San Marino is the world's oldest and smallest independent republic. The somewhat eccentric Sammarinese declared themselves independent way back in the 4th century and instituted a republican-style constitution in the early 13th century. Boxed into Italy by Reggio Emilia on the northeast and the Marches in the southwest, most of this 37-sq-mi. republic sits atop the rocky Mount Titano. The resident Sammarinese number only 26,000, but well over three million people visit the tiny country each year. Most arrive in buses that deposit them about halfway up Mount Titano, leaving them to hike up past the stamp and souvenir shops to the main piazza. When you go to San Marino, if you arrive on a tour bus, make friends with your bus driver. You're going to ask him to stop a little further down the mountain, in Falciano, a kind of suburb to the medieval center atop the mountain.
Or better yet, rent yourself a nice Alfa Romeo or Fiat and drive yourself there. The surrounding countryside is gorgeous, and if you arm yourself with a good map and avoid the autostrada, you'll find some of the best driving roads in the world. Besides, arriving by car is most appropriate for this particular destination: the Maranello Rosso Collection. The name itself hints at the contents if you're familiar with Italian automobiles: Maranello, the home of the Ferrari factory, and rosso, the color of almost all fast Italian cars.
The collection's Sammarinese founder, former European Champion racer Fabrizio Violati, chose the name to reflect his original dedication to Maranello's finest, the 250 series Ferraris. But that was way back in 1990; since then, the collection grew to encompass over two dozen Ferraris of different series. There was some international angst about the fate of Violati's collection back in 1998, when the exhibit closed--many feared Violati had decided to liquidate his collection. Instead, two years later, Maranello Rosso opened at a new address with the same Ferraris plus some 30 newly gathered Abarths in their own collezione, downstairs from the Ferrari exhibit at the entrance to the Scrigno Congress Center.
They may not be from Maranello, but these cars are certainly rosso! All but half a dozen of the Abarths are racing red. They're arranged in a circle around the exhibit hall, with several in the center and mirrors on the walls reflecting all that red--and a spattering of white, blue, gray and silver--right back at you. It's definitely one of the most impressive Abarth collections in the world. Only at Savigny-les-Beaune have I seen such a gathering of Carlo Abarth's finest (see ec, June 1999). While that collection in France contains more one-off prototypes, this collection gives a broader feeling for the full range of Abarth's race machines, including several of the later "Osella" Abarths created after Carlo sold the company to Fiat in 1971.
Most Americans know only one Abarth with any familiarity: the famous Double Bubble Zagato 750, which came to our shores in greater numbers than any other. There's a lovely rosso example here, and as a 1956 model it's the oldest Abarth in this display. Carlo Abarth and company built race cars, GTs, race equipment and a phenomenal number of performance exhaust systems between 1949 and that hand-over to Fiat 22 years later. By far the majority were built on Fiat chassis, with Fiat or coachbuilt bodies.
More familiar than the Double Bubble to Europeans are the Fiat 600-bodied Berlina Corse (sedan racers) powered by Abarth's 850 Turismo Competizione engines. The one on display, a 1960 model, earned the nickname "Nuerburgring" by winning the European Touring Car championship race at that famous German track in 1961. After that win, Abarth applied the name to all similar TCs.
Next to the 850TC are two other non-red examples of Abarth's handiwork: a Zagato-bodied 700 Bialbero (dual overhead cam) Corsa, a tiny racer homologated in 1960 and subsequent winner of numerous class endurance records; and on the other side, a non-red Bialbero, the 1960 1000 Record Monza. This car features the 90-horse, 200-kph twin-cam engine, surrounded by a body that won Italy's coveted Compasso d'Oro (Golden Compass) design prize for Zagato in 1960. A similar car had earlier set the record for the 72-hour endurance run at Monza, from whence came the name.
This 1000 Bialbero was also the last Zagato Abarth, as conflict arose between to two collaborators when Abarth insisted on bringing the body construction in-house, just after Zagato invested in larger facilities partly in order to build more Abarths.
It was not the last Bialbero though, nor the last 1000--the 1.0-liter category was one of Abarth's favorites. The red 1963 Bialbero GT just one car over from the last Zagato is a 1000, but it wears the sobriquet "long nose" thanks to its extra-long fiberglass front. This body was built by Sibona and Basano, one of the first coachworks in Italy to use fiberglass. In between the two Bialberos is one of Abarth's Monomilles--the name indicates that the 1000 (mille) engine is only a single (mono) cam, not the dual (bialbero). This 1961 version wears the name Scorpione, which refers both to Abarth's zodiac sign and his emblem, the scorpion.
Jumping a few years ahead brings us to the 1967 Fiat-Abarth OT 1300. The Omologazione Turismo series comprised a number of engines built for use in both custom racing bodies and in slightly modified Fiat bodies. The example on display here is the model that won the FIA World Championship in 1967. The first series of the OT 1300s had a smooth roofline, while the second series featured a snorkel that gave the driver better cockpit airflow--these cars were so aerodynamic that, without that snorkel, little or no air reached the suffocating driver!
