First registered in Naples on July 13, 1967, this delightfully presented and most attractive Abarth sports-prototype barchetta exemplifies the small-engined competition class that had such widespread support in Italian national competition for more than thirty years postwar.

Used to the full in both circuit racing, and often tortuous mountain hill-climbs on public roads merely closed for a weekend's sport, this category of competition car had developed progressively from a widespread and deeply embedded tuning establishment making better use of mundane production Fiat economy saloon cars than the original manufacturer ever intended, or expected.

For the 1966 motor racing season Abarth of Turin produced its first multi-tubular chassised chassis and engine – internally coded the 'SE04' model, designed by chief engineer Mario Colucci.

Unlike his employer, Carlo Abarth himself, Mario Colucci believed that what had become the conventional mid-engined configuration – with the power unit m...