This one has me stumped. Photographed by me at Prescott Italia, proudly displaying the Z badges on its flanks, and the "Fiat Abath 750" in bold white against the Rosso Corsa paint. However, the Zagato trademark "Double Bubble" roofline amiss, and the air intakes that dominate the engine lid, are much larger than most 750 models referenced by image searches on Google . Then there is the horizontal air vent normally cut below those intakes, completely lacking on this car, instead a bulge, which presumably is to clear something mechanical nestling underneath rather than an aerodynamic aid.
A few early model Zagato cars were made without the bubble roof, as seen at the first Zagato built car of 1955 and subsequently displayed at the Geneva show of 1956, but this car was produced in 1960, and by then, export markets dictated the need for the aditional headroom . There was the rarer "Sestriere" version, a steel and alloy bodied car also produced with a flat roof and larger air intakes, not built with competition in mind.
It appears widly accepted that different emblems adorned the front panels of the 750, some plain, without the elongated wings spreading from the famous fake grill design. Cars also left the factory with full length chrome bumpers, some just chrome over riders, although these presumably are all easy to remove (as on this car?)
The headlamp design isn't a help. Options include unfaired lamps with chrome beauty rings, as seen here. Perspex covers, sans chrome rings, still over an upright headlight, or a longer nose, again with perspex covers but longer, shaped to cut through the air, the headlamps buried deeper into the front wings.
The DVLA shows 377XWF to have a 767 cc capacity engine, the
Abarth 750GT forum quote a capacity of 747 cc for the Fiat 600 derived 4 pot water cooled power plant. In the GT it produced 44hp* at a heady 6000rpm, which, when compared to the 23hp/4000rpm the 600 made do with, is a (relatively) huge gain.
The afore mentioned Sestiere variants were in turn produced with softer tuned engines of 748 or 785cc capacity and were considerably cheaper than the GT. As is becoming very apparent, no definitive records appear to have been found**
Perhaps the current custodian or maybe a marque expert can explain.
Whatever model it is, seeing it drive up the hill at Prescott's Italia event, even at non competition speeds, was a little treat among the throngs of modern Fiats, Abarths and Alfas.
* Sports Car Illustrated quote 4 different engines were available: Grand Touring (44bhp), Mille Miglia (45bhp), large valve Mille Miglia (46bhp), and Sprint (47bhp).
**John de Boer's research has shown that 294 double bubble cars can be positively identified by chassis number via historical build ledgers and/or personal communications.
Hi, thanks for your interesting writeup and lovely photo's of my Abarth 750GT Sestriere. The history of the car involves North America where it was sold new, and then Spain and Portugal before arriving into the UK. The Sestriere was one of several Zagato bodied derivatives or 'derivazione' based on the Fiat 600 platform. Perhaps the most well known are the 'double bubbles' with their distinctive humped roofs, in addition to these though were the 'Record Monza's named after Abarth's record setting at the famed Italian race track. Whilst most cars had modified versions of the Fiat 600 engine there were also variants which used an Abarth twin cam engine. These were generally fully bodied in aluminium and designed for the gentleman race driver of the day and were very successful and popular in the USA especially. The Sestriere was named after Abarth's success in the Sestriere rally. Apart from the first 3 cars they had steel bodywork with Aluminium bonnets and engine covers as my car has. My car was sold to a dealer/owner in California and is believed to have raced in what became the SCCA. In the 80's it returned to Europe where it competed in historic events in Spain and Portugal. The distinctive engine cover has been modified from original, I believe from photo's that this was done in the USA but I'd love to know more if anyone recognises it or has a suggestion as to why it might have been done. It retains the original large air intakes which were an feature of the Sestriere but has a revised lower section. A good example of the Sestriere is this one from BaT; https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1960-abarth-750/ Whilst there were several hundred double bubbles and flat roofed versions of the same basic body with the recessed headlights it is thought no more than 20 or so Sestrieres were ever produced. The double bubble roof whilst considered a Zagato trade mark design was actually only employed on a few cars bodied by Zagato including early Lancia Appia's but many more such as the Lancia's late version Flaminia's Fulvia and Flavia's along with Alfa Romeo's TZ and TZ2 plus the Junior Z to name a few did not The bumpers on my car have long disappeared, as mentioned it is likely they were removed for racing and are probably sat in a dusty corner of a garage in California. The car is great fun to drive, with it's race spec exhaust system and carburettor it certainly announces its presence!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your comments. Lovely car and history.
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