Abarth 1300 OT - Last of the Sixties' Champions
The Simca 1000 platform adopted in 1961 for its GT race cars served Abarth well for the successive seasons, 1963-65. Results achieved with the Abarth Simca 1300 Bialbero GT earned the World Championship for the Marque for those three years. The Fochi-designed engine, (Tipo 230S), initially developing 128 bhp, had gained an additional 10 or 12 bhp by 1964. For 1965, reliability was optimised by the introduction of a five main bearings version, and with kerb weight maintained around the 650 kgs mark, the car’s competitiveness was comfortably preserved. However, the collaboration agreement with Simca lapsed at the end of 1964. Carlo Abarth’s initial reaction in order to continue the Marque’s ability to race successfully in Group 4 was to give Mario Colucci his head and let him design a mid-engined, tubular chassis, aluminium-bodied coupe – the 1300 OTC. However, Abarth soon took against it, largely, no doubt, because of his aversion to the mid location for the...