Next over is the 1962 Abarth-Simca 1300 GT first series. The collaboration with Fiat's French sister, Simca, allowed Abarth to create entirely new engines, as Simca provided only the chassis, the suspension and the gearbox. This 1300 GT had immediate success on the race courses, with victory at Sicily's Targa Florio in 1962 and some 96 wins in 1963. A number of changes occured when homologation for GT racing was granted in October '62, but other than that the second series varied most notably by a new location for the fuel filler and a slightly shorter profile. Other fruits of the Abarth-Simca collaboration on display include two from 1964--the Abarth-Simca 1000 Sport and a 2000 GT Corsa--and one from 1965, the 2000 Long-Nose. The Abarth-Simca 1000cc engines put out 120 hp and topped 124 mph, while the 2-liters produced 230 hp and tagged 162 mph. Getting these kinds of figures out of such small engines explains how Carlo Abarth earned the nickname Il Mago (the Magician).
In fact, Abarth was famous for tweaking even smaller engines--what we'd call micro-cars today--but there are none of those on display here. The focus instead is on the 1-liters and larger, which is appropriate given the heavy-duty displacements of the Ferrari V12s on the floor above. The last two 1-liters on display are the 1965 1000 SP Barchetta (little boat) built on a lightweight tubular chassis. Output on these Group 4 sports racers reached 155 hp for 134 mph. Nearby is the 1969 1000 Sport Biposto (two-seater). This racer had already won a number of hillclimbs when Abarth displayed it at his 1970 Turin show stand. It became such a popular choice for budding young racers, it eventually earned the nickname Millino (little mille).
The success of those 2-liter Abarth-Simcas led to unparalleled success by the Fiat-Abarth 2000s dating back as early as 1965. By 1968, when the 2000 Sport-Spider displayed here debuted, these cars were racking up victories in every category of racing in the hands of Abarth factory racers Peter Schetty, Arturo Merzario and Johannes Ortner. These racers were homologated for Group 6 and, with their 16-valve 1946cc engines, generated 250 hp and topped 168 mph.
Two other 2-liters are here displayed side by side, and both are 1970 models. The first carries the barchetta theme to its logical extreme with the nickname fuoribordo, which means "outboard." The name is apt, as the body on this sport racer is cut away almost entirely behind the rear wheels to expose the 250-hp engine, now tweaked to top 180 mph. The "MC" in the name of the 2000 Sport Spider beside it indicates that this racer has a motore centrale, i.e. a mid-engine configuration.
There's one other 1970 model here on display, but it wears a second date on its plaque: 1985. That's the year Enzo Osella--who purchased what was left of the Abarth's race works after Fiat purchased the company in 1971--completely reworked the 3000 Prototype that Abarth had displayed at the 1970 Turin Motor Show. The 2968cc V8 engine originally generated 365 hp and reached a top speed of 186 mph, but Osella tweaked it up to 490 hp for a blistering top speed of 211 mph! Osella had been racing Abarths since the mid-1960s, so he was a natural to continue Abarth's work on the 2000 sport spiders. Three excellent examples of the Abarth-Osellas are here, from the first PA-1 of 1973, which featured a fuel-injected 2-liter four-cylinder with some 270 hp inside of an aggressive Pininfarina-designed shell complete with snorkel, lateral air intakes and dramatic high rear fins attached by a horizontal crossbar. The PA-2, built with the collaboration of Osella's new partner, Antonio Tomaini, carried these developments further, upping horsepower to 280 (for a top speed of 196 mph) in an equally dramatic body, though the example on display is bodyless, which better illustrates the four-wheel independent suspension and other technical features. The PA-3 is here, too, in all its red glory, the logical culmination of Osella's elaborations, with 290 hp and a top speed of 199 mph, still from only 2000cc.
Meanwhile, back at Fiat, the Abarth name was being used for the official World Rally Championship efforts, and it garnered Fiat 21 victories in that series between 1973 and 1981, and three Manufacturers' titles, in 1977, 1978 and 1980. The cars that won those titles are on display here: the black and red 1974 124 Spider Rally car (that should look familiar to Americans familiar with the popular Fiat 124 Spider) and the 1976 131 Rally Bertone, a boxy sedan that took the rally world by storm. Next to these two is the newest car on display, the 1979 single-seater Formula Fiat/Abarth, an open-wheel formula designed to replace the Formula Italia introduced by Abarth in 1972. That series commenced the same year that Carlo Abarth died, though his name and his scorpion emblem adorned many a racer for years thereafter, and in fact has been revived by Fiat today as a line of performance add-ons to several popular models.
After you've visited the Abarths and the Ferraris at Maranello Rosso, you'll realize how appropriate the pairing of these two Italian marques really is: both incredibly successful on the race tracks, both the products of two indomitable individuals, men whose personal names came to be synonymous with fast red cars, from Abarth's pocket rockets to Ferrari's Formula One racers. Enzo and Carlo and dozens of shiny red machines await you in San Marino, a place that's particularly well-suited to independent eccentrics and their magnificent automobiles.
Abarth Collection
Open from Feb. to Nov., 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Sat. and Sun. by reservation only.
Maranello Rosso
Stelabar S.A., Strada dei Censiti, 21
47891 Falciano, Repubblica di San Marino
39-(0)549-970614
Fax: 39-(0)549-970607
www.maranellorosso.com
E-mail: museo@maranellorosso.com