Yahoo Autos You Can Buy this Fiat-Abarth 850 Replica, or Build One With an Old Communist Car
Bonhams will offer an Abarth 850 TC replica without reserve at Quail this weekend, estimated to fetch between $40,000-50,000. The car was built sometime after 2008, following a bone stock Fiat 600 leaving Rome for America.
It's got the correct OHV four-cylinder enlarged from 750cc to 847cc fed by a larger carburetor, producing 52hp at 5200rpm. Featuring a four-speed transaxle gearbox, four-wheel independent suspension, beefier drum brakes at the back and the signature trumpet exhaust, it's the full kit sporting the livery of 1963's Nürburgring winner driven by Hans Herrmann and Teddy Pilette.
It also has a totally fake chassis plate, but that hardly matters.
While it probably did not cross Carlo Abarth's mind back in his day, technically, you can build an Abarth 750/850/1000 using the poor communist man's 600 as a base as well. The Zastava 750 was made under license for a whopping thirty years on the Serbian side of the former Yugoslavia, starting from 1955.
While it's true that the Zastava is slightly longer than the Italian original in the name of comfort, that hardly matters when you're planning to make as many changes as an Abarth conversion requires. Talking of which, a friend of mine is already elbow deep in such a project:
The poor soul. When he's done and his former Zastava body-in-white looks anything like this, I'll personally print him a fake chassis plate:
Looking for a contemporary Abarth alternative that won't make you sell your house like these old things? I quite like what this Canadian guy did with his Fiat 500 Turbo!
