Abarth

Interview with Giovanna Scaglione Part 9

March 20, 2018 By pete

Editor’s Note: This part of the Scaglione interview is very lengthy at 2500 words. However, we think that what is revealed here is of great interest and should be published at one time to encompass the entire story. We hope you will agree.

As told to Robert Little, Renzo Carbonaro, Vladimir Pajevic and Ulrich Zensen
Copyright: 8 November 2017 All World Rights Reserved
Republished with permissions with changes to suit the format of VeloceToday.com

Part IX: The Stradale Project Encounters Unforeseen Difficulties

Two geniuses rarely co-exist together comfortably, and sure enough problems arose between Ing. Chiti, immersed in his racing world, and Scaglione, compelled to resolve the growing technical and assembly problems by himself. That silent war was flavored with numerous embittered letters that Scaglione sent without effects to all pertinent addresses. Years later, Scaglione would describe his time at Settimo Milanese as “the worst period of his life.” However, with proverbial Tuscan obstinacy, he finished the first Stradale prototype in a relatively short time, from January to September 1967.

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Interview with Giovanna Scaglione, Part 8

March 13, 2018 By pete

Part VIII: Near Crisis Creating the World’s Most Beautiful Automobile-the Alfa Romeo Stradale

From the moment of the first T-33 victory at the 1967 Fléron hillclimb in Belgium to support the growing success of Alfa Romeo racing cars on the circuits of the world, and to add contrast against other competing European “dream cars”, President Luraghi (CEO of Alfa Romeo S.p.A.) absolutely wanted to start small production of a high performance road car. [Read more…] about Interview with Giovanna Scaglione, Part 8

Interview with Giovanna Scaglione Part 7

March 6, 2018 By pete

Franco Scaglione, “My Father” His Life in the Words of His Daughter Giovanna

Part VII: Wool Threads and Scotch Tape…
“Aerodynamic Fluidity”

An internationally acclaimed graphic artist was once quoted as saying:
“I am going for a level of perfection that is only mine… Most of the pleasure is in getting the last little piece perfect.”

Such a quotation could easily have been applied to Franco Scaglione’s professional standards.
While not everyone will enjoy and appreciate all of his individual design accomplishments, his achievement in the reduction of coefficient of drag, the elimination of air friction or ‘slipperiness’ rates him in the pantheon of greatness…well beyond the achievements his contemporaries.

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Scaglione Part 5

February 20, 2018 By pete

Franco Scaglione, “My Father” His Life in the Words of His Daughter Giovanna

Part V: Franco Scaglione and the B.A.T.

Courtesy Centro Documentazione Storica Alfa Romeo

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 Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica series, we have chosen to simply reproduce the facsimile below which should serve to illuminate the B.A.T. process from the standpoint of Bertone. [Read more…] about Scaglione Part 5

Retromobile 2018: The Abarths

February 20, 2018 By pete

Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt

One of the highlights of the 2018 Retromobile show in Paris was the display of some 20 cars from the Abarth collection of Swiss Engelbert Möll. The collection of Mr. Möll, who is a former Abarth works racing driver, includes more than 40 Abarths as well as some engines that were also displayed in Paris.

This gathering was an opportunity to rediscover the extraordinary variety of the Abarth production as well as the ingenuity of this make to achieve great performances with small displacement engines.

It is interesting to note that the Abarth name is so famous that it was exhumed ten years ago by Fiat, like Renault did recently with the Alpine brand.
It is comforting to see that the great names never die.

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Interview with Giovanna Scaglione Part 4

February 13, 2018 By pete

Franco Scaglione, “My Father” His Life in the Words of His Daughter Giovanna

Read Part 1
Read Part 2
Read Part 3

Part IV: Scaglione Achieves His Dreams with Bertone

Nuccio Bertone, who truly appreciated Scaglione’s work, was generally inclined to leave Scaglione completely alone to work through the young master’s ideas and fantasies, but Bertone always bore in mind the necessity to achieve economic success through the mass production of his line of cars. He impressed upon the young designer the need to convert his design ideals to big production numbers.

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Barn Find: Abarth 1500 Bertone by Scaglione

February 6, 2018 By pete

Story and photos by Rick Carey

This article originally appeared in VeloceToday in 2003.

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.

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Etceterini File: Hugues Vanhoolandt

November 14, 2017 By pete

Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Click to enlarge

From the archives May 19,2015

Hugues Vanhoolandt

Belgian Hugues Vanhoolandt has been image-making for VeloceToday since 2007, and covered every major event from Monterey to Monaco. Below, he has gathered up 27 photos of what we call Etceterinis and a Formula Junior or two. [Read more…] about Etceterini File: Hugues Vanhoolandt

Maurizio’s Abarths

September 5, 2017 By pete

Story by Sean Smith

When Santo Spadaro of Dominick European Cars tells you “I have a few cool Fiat-Abarths I think you would like to see,” the only sane answer is “Where, and when?” [Read more…] about Maurizio’s Abarths

Gabriele Fabbri and His Cars

June 27, 2017 By pete

Gabriele “Shark” Fabbri with his original Fiat 500 Abarth.

Story by Graham Gauld
Photos courtesy of Gabriele Fabbri

In the story about the recent event in Riccione, I made a number of references to our host, Gabriele Fabbri. We sat and talked about his own racing career in Italian events and I later mentioned his name to an Italian historian who had never heard of him. Then the penny dropped. [Read more…] about Gabriele Fabbri and His Cars

Tales of Abarth

October 11, 2016 By pete

Bonnie’s Abarth 750GT hidden in the woods. It was totally original with even the headliner intact. Photo by Mary Decker Vack

Story by Pete Vack

It was noted, some time ago, that there was a disproportionate number of Fiat-based Abarth cars in the United States, sitting broken or unused in garages, driveways and because most Abarths were small enough to fit, in a large outdoor sheds common to so many backyards.

There were, it seemed, ample antique Allemanos tucked away under tarps and willow trees, sitting askance with the ground side of the rear wheels pointed inwards, relieved of the weight of the rear engine. [Read more…] about Tales of Abarth

Silver Flag Hillclimb, Vernasca, Italy

June 28, 2016 By pete

Louis Frey’s 1950 Ferrari 340 America departs for the 8.5 km climb to Vernasca.

Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp

The Silver Flag Hillclimb is a relatively new classic racing venue, held in the small and charming town of Vernasca, in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna. So for the second year straight, on the weekend of June 17-19 we flew from London to Milan for this unusual event.

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