1955 Abarth 207A Boano Spider - Images, Specifications and Information

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The Austrian born Italian Carlo Abarth was five time European motorcycle champion in the 1930s before he started production of exhaust systems. With the help of his old friend Ferry Porsche, Abarth was hired as a director at Piero Dusio's Cisitalia. After the company folded Abarth continued development of the Fiat based cars. The last Cisitalia was the type 204 and the first Abarth was the 205A.

Limited production started in 1950, but Abarth's main product remained tuning kits, using Carlo Abarth's exhausts. Together with the limited production 205A, Abarth modified various other Italian GTs, altering both the appearance and performance of the original cars. By 1954, Abarth employed 90 people and had become a household tuning name.

At the end of 1954 Carlo Abarth began designing a new two-seater roadster, again based on the Fiat 1100. The engine was uprated by increasing the compression ratio and fitting new intake and exhaust manifolds. Bolted on the intake manifold were two Weber carburetors. Power of the engine was uprated to 66 bhp from the original 36 bhp.

A completely new chassis was designed. It was quite unusual, being a steel platform chassis when at that time spaceframes were the norm for sport cars. The suspension used was directly derived from the Fiat 1100 and consisted of independent front trailing arms and a live rear axle. Continuing the Cisitalia/Abarth naming policy, the new car was dubbed 207A.

At its 1955 Turin Motorshow debut it was clothed in a Carozzeria Boano built and styled body. One of the car's most striking features of the 207A were two large stainless steel exhaust pipes on the right hand side of the body, underlining Abarth's core business. The stunning two-tone appearance of the 207A Roadster gave it plenty of press attention and an order for ten examples was secured, all of them US-bound.

Available in various two-tone colour schemes, the 207A was mainly intended for racing. Chassis 001 made its racing debut in the 12 Hours of Sebring race in 1955, where it was disqualified after illegal refueling while leading its class. This remained the sole memorable competition appearance of the 207A, which was let down by its heavy platform chassis.

The exact number of 207As constructed is uncertain, but ten seems to be the most accurate figure. Another two chassis were constructed and fitted with a two seater roadster and a coupe body, with a similar Boano design as the original sports roadster. These were known as the 208A and 209A respectively.

Let down by its high price and disapointing performance, the 207A was not a success. After the disapointing 207A project, Abarth returned to tuning cars and found in the new Fiat 600 the perfect base car. Abarth would get a legendary status with the 600 based racers.

The featured 207A is seen here at the 2004 Zolder Historic Grand Prix.