An Abarth model with a most convoluted gestation, what would eventually become the Scorpione started out as a FIAT concept car developed by its Director of Engineering, Dante Giacosa.

Giacosa has the idea of utilising the engine/transmission package of the front-wheel drive Autobianchi Primula (a FIAT design) in a rear-engined car that would later provide the basis for the FIAT X1/9.

Typed ‘G-31’, this one-off prototype carried a pretty coupé body styled in-house at FIAT by Pio Manzu and was first exhibited at the Turin Auto Show in 1967.

After the show the body design was taken over by coachbuilder Francis Lombardi and put into limited production as the ‘Grand Prix’, using FIAT 850 running gear.

When Carlo Abarth took over the design, he replaced the 850cc engine with his own FIAT 124-based unit bored out to 1,300cc, and addressed the car’s incipient cooling problems by moving the radiator to the front.

Renamed ‘Scorpione’, after the marque’s emblem, Abarth’s new GT was offered i...