(first posted 2011) One of my favorite stopping off points downtown is Joe Potter’s shop. A superb restoration specialist who often works closely with the Sports Car Shop across the street, Joe’s particular specialty is vintage rear-engine Fiats. He restored the 600 Multipla CC we saw here a while back. And he’s currently restoring an Abarth Zagato double bubble (we’ll do a piece on it soon), the epitome of these cars. The Sports Car Shop just sold one recently for $95k. It’s the cheapest way to buy a classic hand-hammered alloy-bodied Italian car, a presumably sure-proof investment, given their scarcity.
So here are Joe’s two rides; his DD 850 Spider (also coming to CC), and his summer-weekend ride, a wild and woolly Fiat (600 based) Abarth, ready for the first SCCA races up at Portland this weekend: a veritable rolling cherry bomb.
The Fiat-specialist tuning house of Abarth created a long line of legendary little monsters. All the smaller Fiats got the Abarth treatment, from the two cylinder 500 up. And Abarth built some Fiat-based cars and sports-racing cars, up to the beautiful OT 1300/1600, the superb 2000 Tubolare and the formidable 3000 Spider.
But the staple of the Abarth business were the Fiat 600 and its evolution, the 850. And this one represents the outer limits of the 600’s development. From its original 27 hp, Abarth offered a range of performance levels. My 1969 catalog shows the TCR 1000 as the top of the various steps, packing no less than 110 (DIN) horsepower at 8000 rpm from the bored and stroked 982 cc pushrod four.
Joe was busy under the Zagato’s dash re-wiring it, so I didn’t bother him with what exact level this on is at, but given that these cars weigh some 1200 lbs, power-to-weight ratio and traction makes them ferocious accelerators, and an estimated top speed of some 120 mph is nothing to snort at either. Since this one has a two barrel Weber, I don’t think it’s in full TCR 1000 trim, but the fun factor is what counts here.
Here’s what it takes to do restoration work successfully: organization. I love coming in and checking out the buffet table full of the current project’s parts. There a practical advantage to restoring little Fiats; the tables don’t have to be very strong.
Wow cool little Fiat one of these competes in the NZ targa every year and its bloody fast I have to agree on being organized to do restorations Im not and cant find things for my project despite having two cars dismantled so I should have ample bits
Looking forward to the Double Bubble piece–I remember reading about those cars in Road & Track (I think; sounds like an R&T subject) years ago (has to be almost 30) and obsessing over them for a while. Then life happened, of course.
As much as I want that car or some version of it. As awesome as this car is. I’m not kidding here.. There is a General in the Italian Army that has an odd attraction to an Eagle Kammback. That brings me back down to Earth.
I think it’s odd that we want the “common” cars from Yurp and many gearheads over there want our “common” cars.
I was thinking about the Eagle Kammback the other day–I remember when the Eagles came out that there was a Kammback model, but I don’t recall ever once seeing one in the wild. (But then I didn’t live in Colorado or Vermont when Eagles were popular there.)
I’d hope not to have to check the oil level on a warm engine very often. I see some stout-looking tubing inside that car that I’ll bet isn’t in most of them.
A neighbor had a double-bubble coupe that he’d bought engineless along with some other Fiat engine. He told me that he found out that his engine rotated in a reverse direction from the engine that was in the coupe. I didn’t know enough about Fiats to know if this was true or not…still don’t, for that matter. I’ve heard enough times that those coupes were awesome little goers though….
Yes, 600 based engines run in a different direction to the 850 based engines.
1000 OT Corsa with Hemi head has a power to weight ratio of a Porsche 911-2litre.
That’s why you bastards banned Alf Cosentino!!
I know next to nothing about Fiats but I had a buddy that used to be stationed in Italy. He told me about putting VW jugs on them and electronic parts out of Navy equipment to give them CDI. Said the difference was significant.
I always thought hopping up a fiat or vw either one must be much like hopping up a bike. Lots of results for not too many $.
My elementary school religious study teacher lived in the same house as we did. She drove a Fiat 600 with suicide doors.
A few years later I went to a yearly auto slalom which featured lots of Fiat Abarth, NSU TTS and so on. These things are incredible!
Apprende Italiano en 9 minuti!
The one in the video is a Seicento (italian for 600) from the late 90s. Nothing in common with the classic 600, being front-engine, FWD.
I am sorry for the accident!
awww man! he was doing so good!!!
These cars would make great little monster drift cars!
This is a fun video, but not a good example of a 600 or Abarth equivalent. This one has a 1 liter motorcycle engine conversion, if I recall correctly. I think the video on YouTube has the full info.
Cool and cute.
The 600’s are a car that stirs up many memories and wishes for the bucket list ! The sensory experiences of the Abarth 600’s is an unforgettable experience – and the wonder of actually living through an experience or two – loved the cars !! (the stock 600 could be outrun by a14 year old for the quarter mile !)
Got to love mental little homologation specials like these, it looks like a pile of fun.
When Abarth was still independent did it look at tuning / modifying other cars aside from Fiat, Simca and even Porsche?
It would funny if Abarth at some point actually looked into doing something with the Mini for example, similar to how John Cooper at one point looked into developing a 1220cc Coventry Climax powered Renault Dauphine (abandoned due to the prototype’s unstable handling) before working on the Mini after being enthralled by the latter’s handling.
Read that the Abarth OT2000 was considered credible yet very expensive alternative to a Porsche 911 and it is a pity that Abarth did not grow into an rear-engined Italian equivalent of Porsche before it was acquired by Fiat.
Know that the Abarth 1840cc engine (along with the Lancia V4 and Maserati V6) was considered for the Lancia Stratos, being lighter and more powerful then the Dino V6 engine ir ended up using.