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.
Not an Allemano, but a truly rare 750GT Zagato Spider. Found in New Jersey, as I recall.
Others often ran, the old useless 600 engines replaced by the even more numerous 600D variants which oddly enough dispensed of the large side mounted oil filter. Of course by that time, in the mid 1970s, people neither knew nor cared that the original 600 was a specially machined block with a special crankshaft and camshaft, all numbered carefully by the Austrian wizard.
Sam’s Racer
One of our more interesting dealings with an Abarth Allemano was an old SCCA car belonging to Sam Coronia, who had campaigned it at Marlboro. By the early 1980s it was no longer competitive, but one of Sam’s mechanics though otherwise.
Sam’s Allemano in better days, probably at Marlboro, Courtesy Sam Coronia.
He proceeded to remove the engine, replacing it with a 903cc, and installed wide racing tires and wheels. This necessitated flaring the poor aluminum wheel wells to fit the huge tires. When Sam finally caught on to what was happening, only three fenders had been extended and he call a stop to the project.
I lost track of the car but if anyone out there has an Allemano with three flared fenders, or vestiges thereof, well, that’s the story.
Like a Volkswagen with a Headache
In other places, the coupe variant, often called the Double Bubble, but more correctly the Abarth 750 GT Zagato Derivazione, could be spotted, easily so, because the roofline was so obvious and unnatural. Like a Volkswagen with a headache, a friend smartly observed. They too, seemed to pop up in strange places, and shared much in common with the open Allemano, including the ever present chassis rust.
Mr. Swenson’s Custom Abarth
Some Abarth Zagatos were saved in strange ways. In 1989, answering a want ad placed in the Washtington Post for a restored Abarth 750 GT for $10,000. In the 1980s, $10,000 was an unheard of price for an Abarth. And restored? After a fashion, perhaps.
It seems that the owner, without having any knowledge of other Abarths, spent over 25 years restoring his son’s 750 Zagato, thinking that this must be the only one left in the world. Swenson was a retired plastics engineer who put his talents to work on the Abarth. In due course, Swenson recreated the delicate rear bumpers, using plastic filled with foam. He made a new fiberglass hood, installed more comfortable seats from an MG Midget, a molded plastic headliner, and designed a new ventilation system, taking fresh air through the traditional Abarth badge in the nose. Chrome taillight and instrument surrounds were change to black enamel. This was topped off by a two tone paint job, reddish orange body with a silver top. It was, well, different.
I don’t know if Mr. Swenson sold it or if he got his asking price. But if you are the owner of an Abarth which has or had foam filled bumpers, that’s the story.
A Boy Named Bonnie
Word gets around if one is on the lookout for strange foreign cars, and sure enough, a co-worker mentioned that he had seen a strange, humped roof car some miles outside of Baltimore. With his help, we located the place which was in the woods, and sure enough, there was a black Abarth 750 GT, almost totally original and intact. Alongside, in wet cardboard boxes, were four new Abarth Campagnolo 6 inch racing wheels. In a heartbeat, from out of the dilapidated structure nearby, came a rather large woman. “If you’re interested in the car, let me go get Bonnie,” she said. Out came Bonnie, about 6 foot five, with a mean look and huge biceps. We decided to be nice and not tease him about being named Bonnie. Turns out that Bonnie was very nice, and wanted only $800 for the entire package including the wheels.
Bonnie’s Abarth safely garaged next to the author’s Double Bubble.
The wheels didn’t fit any of his Chevs so he didn’t care much about them. I sold the wheels to Mahlon Craft, famed for his portrait as a Cro-Magnon man on the cover of Newsweek painted by his wife Kinoko, (and for his Abarth knowledge as well) and kept the 750GT for parts.
