In the 1950s Abarth was designing and building its own race cars, making itself pretty well known in the international motorsport community. To help promote the company name and brand, Carlo Abarth – the founder of Abarth & Company – looked to competing for international speed endurance records. In doing so, the company created a number of number of vehicles, but the most important cars, arguably, came from a collaboration between Abarth and Pininfarina. The first car developed from this collaboration was a 750 cc Monoposta that debuted in 1957. It went on to set a Class H record by maintaining an average speed of 102.743 mph for 72 hours.
Around the same time, Abarth had another breakthrough using its new Bialbero engine. With this engine in the Pininfarina-designed Monoposto, Abarth was able to smash its own three-hour record by more than 8.5 mph. With the thirst for record breaking taking hold, Abarth continued to improve its designs with Pininfarina and eventually built a final series of these streamlined record setters. And, the one you see here was Abarth’s primary 1,000 cc that goes by the name La Principessa.
Powered by a type 229 Bialbero engine, this baby had just 108 horsepower and could hit a top speed of 136 mph. It set a number of Class G records at Monza between September 28 and October 1, 1960, including an average speed of 126.545 mph over 12 hours, 123.525 mph over 24 hours, 118.224 mph over 48 hours, and 116.001 mph over 72 hours. The car has been kept in storage most of its life and has been owned by the same family for most of it existence. Recently going under the hammer at the Gooding & Company auction during Monterey Car Week 2016, we finally got a good look at this piece of Abarth history, so let’s dive on in and talk a little more about it.
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