Austrian-born engineer Carlo Abarth left Cisitalia in 1948 to set up his own independent tuning business in Turin, starting with the production of bespoke induction and exhaust systems, later to expand into performance kits for (mainly FIAT) production cars.

Carlo adopted his Scorpio birth sign as the logo for his company and soon evolved into a car manufacturer in his own right.

Abarth later built a highly successful series of aerodynamically-stylish sports prototypes and production cars.

FIAT most often supplied the body shells or partly completed cars, which Abarth modified and the FIAT/Abarth collaboration benefited both concerns, particularly in motorsport, since the many class victories captured by Abarth in fierce competition throughout Europe shone a favourable spotlight on Fiat's range of motor cars.

Always innovative and competitive, Abarth was absorbed into the FIAT empire in 1972.

The 595 was a reworked version of FIAT’s 500; a new big-bore cylinder block boosted the p...