Abarth–The Man, The Machines
By Luciano Greggio
As outlined in this month’s feature article (pg. 52), over the course of the ’60s and ’70s, Austrian-born, Italian-small-car manufacturer Karl “Carlo” Abarth produced an amazingly prodigious string of competitive sports and racing cars from very humble underpinnings. With countless models and variations, the Abarth story encompasses a very broad swath of history, and yet, is not well known or documented in the English-speaking world.
At least that was the case before Giorgio Nada and Luciano Greggio in Italy tackled the problem. In Abarth—the Man, the Machines, Greggio prepares the most in-depth look ever taken of both the life of Karl Abarth and his scorpion-badged sports cars. At over 500-pages, this truly epic work follows Abarth from his early days as a motorcycle mechanic and racer in the 1920s, to his rise as an Italian industrial giant in the 1960s, right through to his final days and eventual death in 1979. All along this 60-year career path, Greggio chronicles every one of Abarth’s creations with insightful text, rare photographs, and over 100-pages of detailed race results.
While Greggio’s original opus was written in Italian, acknowledgment must be given to publisher Giorgio Nada who had the faith and passion for this work to commission Vintage Racecar’s own Italian Bureau Chief, Robert Newman, to fully translate this epic work into an English language edition. The result is a treat that no fan of Italian “etceterini” should be without.
Available in the U.S. for $98.00 from www.motorbooks.com (800-826-6600) or internationally for £60.00, directly from the publisher at www.giorgionadaeditore.it
