20 auto italia
All Stickered Up
THIS ‘RETRO RALLY’ DRESS-
UP ONE-OFF SPECIAL HAS
BEEN CREATED BY ABARTH
TO CELEBRATE 70 YEARSStory and images by Chris Rees OF THE BRAND
T
he phrase head-turner could have
been coined for this car. Driving
down the street in what appears
to be an escapee from the Monte
Carlo rally is eliciting more
attention than any supercar.
But despite appearances, what you see
before you is no extreme rally car, but merely
a dress-up celebration of rally prowess. This
one-off has been conjured up by an inventive
team at Abarth UK to evoke the early 1970s
Fiat-Abarth 124 Rally, which did, ah, pretty
well in competition back in the day. It’s called
the “Abarth 124 Retro Rally 70th Anniversary”
and it’s as lairy as you like.
Apart from the eye-popping colour
scheme, its most notable feature is a
hardtop. However, the Retro Rally car is
not, as you might expect, based on the
124GT (Abarth’s hardtop model) but is a
regular Abarth 124 Spider with the carbon
roof added (an option that’ll set you back a
whopping £4356). All that lovely carbon
has been painted yellow and red – well,
almost all; the little extensions that house
the removable hardtop’s bolts are still
gloriously naked carbon.
While the inspiration for the fixed hardtop
comes from the 1970s Fiat-Abarth 124 Rally,
it’s very much unlikethe ultra-thin glassfibre
used in the 1970s. Instead, it’s utterly rigid,
beautifully foam-padded inside, and yet
remains very light (weighing just 16kg). You
can remove the hardtop but you’ll need to
undo five screws, which is a fiddly job; but at
least the low weight means it’s easily liftable
by one person. The roof also boasts proper
window rubbers and a glass rear screen with
a demister.
The hard roof boosts rigidity, claims Abarth,
not that you really notice it on the move.
What you do notice is a bit more wind noise
around the B-pillars but the superior
insulation boosts overall refinement. So I find
myself opening the windows all the time to
hear the Record Monza exhaust – nothing
sounds like an Abarth, especially when you
press the console-mounted ‘Sport’ toggle to
open up the exhaust valves fully.
The classic 124 Rally livery consists of red
paint (‘Costa Brava 1972 Red’) with lemon-
zest wheelarches, lower bodywork and roof
edging. Despite this definitely notbeing a
Fiat, the retro livery has ‘Fiat Abarth’ decals,
as well as ‘Olio Fiat’ labels, because that’s
how it was in the 1970s. Then, of course,
there are those white racing squares on the
doors with ‘70’ numerals celebrating Abarth’s
70th anniversary. The white-finished wheels
are regular ‘Sport’ wheels, by the way, rather
than the 124GT’s OZ Ultra-Light alloys.
Curiously, perhaps, the no-cost option
‘Heritage Pack’ has not been fitted, so there’s
no matt black bonnet or bootlid – but then
this Retro special is meant to replicate the
early 1970s rally car look, and those carsmostly had red main bodywork and yellow
lower bodywork and roof surrounds.
Shy and retiring sorts will want to steer
clear of this sort of war-painted thing. But
let’s face it, Abarth buyers aren’t shy or
retiring, so go on – knock yourself out.ENGINE: 1368cc 4-cy turbo
POWER: 170hp @ 5000rpm
TORQUE: 184lb ft @ 2500rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel
drive
TOP SPEED: 143mph
0-62MPH: 6.8sec
WEIGHT: 1060kg
PRICE: £34,TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
ABARTH 124