Born : November 15 1908
Deceased : October 24 1979
Biography Carlo Abarth
Karl Abarth was born in Vienna, Austria. When he was 11 years old, Abarth challenged his friends to race down a slope on his scooter. He couldn’t beat them, but that loss made him think. By cutting his belt and tying it to the wheels, he could outstrip normal ”production” ones in grip and smoothness. This looked like a sign of things to come. Abarth remained in Vienna with his mother, as his father left for Merano to manage his grandfather’s hotel, the Sonne. Karl Senior quickly becomes an Italian citizen.
At 15 Karl Junior, tall and rugged, had a passion for racing bicycles. At school, he was good at subjects such as drawing. At 16, while he was testing a friend’s motorbike, he crashed into a wall. But repairing the bike was no problem for the young Abarth. During his spare time, he learned the basics of engineering at the Degan garage in Vienna, a workshop that specialized in precision manufacturing.
At 19 he was employed by the racing division of Motor Thun in Traischkirchen, a factory devoted to producing motorbikes marked by the letters “MT”. In 1927 Karl built his own bike, by assembling parts from various makes. One year later, he was asked to race at the Austrian Grand Prix: he managed to qualify on pole but retired during the race. Later that year, he was a winner at Salzburg.
In 1934 he used one of his self-built side-cars to challenge the Orient Express train in a speed contest. In the first round he lost 15 minutes, but during the return journey, he succeeded in beating the train which gained him enormous publicity. From 1934 to 1938 he was a professional and successful sidecar racer. In 1934 he married Anton Pïech’s secretary. Pïech happened to be the husband of Louise Porsche, daughter of the great motoring genius Ferdinand Porsche.
Cisitalia Project
In 1945 he managed to be reunited with his father in Merano, where Karl changed his first name to Carlo. He became a trader of carpets and bicycles until 1946. only then he was to recover contacts with “Ferry” Porsche, son of Ferdinand, who was determined to have Carlo amongst the technicians he chose to represent the German company in Italy. Together they headed a project for a Gran Prix vehicle commissioned by the Turin entrepreneur Pietro Dusio, manager of Cisitalia. The income for the project would have been devolved to the release of Ferdinand Porsche, who at the time was held prisoner in France. Abarth himself took part in the negotiations. However, the enormous expenses required for the 360 Grand Prix, seriously undermined Dusio’s financial situation. Abarth was forced to leave the firm, taking with him as a payoff some cars and boxes of parts.
Then April 131st 1949, he established Scuderia Abarth in partnership with Armando Scagliarini, the father of Cisitalia driver Guido Scagliarini, and set up a workshop in Turin with 35 employees. The company featured the zodiac sign of Carlo Abarth, a scorpion, and ran Formula 2 cars in 1950 for Franco Cortese but their main business was manufacturing automobile accessories.
He built a small number of sports cars for the road. Some were derived from Cisitalia’s work, others were more original. Most had Fiat roots, though others, a Ferrari or two among them, also received his attention. All were wrapped in bodywork from Italy’s finest coachbuilders. Some were gorgeous, others were less fortunate, but despite their attention-grabbing looks, their commercial impact was minimal. Ironically, the first post-Cisitalia Abarth racers were too heavy for their small powerplants and did not achieve much success.
Porsche 356 Carrera Abarth GTL
Even though Porsche was in 1959 still working on its F1 program, the management was anxious to stay competitive and successful in GT racing. They started looking for external support and have the car designed by someone else. The Porsche 356 B 1600 GS Carrera GTL Abarth was designed to qualify as a production car for homologation as defined by the FIA ( Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile). September 18, 1959, Ferry Porsche and Carlo Abarth had the decisive meeting in a hotel in Frankfurt. The result was the Porsche 356 Carrera Abarth GTL
In July 1957 Fiat introduced the new 500. Abarth elaborated it: the following year the company would be able to break many International records. During the same year, the factory’s head offices were moved to a larger location, in Corso Marche 38. In 1961 the Fiat 600 D was the basis for the Abarth 850 TC, a car which would further increase the company’s success both in sport and sales. Everybody now wanted to “Abarthize” their car. In 1967, a year characterized by an international crisis, Fiat bought 50% of Ferrari, the whole of Autobianchi and Lancia. Abarth resisted. In 1971 it designed the “Formula Italia” single-seater, together with the Autobianchi A112 Abarth. Activity was at a high, employees were just short of 200, and the production of exhausts recorded around 200,000 items per year. However, the worsening in the International economy forced Abarth to give in to Fiat’s offer. The Scorpion was bought on October 15th, 1971. For a few years, Carlo retained his position as a consultant for Fiat, eventually retiring to Vienna for the rest of his life. His strong build, however, could not withstand a deadly illness. It was the 24th October 1979, another date under the Scorpion’s auspices.
Pictures courtesy of Porsche Archives, Tim Havermans, and unknown
