104 | GOODWOOD REVIVAL SALE
The competition feats of the little Zagato-bodied Abarths then filled
the sporting press. The 1959 season saw Fiat Abarth 750 GTs taking
a string of victories, ranging from the Sestrieres Rally to the year’s
Sebring 12-Hours race in Florida – where the Roosevelt Automobile
Company’s team shone – to the European Mountain Championship
and more. Abarths scored ten outright victories and won their class
96 times. Fiat had long since agreed to pay Carlo Abarth a bonus
for every first place his Fiat-based products achieved in competition,
anywhere in the world – and the arrangement would cost them dear...
This example of the Fiat Abarth 750 Bialbero ‘Record Monza’ Coupé
has starred within the Collezione Maranello Rosso for many years.
We have found no record of its early career, but it has been inspected
for us by immensely experienced marque experts and they express
no doubt that it is a highly original and absolutely authentic example
of the type. From paperwork preserved within the documentation file
accompanying this car we can confirm that it was registered in May
22, 1965, to Alfonso Vallisi of Bologna, its kerb weight being cited
then as 586kg with fuel – 550kg catalogue weight.
There is also some evidence that the car had previously been part
of the Abarth works team – and there is an inference (unconfirmed)
that it is one of the cars which participated in the Sebring 12-Hours
and was then returned to Italy (which seems unlikely for a Sebring
contender which would normally be sold into US ownership) and sold
to a customer in Taranto, Brindisi Province.However, the registration ‘libretto’ booklet preserved within the
relevant file with this Lot lists Antonello Degli Esposti,of Bologna, as
acquiring the car with the date stamp October 5, 1974, appended.
John de Boer’s renowned book ‘The Italian Car Registry’ (1994, John
Fulton de Boer) lists this chassis serial ‘705712’ – with engine 222-
010 – as having originated on October 10, 1959 - and its owner at
the time of data compilation as being the self-same Abarth enthusiast
Antonello Degli Esposti, of Bologna.Ownership was transferred to Fabrizio Violati in Rome on March
11, 2003, and it is noteworthy that Bologna licence plates under
serial ‘BO 242191’ are included within the documentation file
accompanying this Lot.