110 | GOODWOOD REVIVAL SALE
With two valves per cylinder and a 10.5:1 compression ratio,
the engine breathed through two twin-choke Weber 45DCOE9
carburettors. Ignition was by two plugs per cylinder, fired by single
distributor. Dry-sump lubrication was adopted and the power unit
produced a reliable 147bhp at 8,800rpm. This lusty engine, perfected
by Abarth’s power-unit specialist Luciano Fochi with five main-bearing
crankshaft, drove via a five-speed and reverse Abarth transaxle.
Wheelbase length of the OT 1300 was nominally 2015mm, front
track 1296mm and rear track 1340mm. It featured moulded
glassfibre clamshell-style opening front and rear body sections
moulded by Sibona & Basano in Turin, and this pert-nosed Coupé
became a familiar sight dominating its class for three consecutive
years. Production of the OT 1300 began on May 15 1966 and ended
on March 30, 1966, by which time the minimum production number
of 50 required by the FIA for homologation as a Gran Turismo model
had (allegedly) been achieved.
The most distinctive single characteristic of the OT 1300 Coupé,
apart from its huge International success within its class, was its
adoption of the Periscopica air-cooling intake on the rear of the
cabin roof. Casual onlookers would assume that the periscope-
like intake fed intake air into the rear-mounted engine, but this is
absolutely not the case. Instead, the water and oil-cooling pipe runs
through the cockpit area heated-up the cabin to what was generally
considered to be an unacceptable level for endurance racing, and
the periscope intake merely blasted cold air down into the cabin to
cool the driver himself...From the OT 1300 Mario Colucci developed the OT 2000 Coupé
using the 1946cc 4-cylinder power unit perfected by his colleague
Luciano Fochi and with some 215bhp at 7,600rpm that larger-
engined model was capable of exceeding 165mph in a straight line.
In fact all these Abarths with their sleek aerodynamic bodies and light
weight really were exceedingly rapid by the standards of the time and
within their respective capacity classes.