| |
Karl
Abarth was born in Vienna,
on November
15th, 1908. At
the age of 30, and after a sound education at a high technical level in
Austria, he left his country of birth and headed for Italy, where he
started to work for his father. He changed nationality and became an
Italian citizen (hence the change of his first name from the
German-sounding ‘Karl’, to the more Italian sounding
‘Carlo’). After several jobs in the technical field, he established
his own business, a firm called ‘Abarth & Co S.r.l.’, situated
in Bologna, the beautiful University city.
If
one asks the question what the uniqueness of Abarth was,
one could
answer to this question that Carlo Abarth was a magnificent tuner,
comparable to his contemporary
soul mates,
Mr.Ferrari and
Mr.Porsche. To give an example of Carlo Abarth’s great technological
knowledge one can refer to the fact that
Mr. Porsche asked him,
in the
year 1960,
to design a Porsche for the race program of Porsche. This
resulted in the famous Porsche Carrera Coupé Corsa. To design this race
monster, Abarth received 26 chassis of the then 356 B Porsche. With this
car, Porsche gained victory after victory. Besides several price-winning
prototypes under the name of Abarth, Carlo also foresaw a lot of other
car brands, like for example the Lancia Fiat, with high speed motors.
Our
Scuderia, however, restricts its ‘action field’ to the smaller kind
of Fiat, that is to say the Fiat Abarth 695 and 695 ss, the Abarth
Monomille and the Abarth OT.
In the spring of 2007 an Abarth030
was taken up into the
Scuderia.
Between
the Fiat factories and Carlo Abarth, there existed an agreement, so that
the Fiat 500 and 600 models were delivered to him in an ordinary
condition, but after the magic touch by Carlo himself, these cars left
the fabric as small race monsters. Unfortunately, there exists no
original register from the Abarth Factory, but with certainty one can
say that a lot of cars were transformed. There were Abarths coming out
of the factory and there were also a lot of other Abarth specialists,
who, like Abarth himself, converted the cars with parts, sets and even
motors delivered by Abarth. Because of the less fortunate time climate,
Abarth was forced to hand over his factory to the Fiat concern in the
year 1971.
This implied the end of the manufactory of the Abarth 500 and
600.
Fortunately,
there still exists an exclusive group of people, among which this
Scuderia, who still treasure the love for the now oldtimer Fiat Abarth
and who give all of their heart to keep the brand alive, through
restoration and renovation. As known, the level of price-quality of the
small Fiats in the sixties was quite low, which resulted in a simple
car, having a tendency for rust!!! Luckily, spare parts to replace the
rusty parts are easy to find these days, like for example floor pans,
trunks and doors, and this at a very reasonable
price. But when one is looking for parts of the ‘heart’ of the Abarth, its motor, the market is very limited. Here a few specialists
throughout Europe are the saving angels and the Scuderia is very lucky
to have Guy Moerenhout and his team nearby. In our opinion, he
is the one with the most original parts you can find on the market. Add
to this the immense know-how of this man and his team, and you have your
perfect parts supplier and also a perfect tuner and restorer. Guy
Moerenhout has a few Abarths, ready to deliver and he even exports cars
to Japan!!
It is my pleasure to refer to the
pages on this website called Articles and Rally's giving an overview of
the happenings at which the Scuderia participated over the past years.
 The
owner, Koos
Visser,
with
the lovely Mrs.
Annelise Abarth
|