European Touring Car Championship (1965, 1966, 1967 and 1969).

From the 1970s onwards, Abarth used Fiat rally cars on official commission, which were also developed and prepared in its own halls. With the 131 Rally they attained the Manufacturer World Championship in 1977, 1978 and 1980 as well as the FIA Cup for drivers with Markku Alén (1978) and the Driver World Championship with Walter Röhrl in 1980. Between 1975 and 2011, seven European Rally Championship titles were added and in the newly created FIA R-GT Cup too, the drivers’ title was won in 2018 and 2019. Abarth has also been the official engine partner of Formula 4 in Italy and Germany for several years now.

Images: Abarth