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Back to August 2012 Motorsports News Archive
| 13-08-2012: The Birth of a Legend | |
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The Legend all began in July 1957 with the launch of the ‘Nuova 500’, the car created by Dante Giacosa and powered by a twin-cylinder engine (479 cc) that delivered a maximum of 13 bhp, for a top speed of 85 km/h. Carlo Abarth fell in love with this small Fiat, and immediately recognised a challenge. He was soon convinced that, with suitable tuning, it could become a very fast little car. He maintained the original cylinder capacity, but increased the compression ratio, from 6.55:1 to 8.7:1, and fitted a Weber 26 IMB carburettor and a special Abarth exhaust. With these changes the engine generated an extra 7 bhp compared to the basic model, bringing it up to 20 bhp which, with successive tuning stages, eventually reached 23 bhp. On October 15, 1957 a number of similarly tuned cars, but all with standard bodywork, were sent to the Monza racing circuit for a speed test, to show that the ‘Abarth treatment’ could produce extraordinary results. The injection of horsepower and the special Abarth edition of the ‘Nuova 500’ made a significant contribution to the success of the standard model. That same year two more versions of the new Fiat also appeared, the ‘500 Coupe’ Zagato and the ‘500 Coupe’ Pininfarina. The first win for an Abarth in the Italian Class 500 Championship came in 1958 with Ovidio Capelli behind the wheel. That same year, Carlo Abarth wanted to show that the ‘Nuova Fiat 500’, suitably transformed and with even more power, could produce brilliant performance, compression ratio of 10.5:1, optimised intake and exhaust, power delivery of 26 bhp and top speed of 118 km/h, and as a result for a whole week the small Fiat, sporting a Scorpion on its front, performed a ‘marathon’ that went down in history. In seven days and seven nights it covered a distance of 18,186 kilometres at an average speed of 108 km/h, breaking 6 international records, by travelling: · in 4 days, 10,457 km at an average of 108.9 km/h; · in 5 days, 12,933 km at an average of 108.2 km/h; · 15,000 km in 139 hr 16’ 33” at an average of 107.6 km/h; · in 6 days, 15,530 km at an average of 107.8 km/h; · 10,000 miles in 149 hr 09’ 29” at an average of 107.8 km/h; · in 7 days, 18,186 km at an average of 108.2 km/h.With this success, Carlo Abarth proved that it was possible to build racing cars derived from small runabouts, and the motto ‘small but wicked’ was coined. The Sixties have been described as the heyday of the Scorpion, thanks to its huge success in racing and on the market. This decade also represented the period of the greatest generational rebirth in the Twentieth century. The age of technology began. In the space industry, preparations were underway to put a man on the moon, eight out of ten Italian homes now had a television, people travelled by car listening to the radio, all types of periodicals and publications were born, habits were changing, and so were the Italians. It is no coincidence that the most important developments to the ‘500’ Abarth were introduced in this revolutionary period. In 1963, Carlo Abarth, who was a natural technologist and innovator, decided that he wanted to make the new ‘500’ even faster; so he increased the cylinder capacity from 499.5 cc to 595 cc, obtaining a power delivery of 27 bhp. The extensive work carried out on the engine and changes to the fuel feed system, with the adoption of a Solex C28 PBJ carburettor instead of a Weber unit, enabled the Fiat 500 Abarth to pass the 120 km/h mark. The Scorpion’s small sports car was immediately recognisable by the Abarth grille on the nose, accompanied by the distinctive metal logos of the model and the Abarth shield on the sides, with the claim ‘Campione del Mondo’ (World Champion). A few months after the market launch of the ‘595’, the plant in Corso Marche launched the ‘conversion box’ containing all the parts necessary to make a Fiat Nuova 500 identical to an Abarth 595, in terms of engineering but also of styling: pistons, camshaft, engine, cylinder head gasket, exhaust, oil sump, chrome-plated grille with lateral trims, enamel shield and chrome wording. This showed that Carlo Abarth’s engineering genius was attuned to the aspirations of the young, managing to meet the demand for brilliant performance even on cars used for everyday driving and not only to race. For the Corso Marche plant, 1964 began with the presentation of the Fiat Abarth ‘595 SS’, an even more evolved and more powerful version of the ‘595’. This small bombshell developed as much as 32 bhp for a top speed of over 130 km/h, causing quite a stir in the racing world. It differed from the previous model in the black rubber hooks on the bonnet, the ‘SS’ logo on the front and rear lids, and ‘esse esse’ written on the dashboard. They were stylistic details that underlined the sporty personality of this small car. And it was by then customary for Abarth to market not only the car but also a conversion kit that allowed the owner of a Fiat 500 to transform it into a ‘595’ SS, and to put himself behind the wheel of a real Abarth sports car. The last version of the ‘595’ was the ‘595 SS Competizione’: wider track, wider tyres, wheelarches with protruding red shanks, a power delivery of 34 bhp and a top speed of 130 km/h. In other words, Carlo Abarth had created a new car for new victories. The roll of honour of this runabout with the Scorpion treatment included a long, long list of triumphs, from its debut at the Monza circuit in 1964 with Franco Patria, right down to the Italian Touring Trophy 600 class with Leonardo Durst at the end of the same year. |
The roots of the Abarth 500 Esseesse go deep into the history of motorsport in the Sixties. ^ Back to top ^
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