Carlo Abarth was sporting director of the Cisitalia racing team starting in 1947. In 1949, Abarth & C. was founded in Bologna, funded by Armando Scagliarini, after taking over Cisitalia's assets. Carlo's astrological sign, Scorpio, was chosen as the company logo. From the Cisitalia liquidation, Abarth obtained five 204 sports cars, a D46 single-seater, and various spares. The Cisitalia 204s were immediately rechristened Abarth Cisitalia 204A. Abarth proceeded to build and race a series of sports cars developed from these Cisitalia cars. The "Squadra Abarth" racing team included drivers like Tazio Nuvolari, Franco Cortese, and Piero Taruffi. Tazio Nuvolari made his last racing appearance in an Abarth 204A, winning its class in the Palermo–Monte Pellegrino hillclimb on April 10, 1950. The company also produced and sold accessories and performance parts for Fiat, Lancia, Cisitalia, and Simca cars.
On April 9, 1951, the company's headquarters moved to Turin. Abarth began its association with Fiat in 1952, building the Abarth 1500 Biposto on Fiat mechanicals. In 1957, Abarth entered a deal with Fiat for direct fees based on successful competition finishes. Abarth entered cars in hillclimbing and sports-car racing events globally, competing with Porsche 904 and Ferrari Dino. Hans Herrmann was a factory driver from 1962 to 1965, winning the 500 km Nürburgring in 1963 with Teddy Pilette.
Abarth produced high-performance exhaust pipes and diversified into tuning kits for road vehicles, mainly for Fiat. A racing exhaust was produced for 1950s Lambretta models "D" and "LD". In 1958, Abarth developed the Abarth Alfa Romeo 1000 in collaboration with Alfa Romeo. Mario Colucci became Abarth's Technical Director in 1960. Colucci's first design was the Abarth Spider Sport. His next design, the Group 4 1000 SP, was more successful. Abarth also helped build sports or racing cars with Porsche and Simca.
Carlo Abarth sold Abarth to Fiat on July 31, 1971. Enzo Osella took over the Reparto Corse racing operations, founding the Osella racing team. Under Fiat ownership, Abarth became the Fiat Group's racing department, managed by Aurelio Lampredi. Abarth prepared Fiat's rally cars, including the Fiat 124 Abarth Rally and 131 Abarth. In December 1977, Abarth and Squadra Corse Lancia factory racing operations merged into EASA. Cesare Fiorio was appointed director. The combined department developed the Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo Group 5 and the Lancia Rally 037 Group B. On October 1, 1981, Abarth & C. ceased to exist, replaced by Fiat Auto Gestione Sportiva. Commercial models like the Autobianchi A112 Abarth were co-branded Abarth. In the 1980s, the Abarth name marked performance cars like the Fiat Ritmo Abarth 125/130 TC. In the 2000s, Fiat used the Abarth brand for trim levels, as in the Fiat Stilo Abarth.
On February 1, 2007, Abarth was re-established as an independent unit, Abarth & C. S.p.A., controlled by Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A.. The first models launched were the Abarth Grande Punto and the Abarth Grande Punto S2000. The brand is based in the Officine 83, part of the old Mirafiori engineering plant. The CEO as of 2022 is Olivier François. In 2015, Abarth's parent company was renamed FCA Italy S.p.A..
In 2017, Abarth collaborated with Yamaha to produce a limited-edition motorcycle, the XSR900 Abarth.
Abarth won the FIA R-GT Cup in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and was runner-up in 2017.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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