We appear to be driving at the pace of a funeral cortège, but then we don’t want to scare the locals, do we? The New Forest offers a seemingly never-ending but ever-changing backdrop, not forgetting the requisite ponies that roam where they please with unhurried intent. It is hauntingly beautiful, the landscape teasing us, perhaps even goading. It’s late winter and near-deserted save the hoofed herbivores, and we are in an Abarth with all that entails. This day will end with wide eyes, even broader smiles, and tested reflexes. Or a stampede. One of the two.
But no. This is not your usual classic Abarth, should such a thing exist. Forget shrill sports racers or Fiats pop-pop-popping and banging their way to valve bounce, the 2200 Spider is that bit more… refined. It is nothing like what you might picture an Abarth to be in your mind’s eye, not least because it is powered by a straight-six rather than a peaky four-banger. What’s more, it’s mounted in the front. As such, this handsome convertible has a certain enigmatic air that only heightens its obvious attraction.
Posterity pays scant attention to this subspecies of Abarth, but it should. The 2200 and its siblings represented a period when the marque of the scorpion attempted to take on the exotic elite. This move was quite the leap, but then company founder Carlo Abarth (né Karl) always was a big-picture man and a defiantly self-directed one at that. He had already succeeded in so many other spheres, and in relatively short order, so making ‘big’ cars should have presented just another stepping stone in his well-crafted and carefully nurtured narrative.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2022 من Classic & Sports Car.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2022 من Classic & Sports Car.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Mick WALSH
'Had someone said that this worn-looking titan would win the most famous old-car event, we would have laughed'
ALFA ROMEO STELVIO QF
Rewriting the rulebook on what an SUV can do, and how it can make you feel
FLOATING INTO THE FUTURE
Citroën's DS-replacing CX was at a cutting edge so sharp it still looks fresh today, and it had the drive to match - as five superb survivors reveal
"It's a car for posing in really"
Broadcaster Michael Buerk reflects on more than three decades with his beloved Jaguar E-type S1 3.8 fixed-head coupé
HONDAS DECK THE HALL
The Japanese firm's Los Angeles collection is now on public display for the first time in two decades
ABSOLUTELY buzzing
Honda's Si Civics brought agile, cheap fun to motorists long before the Type R name got anywhere near a hatchback
THE FEMININE TOUCH
In 1955, General Motors styling guru Harley Earl brought 11 talented women into the male-dominated world of automotive design. What was their lasting impact?
Out on a limb
Panther's innovative Solo 2 was something completely different, both for its maker and the sports car market
Restyles with substance
Panther Westwinds blended a passion for pre-war designs with modern-era mechanical usability and remarkably fine coachbuilding
Dead ringers
The Maserati Kyalami and De Tomaso Longchamp share much, having emerged from the same stable, but are poles apart at heart