Less commonly found, at odds with common sense, were the Abarth Berlinas. For some reason, the Allemanos and Zagatos, both more expensive with special, truly hand built bodies, were more prevalent in the U.S, strange until one realized that the in the 1950s, the SCCA had great classes for 750 sports cars but none for small sedans. In fact one of the very few small sedan races in American during the fifties was a short lived series at Lime Rock. But the Allemano and Zagato Abarths were eligible for SCCA’s H production classes. The SCCA took their name, the Sports Car Club of America seriously. This does not rule out the success of Alfred Cosentino, who gained fame and fortune with a 1000 Berlina once the SCCA created a sedan class in the mid sixties.
Alfred S. Cosentino
Costention at speed, B.D. Dobbins photo.
Cosentino burst onto the scene in the early 1960s, opening up an import center named FAZA (Fiat Abarth Zagato Allemano) in Brewster, NY. From 1965 to 1969, he achieved a number of SCCA wins with a Fiat Abarth 1000 Berlina in the new D Sedan class. His business apparently prospered and he imported everything for Abarths, cars, parts, books, accessories. He was, however, like a flywheel disintegrating at 10,000 rpm—his energy and emotions went everywhere, flying here, there and everywhere, yet totally focused on Abarth.
His many books, self-published, demonstrated this amazing but uncontrolled energy. There were no paragraphs, sometimes no chapters, streaming advertisements and tech tips, photos and letters from all over the world, Abarth literature galore, and peppered between this explosion of print was his own, unique, embattled and controversial words, which rarely were aligned with any adjacent photography. But the books were full of interesting bits of information, from gear ratio charts to official Abarth photos, parts breakdowns, and rare ads. It was hard to own an Abarth without owning at least several of his books.
B.D. Dobbins caught Al Cosentino as he crosses the
finish line with his FAZA Abarth.
Many considered Al Cosentino “Mr. Abarth” and he provided people all over the world with Abarth parts and cars. Al loved to talk on the phone. And talk. And talk. By the end of the conversation the customer would have forgotten what he was going to order but he had learned a great deal about Al Cosentino.
Someday someone will write about Al, for in many respects, Cosentino was Abarth in America. But that will have to be another time and another person.
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I love the men Al cosentino
https://virtualtours.city/toursa.php?id=8324&panoid=39308
I have never met Al Cosentino but I have heard of lot of stories about him and own all his books. Books filed with valuable information (if you have the patience to find it) that have helped me with maintaining and improving my 1964 1000 TC Berlina Corsa, built from a lowly Fiat 600. At Lime Rock, I have raced against the ex-Al Cosentino TCR owned by the Collier Collection. Just ran Watkins Glen with VRG, showing the way to more powerful machinery, as my “Italian NASCAR” has done for many years. Check it out on http://www.auto-historia.ca
Forza Abarth!
Alain
Pete, I love your stories and your website, for example the “lost” Cisitalia D46… I was George Peter’s oldest daughter’s boyfriend in the mid seventies and we went to Suffolk to his aunt’s house several times. I remember trying to help George drag the car out of the shed a couple of different times. It was always one of those projects that was going to be gotten to “later, when we have time…” Sadly, time ran out for George way too early. Anyway, the Cisitalia wasn’t “lost,” lots of us knew where and what it was. Just nobody every seemed to care enough to ask. Back it those days it wasn’t worth the $335,000.oo Fantasy Junction is asking for theirs, it was just an old, slow, rusty, derelict race car. Same thing with Sam’s Abarth. I had the racer and was running it in the local parking lot autocrosses in the early 80s to get it ready to go back into SCCA competition but the car never ran right and usually DNFed. We had pulled the Abarth engine for a rebuild after we discovered low compression on one cylinder (it had a cracked ring). We also started stripping the paint off the rear section of the car because Sam wanted me to fix the dents but once we were about half done with the bodywork he took the car back to let his mechanic bring the car up to competition levels. I still had the Abarth engine out at the time (sadly I don’t know if it was original, but it was Abarth) to rebuild so they used a Fiat 903 that was lying around the shop at the time. The machine work on the Abarth engine was being done by a shop across 38th St from Sam’s Foreign Car Repair. At the time they had a huge 12 cylinder engine in the back being rebuilt, they told me it came out of a P-51 Mustang. I finished the rebuild on the Abarth unit and returned it to Sam by which time the rest of the project had stalled because Sam wasn’t willing to let the car be modified enough to fit then modern racing rubber. I still have the Abarth script off the rear of the car. I can also identify an interesting piece on the Abarth engine. I managed to crack the intake manifold so Sam took it up to a shop off Little Creek Rd. and had it welded. It worked fine and there weren’t any complaints about not being able to weld old Italian aluminum but it did have a weld bead almost all the way around.
