Featured Import: 1972 Fiat 124 Abarth Rally
A Group 4 competition car with an FIA passport, a Colotti dog-leg gearbox, and a finish at this year's Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique.
Most classic cars spend their lives avoiding hard use. This one was built for it, and never stopped. Four decades in, it still wears the job on its skin: a matte black nose scored with rally light pods, tubular headers gone the color of a well-used shop rag, and a cage bolted through the floor instead of dressed up around it.
The car that made Fiat's spider into a rally weapon
The 124 Sport Spider was Pininfarina's design, a pretty open two-seater built for the road, all soft curves and chrome. Abarth took that shape in 1972 and turned it into something else entirely: a fixed hardtop in place of the folding roof, lightweight body panels, flared arches wide enough to cover a serious set of wheels, and independent rear suspension in place of the road car's live axle. About 1,000 were built in Turin to satisfy homologation rules, which makes an original Abarth Rally a genuinely rare car, not just an old one.
The results backed up the engineering. The 124 won the 1972 European Rally Championship with Raffaele Pinto behind the wheel. The Abarth Rally took the title again in 1975 with Maurizio Verini. Markku Alen and Hannu Mikkola both drove the works cars during that run.
This Fiat 124 Abarth Rally
This is an original Fiat 124 Abarth Rally, chassis code CSA, not a Sport Spider dressed up to look like one, and not a later variant. It has been a competition car its whole life.
It's currently in Italy with an FIA Historic Technical Passport last issued in May 2004, listing it as a Competition GT Car, Period H1 (1972 to 1975), FIA class GTS26. Sometime in the 2000s it was stepped up from Group 3 to Group 4 spec. The current owner has had it for about ten years, and its most recent outing was the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The passport itself is unmistakable: a blue cover stamped PASSAPORTO TECNICO in the Italian tricolor, the kind of document that's been handed across a scrutineering table more than once.
The spec
Everything on this list points the same direction: built to be driven hard, not detailed for a concours lawn.
• 1.8-liter twin-cam four (1,839 cc per its FIA passport) on twin twin-choke carburetors
• Colotti dog-leg gearbox with straight-cut gears
• Limited-slip differential
• Independent rear suspension on Bilstein struts
• Full roll cage, Sparco Pro 2000 seats, Sabelt harnesses
• Sassa fuel tank in the trunk, battery kill switch, fire extinguisher, tow hooks
• Matte black hood with twin light pods, and the full four-lamp rally front end
Pop the hood, and it looks like what it is: a well-used race engine bay, nothing polished for show. Velocity stacks sit open to the air above the cam cover, the Magneti Marelli distributor glows red against a tangle of plug wires, and the header pipes have gone the dull grey of metal that's made real heat. Nothing here was built to be looked at. It was built to be maintained trackside, quickly, between stages.
Inside, the cage wraps close overhead, a pair of Sparco Pro 2000 buckets held down by red Sabelt harnesses, and a fire extinguisher clipped low within reach of the driver's seat. It's fitted the way a car gets fitted when someone actually intends to drive it, not just show it.
What it needs
The technical passport has expired, and the safety equipment needs renewal. The car also needs a general service. None of that is unusual for a race car between events. Budget for a passport re-inspection, new belts and seats as the rules require, and a full service before its next start.
Who it's for
This car is for someone who wants to drive at historic events, not just park at them. The hard part is already done: a correct car with period homologation and a recent record at one of the best-known historic rallies there is. At more than 50 years old, it also clears US import age rules with years to spare, one less hurdle between deciding to buy it and lining up on a start line.
Look at it head-on and the intent is obvious. Four sealed-beam headlights stacked in chrome rings, a matte hood lettered FIAT ABARTH in block type, black light pods swept back like the car is already mid-stage. This is what a Group 4 homologation special looked like when the factory built it to win, not to sell.
That's the face that carried the Abarth Rally to two European Rally Championships,
and it hasn't softened with age.
Offered through our partner in Europe. Price on request. Reply to this email or call
720-480-7171 for the full photo set and passport pages.
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