In an alliance between Fiat’s Abarth and Alfa Romeo, a brilliant sports-racing coupe was created in 1958. After wowing the crowds in the Turin show the Alfa Romeo Abarth 1000 disappeared — only to surface strangely in Germany.
On the fifth of November 1958 Italy’s president Giovanni Gronchi opened the 40th Italian Motor Show in the exposition buildings in Turin’s Valentino Park. Showgoers were treated to a veritable festival of spectacular coachwork on the chassis of Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Fiat. New was the prototype of the forthcoming Fiat 1500 Cabriolet, a sports car powered by a productionized version of Osca’s famous twin-cam four. Vignale’s Italia coupe version of the Triumph TR3 was an attraction, as was Ghia’s latest Dart II on a Chrysler chassis.
We credit Edward Eves for this fine portrait of the Alfa Romeo Abarth 1000 on display in Turin’s Valentino Park beginning on November 5, 1958.
For this visitor to the Turin Show, however, there was only a single car on display. This was a sublimely delectable GT coupe presented on the Bertone stand by Austrian showman and engineer Carlo Abarth. With its clusters of consonants “Abarth” wasn’t mellifluous to the Italian ear. It was a gift from Abarth’s Italian father. With his wife from Merano, he welcomed their son Karl into the world in Vienna on November 15, 1908.
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