01 Aug 08
Berlinetta 204A
Viennese-born Karl Abarth got into motorbike racing as a young man, but a couple of serious accidents prompted him to start building cars instead.
He left Austria in 1939 as war broke out, ending up in Merano with Italian citizenship and a new name: Carlo Abarth. After serving an apprenticeship with Cisitalia, he formed his own company in 1949 with a view to modifying production cars for motorsport, and providing aftermarket kits for owners to tweak and tune their road-going vehicles.
1. Abarth 204
Carlo Abarth was well-connected: on his arrival in Italy, he teamed up with Turin-based Piero Dusio, founder of race-car builder Cisitalia, on the recommendation of old friend and Grand Prix great Tazio Nuvolari.
The project? The pair set about building a Grand Prix car designed by Ferry Porsche, along with a Porsche-designed grand tourer and a tractor.
Dusio suddenly departed for Argentina before these came to fruition - taking the plans for the rear-engined, four-wheel-drive Grand Prix car with him - but Abarth took several of the Cisitalia engineers to his own new company, plus a number of Cisitalia chassis in lieu of wages he had been owed.
He set up shop in Via Trecate, Turin, and took his zodiac birth sign, the scorpion, for his company's badge.
From the Cisitalia 202 sports racer - itself derived from the Fiat 1100 - came the Abarth 204 Roadster, powered by a 1090cc Fiat engine. It won the 1949 Italian 1100cc championships, the Formula 2 championships and 18 different races in its first year.
Updated 204A models, including several '205' Michelotti-styled, Vignale-bodied Berlinetta coupes quickly followed - but a poor performance in the Spanish Grand Prix (blamed on the local fuel) meant that a number of buyers cancelled their orders and Abarth looked to another way to grow his business.
