In the second half of the 1950s, Alfa Romeo and Abarth worked together to create a small-capacity sports car. The project was entrusted to Mario Colucci, an engineer from Milan and an Alfa Romeo employee. In 1958, he produced an Alfa Romeo derived from the Abarth 1000, a compact coupé – powered by an engine based on the four-cylinder engine of the Giulietta Sprint Veloce, but with reduced displacement – and characterised by a tubular trellis frame. The car, “dressed” in a bodywork created by Bertone to a design by Franco Scaglione, remains a unique example.
Rightly considered a milestone in Abarth’s racing history, in terms of style, performance and victories, the 1000 SP continues to inspire the designers of the Fiat and Abarth Style Centre, who imagine a contemporary reinterpretation of the iconic Sport Prototype of the 1960s: a mid-size sports car with an attractive silhouette and clean lines. This idea of a car, light and with an excellent power-to-weight ratio, became the basis for a project realised in 2021, in complete coherence with the forerunner: the points and lines of the design of the original car are respected to guarantee continuity between the sports car of the 1960s and the concept car of the new millennium.
The Abarth 1000 SP respects three design principles that were already fundamental in the car of the 1960s. First of all, lightness, in form, volume and obviously also in weight. The second principle is aerodynamics: modern design technologies have made it possible to combine the iconic lines of the 1000 SP with an aerodynamic coefficient worthy of a modern sports car. Finally, ergonomics, aimed at improving the user experience, ensuring optimised vehicle control and agile handling. Under the “skin”, however, the tubular frame of the historic Sport Prototype makes way for a hybrid chassis, with the central cell in carbon fibre and the front end in aluminium.
