The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
Guy Moerenhout’s Abarth Works Museum is a must for any Italian car enthusiast. Get there before January 7 while the Italian French Affair is still on display.
Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
In addition to the remarkable collection of Abarths at
Review by Pete Vack
All photos from the book
Franco Scaglione unfortunately didn’t live to see the widespread appreciation of his work; some 60 cars, which include some of the greatest automotive designs ever hammered into metal.
This should not have been, for his role in the design and development of the Alfa Giulietta Sprint and the B.A.T.s had been examined by a variety of magazines, the most notable being a full article in Quattroruote “The Right Carrozzeria” as far a back as 1961. But from the early 1970s on, after Scaglione’s sad experience with Intermeccanica, he retired and virtually disappeared from view or almost 20 years. Notes Paolo Gianconi, “His world had forgotten him, because when the spotlight of fame goes out, no one has the interest to light a candle to look for who is lost.” [Read more…] about Franco Scaglione, the Poet of Aerodynamics
If you are thinking about spending as much as 20 million (or more) on three used Alfas at tomorrow night’s Sotheby’s Auction, it is advised that you read the following four articles, which provide additional background information about the Scaglione B.A.T.s. From the Archives of VeloceToday, they were published in 2019 but timely and relevant today.
After making a few sketches, working with Ezio Cingolani, who was responsible for fabrication, Franco Scaglione developed a full size model, watched daily by Nuccio Bertone. This is B.A.T. 5
What are these openings for? One, to strengthen the rather large fin itself, and two, to allow some of the air to escape that was ‘tunneled’ through the extremely inward curved fins on B.A.T. 7.
Aiming to create more of a GT car and needing a direct connection with Alfa, Scaglione forgot penetration and allowed the use of the new Giulietta grille on B.A.T. 9.
Courtesy Centro Documentazione Storica Alfa Romeo
Review by Aldo Zana
It’s a difficult task to recap life and work of a car designer, particularly when he is Turin-born Giovanni Michelotti, who designed 1200-plus vehicles, according to a partial survey by Giovanni’s son Edgardo, co-author of this great new biography. [Read more…] about A Biography of Giovanni Michelotti
Story and photos by Rick Carey
This article originally appeared in VeloceToday in 2003 and again in 2018. Due to the many requests we had to see this article after the series on the B.A.T.s as published last week, we thought it might be nice to give everyone a chance to read it again without a premium subscription.
I’ve always admired the work of Franco Scaglione. Anyone who could create the B.A.T.s on the tall-engined Alfa 1900 chassis, who displayed such sympathy for airflow and was willing to challenge convention with shape and curve rather than embellishment and accoutrement, was an exceptional talent. And full credit also to Nuccio Bertone who gave Scaglione free rein to reinvent extravagantly. [Read more…] about It Must be B.A.T. 1
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack
The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the first of three reports.
The first of the B.A.T.s was perhaps the most celebrated, gaining notice in magazines across the western hemisphere. But was it the first? Rick Carey, writing in VeloceToday, thinks the Packard-Abarth Bertone might have been B.A.T. 1. Nevertheless, B.A.T. 5 was shown first in April of 1953 at Turin. [Read more…] about B.A.T. 5: A Stunning Achievement
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack
The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the second of three reports.
Oh, poor B.A.T. 7. It was, in our opinion, the best of the trinity, a refined 5 with an even more dramatic aft that was the quintessence of coachbuilder’s art. Just looking at the various views of those remarkable appendages is awe inspiring. How did they do it?
About a year after it was shown at Turin in the spring of 1955, someone came along cut them off. Those beautiful, inspiring wings. Let’s let the late Strother MacMinn and his cohort Robert Henry Gurr tell us what they thought about the car at the time: (Road & Track, July, 1955, Panel Discussion on Automotive Styling.) [Read more…] about B.A.T. 7: The Best of the Bunch
Photos by Jonathan Sharp
Text by Pete Vack
The display of the three B.A.T. Alfas was held at the Phillips Auction House in Berkeley Square, London and only displayed for four days, November 20-23. Jonathan Sharp attended on a Wednesday afternoon and here is the third of three reports.
While the BAT 9 (aka BAT 9d) will eternally be tied with the story of Gary Kaberle, it failed to attract a lot of attention when introduced at Turin in the spring of 1955. Press coverage had been high with the BAT 7 of 1954, but by the time the third and definitely less dramatic BAT appeared, it was no longer newsworthy, despite being much more roadworthy. It was not until December 1958 that BAT 9 appeared on the cover of Road & Track, no longer news. The Kaberle story is well known, but we’ll recap it here. [Read more…] about B.A.T. 9d: Ready for the Road
Courtesy Centro Documentazione Storica Alfa Romeo
From the VeloceToday Archives, April 2018. This is an updated version of Chapter 5 of Franco Scaglione, “My Father: His Life in the Words of His Daughter Giovanna” as told to Robert Little, Renzo Carbonaro, Vladimir Pajevic and Ulrich Zensen. Republished with permissions.
The MacMinn Telefax
Instead of presenting a narrative based upon the writing of others who probably had no first or second hand knowledge of the true facts surrounding the creation of the Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica series, we have chosen to simply quote from a facsimile of a Telefax which should serve to illuminate the B.A.T. process from the standpoint of Bertone. [Read more…] about Scaglione, Strother MacMinn and the B.A.T.s
Fiat Abarth 1000, aka the Abarth Monomille Bialbero. Sean Smith photo
Story by Sean Smith
Do the posters we hang on our walls as kids really influence us later in life? A poster featuring the design and beauty of a black Porsche Turbo inspired Mike Pinkus. Over the years, the poster may have disappeared, but the ideas of design and beauty lingered. After graduating from high school Mike was moving aimlessly from job to job. He was a busboy in a restaurant, he worked for a moving company, but he had no real direction. Then Mike discovered the concept of industrial design. It lit a fire in him. With this revelation, Mike immersed himself in a five-year program at Syracuse University and came away with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design in 1984.
Dear fellow Abarth/Zagato enthusiast:
We are proud to announce the release of a new website (www.abarth750GTforum.com) dedicated to the Fiat Abarth 750GT Zagato “Double Bubble”. (Photo above by Greg Birch) This upcoming year will be the 100th year of Zagato (1919-2019). With many other world-wide events scheduled to celebrate this mile stone, we felt that it would be a wonderful opportunity to announce and launch our project. [Read more…] about New Website for Abarths