Sam and I lost touch for a while in the 80s and 90s but I did run into “his” Abarths one day out on Military Hwy. I was at the AAMCO and four or five of the cars were out back. I tried to talk to the owner but he wasn’t really pleasant and lied to me, telling me they never belonged to Sam but I had spent too much time around those cars and I knew better…
I have most of Sam’s Abarth books and I still am a Fiat 850 owner… If I don’t run out of time I may yet get one of them (I have three) on the road. You should come by one day and we’ll haul a few cars out of my garage. Between the Morettis, Fiat 850s, Alfas and Ferraris I could probably do an entire year of “As Found.”
Great to hear from you and we’d love to do a few As Found features with you! Sam never told me you were Peter’s daughter’s boyfriend!
Pete
Al Cosentino’s books are essential on the shelves! I am still frustrated trying to find the 1954 Alfa Abarth 2000 coupe on the cover of A.O.I . 005-90 (in l.h.d. form, of course!)
Peter
These great little cars remind me the Cyclops cars of Henry Manney as published in Road & Track in the 60’s. Made from Cinzano signs with wings and air brakes, etc.,racing at LeMans, I couldn’t wait for my subscription to arrive when I was a kid.
Al Cosentino….what an interesting fella to say the very least…either he liked you or absolutely hated you. Fortunately he seemed to like me (Guidi, you’re a paisan!) and sent me everything I ordered from him!! His books really got me interested in Abarth and the graphics were good due to Al’s background in art. I actually spent the night at his Casa and worked into the night with him in his garage. Him and his black lab going everywhere and his quiet wife Fumiko. I treasure his books and remember him as a unique dude. RIP Al…
several years ago the late and lovely gentleman frank manley offered me–we’d been friends for many years–his zagato spider in perfect shape for $37k. i was paying off lawyers at the time and couldn’t take advantage of his special price. the car, blue, was at pebble beach twice. just shoulda taken out a loan. the car went back east soon after, for a multiple of his good buddy price.
The Cyclops was the the result of the imagination of Stan Mott and Robert Cumberford not Henry Manning.
I was then owner of an Alpine A106 which I had modified (within the FIA homologation documents, which, incidentally showed equipment which was fantastic but unavailable). I was also preparing a Abarth Zagato 750 belonging to Don Rosendale, an independent owner. Even at that time the opportunities for an independent entry were drying up. John Timkin ( of the roller bearing dynasty) would show up at local races with a pair of Alemano 750’s, which had blue tailpipes from running on a dynomometer all week. The Alemanos were said to be lighter than the Zagatos. Rosendale then bought an Abarth Duomile 1000 twin cam car which was plainly unprepared for Al Cosentino’s car, which was apparently prepared by someone with access to the Abarth parts bin and tech information. It is difficult to defeat a good driver in a factory car.
Al was one of the unforgettable characters of our hobby. To him, Carlo A was God. His next favorite was Alfa, and I made many a trip to his Daytona shop for various goodies….Exhaust, OZ turbine wheels, Weber air cleaners, Campy wheels….most of which I still have. Between Smokey and Al, Daytona housed the two most interesting people in US motorsports. I last ran into Al years ago prior to the start of the Mille Miglia in Brescia, still as feisty as ever.