Abarth

Abarth, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Formed in 1949, Abarth is best known for it's hot Fiat 500-based racing cars. However, the company also ran a racing team featuring Porsche, Ferrari, and Simca automobiles along with their own products. Aside from racing cars the company also produced performance exhausts for a number of manufacturers, and eventually grew to dominate the Italian tuning parts market.

Abarth was sold to Fiat in 1971, and became the racing department for the company. Many cars built by Fiat's different brands, such as Lancia and Autobianchi, were co-branded as Abarths, and the company also built and ran Fiat's rally team.

Gradually, the Abarth name devolved to a sporty trim level on Fiats, and was all but forgotten until recently. Fiat has since relaunched the name, most notably with the hot Fiat 500 Abarth, of which this is one.