1968 FIAT-ABARTH SS SCORPIONE-FIAT 1000 GT / FRANCIS LOMBARD - Bonhams 20-06-15

COMING TO AUCTION

SATURDAY 20th JUNE 2015

THE SUMMER CLASSIC SALE

OXFORD

 

1968 FIAT-ABARTH SS SCORPIONE-FIAT 1000

 GT / FRANCIS LOMBARDI

From the Maranello Rosso Collection
1968 Fiat-Abarth SS Scorpione-Fiat 1000 GT / Francis Lombardi 
Registration no. Not registered with DVLA
Chassis no. 141/0049

FOOTNOTES

• The Carrozzeria Francis Lombardi company in Italy produced a small, rear-engined sports car on a Fiat 850 base from 1968 until 1962. Its rather attractive, streamlined coachwork was styled in-house by Giuseppe Rinaldi and during its production life the model was also marketed as the OTAS 820, as a Giannini, and as Abarth Grand Prix and Scorpione.
  
  Its public debut had been made at the Geneva Salon of March 1968, and its shapely good looks – with its electrically raised and lowered headlights – attracted much favourable comment. Apart from the engine cover and rear panel, the body panelling was all-steel, and the style had originally applied to a front-wheel drive Autobianchi A112 before being adapted by Lombardi to fit the Fiat 850 floorpan. Carlo Abarth's first version was then unveiled at the 1968 Paris Salon. It featured a tuned version of the Fiat 850 Sport Coupé/Sport Spider's enlarged 902cc engine – offering a claimed 52bhp – while a Scorpione SS variant would be added, featuring a still bigger 1280cc engine delivering around 75bhp at 6,000rpm. To improve cooling, Abarth mounted the matrix in the airstream, up front.
  
  This 'Abarth 1300 Scorpione' would prove to be Abarth's last independently-developed car. In a 1970 German road test theScorpione achieved a maximum speed of 175.6 km/h (109.1 mph). A further developed 100hp option was also available, the car also being re-engineered with a co-axial coil/damper front suspension, redesigned rear suspension, anti-roll bars front and rear, and disc brakes all-round. Top speed was 115 mph (185 km/h). Once Abarth was absorbed into Fiat in 1971, such Scorpione variants were quickly shelved.
  
  The car is now EU taxes paid and supplied with an Italian old Libretto and corresponding Foglio Complementare illustrating the car was once registered PI 534028. Other than that no other information is on file from the Maranello Rosso Collection, in whose displays it was preserved for many years.

SALEROOM NOTICES

• Upon further consultation with a marque specialist, we have been advised this Lot is a Francis Lombardi variant with a Fiat 850 Sport drivetrain.

FURTHER IMAGES AVAILABLE AT: http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22685/lot/407/