incorporation of Abarth as a standalone company, with
Scagliarini and Abarth as directors. This happened in
March 1949 in Bologna because Scagliarini’s father
lived there but, of course, Abarth and Cisitalia were in
Turin, so premises were found in that city. The working
branch of the fledgling company was set up at Via
Trecate 10. Squadra Carlo Abarth had already been
created, which appellation was applied to the Cisitalia
spiders now owned by Abarth after the inevitable
liquidation of the former company.
Carlo Abarth then modified these cars with shorter
chassis and torsion bar front suspension, with the
result that the team cars took eight 1100cc wins
during 1950. Despite this, Carlo was not complacent
and realised that managing a team was not going to
make anyone wealthy. So in late 1949 he diversified by
designing his first aftermarket uprated exhaust
system for the Fiat 500 Topolino, plus a column
gearchange conversion.
Whilst this was not immediately successful, it was
very promising and the manufacture of aftermarket
exhausts would eventually underpin Abarth for the
remainder of the life of the company. For the road,
two cars stand out: the Scaglione 1500 which went
to the Packard Corporation in the USA and returned
to the UK in the 2000s and the Alfa Abarth 2000, a
very handsome coupe of 1954. Whatever happened
to the latter?
1955-1959
From 1950 to 1956, very little Abarth factory
motorsport took place, with a few private entrants
trying their luck with Abarth’s 207A roadster, whose
Fiat 1089cc engine was really too heavy to make it a
contender. Then on 15 March 1955 at the Geneva
Motor Show, Fiat announced its little Dante Giacosa-
designed 600 berlina. Very quickly, Carlo realised the
potential of this little car, designing an upgrade for the
standard 633cc motor, expanding it to 747cc, and later
introducing his 750 GT Bialbero GT with bodywork by
Zagato. It would be true to say that the Turin company
would never look back. After a move to larger premises
at Via Pacchiotti, a new definitive factory was built at
Corso Marche 38 in late 1958, which was to remain in