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THE PROPERTY OF MRS ANNELIESE ABARTH The 1964 Geneva Show Car 1964 ABARTH 2400 COUPE COACHWORK BY ALLEMANO Registration No. X 328 (Monaco) Chassis No. tba Engine No. 114B006 Red with tan interior. Engine: six cylinder in-line pushrod overhead valves, aluminium head, iron block; 2323cc producing 140bhp at 5,600 rpm; Gearbox: 4-speed manual; Suspension: Front independent with torsion-bars wishbones and anti-roll bar: Rear live axle with half-elliptic leaf springs; Brakes: disc-brakes all-round; alloy wheels. Left-hand drive. Karl Abarth (Carlo) was born in Vienna in 1908 and his formative years were punctuated by the two world wars. In the aftermath of the first he started racing cycles and motorcycles, which resulted in his apprenticeship at Castagna, more notable for their coachworks, designing frames for them, and even constructing his own racing machine built round a Sunbeam 600cc unit. His motorcycle racing career took off introducing him to the leading figures in motorsport including Porsche and Nuvolari, with whom he became long-term friends and he moved to live in Italy in the early 1930s adopting the Italian version of his name. He achieved numerous successes on two wheels, culminating with him becoming European champion before his career was ended by a near-fatal accident in 1939. Following the second war he re-kindled his association with Porsche on the Cisitalia racing & sportscar project and through Nuvolari procured contact with and funding from the Agnellis and Fiat, with whom he began a long and notable association, eventually founding his own racing team for whom Nuvolari drove and winning the class championship in 1949. His business developed and blossomed with sales of quality tuning and performance-enhancing bolt-on kits and accessories, mostly for the smaller Fiat-based variants. He also did development work for Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Renault, Simca and Porsche of course, and furthered his own credibility by producing a series of world record-breaking speed machines bearing his name. He built and designed many high-performance engines and would have developed even a formula 1 engine, until his business became absorbed by the Fiat empire in 1971; but due to their previous acquisition of Ferrari in 1969, meant he had to rescind his interest in that field. Having achieved such successes in the racing and rally arena he decided to retire, somewhat reluctantly, from the competition business. It is generally perceived that Carlo Abarth's fame lay principally in performance tuning and specialist work on small-engined cars; however he made a foray into the larger luxury sector of the market in the late 1950s, producing some few models during a five year period utilising Fiat or OSCA-based engines. The first examples were exhibited at the Turin Show in 1959 with engines bored out to 1600cc and stylishly bodied by Michelotti initially and then by Allemano and Ellena (formerly Boano). Introduced at the same show were coupe and cabriolet versions bodied by Allemano on a larger 2200 Fiat floor-pan; to be followed two years later by an even larger engined version of 2400cc styled by Ellena, whilst Allemano was commissioned again for 1963. It is almost certain that these cars were produced as one-off or show-cars only, as so very few seem to have been produced or even survive. The engine for the later six-cylinder cars was the stock Fiat 1961 production unit of 2300cc, which Abarth modified by boring out to 2400cc and his tuned version was reputed to have produced about 140bhp. This particular car is believed to be the last production machine and made specially for the Geneva Show of 1964. Allemano designed the very stylish coupe coachwork and the elegant lines are perfectly off-set by the cast-alloy wheels by Campagnolo. It is sold with three pieces of fitted luggage in black leather. It was summed up by John Bolster for the "Autosport" Motor Show report as " ...a superb high-speed touring car of considerable luxur