If Only: The Abarth T140

The more I learn about Carlo Abarth, the more I wish I had had the opportunity to work for him.  He was I believe an especially notable example of the sort of distinctive personality one could encounter in a leader/senior management role in the automotive industry around the middle of the 20^th Century.  Their behaviour and outlook was such that in today’s social culture they probably would not retain their position for very long.  Such people had singular vision/belief, tremendous drive and no inhibitions about using their personality to manage and direct subordinates.  

  

In anecdotes from people who worked for him, Abarth himself is often referred to as someone who expected nothing less than their 100% dedication to the task, was very averse to ‘buttering them up,’ but who showed that he did in fact notice excellence by, for instance, handing over an envelope of bank notes!  By his own vision and dynamism he created a superb line of performance cars, the racing versions of which were highly successful, to the extent that they secured World Championships for six years in succession in the 1960s.  These achievements bolstered Abarth’s self-confidence whilst at the same time instilling in the Corso Marche factory workforce a pride in and dedication to his company.  These two factors are particularly relevant to the beginnings of a project designated ‘T140,’ which should have evolved into Abarth’s crowning glory.  Such a project – the creation of a 6 litre, V12-engine  and sports racing prototype car to compete with Ferrari, Porsche and Ford – needed to be originated and developed in a milieu of secrecy for which the automotive industry has never been well known.  And yet the obedient, proud and earnest workforce ensured with its discretion that both the engine and the body/chassis design were well advanced before anyone outside the Corso Marche factory gained any knowledge of the T140 before Spring 1967. 

The project had been announced internally by Carlo in July 1965.  The initial objective was competitiveness in the proposed new championship for Group 7 cars, the Can-Am Challenge Cup.  A joint initiative by the Sports Car Club of America and the Canadian Automobile Sports Club, the championship was due to be launched in September 1966 at Mont-Tremblant.  Abarth believed that the series, with its Johnsons Wax sponsorship, would offer a high profile marketing opportunity for his products.  However, with Group 7 being virtually a Formula Libre, he would need to create a new, much larger Abarth engine – designated ‘Tipo 240’ - to compete with the expected proliferation of ‘Big Block’ Chevrolet-engined cars contesting the races.

Responsibility for the engine’s design was delegated to Luciano Fochi.  Fochi – whose brother, Nino, was in charge of production at Abarth – had distinguished himself at Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari and Bugatti prior to joining Abarth in 1958.  In August the following year, Fochi persuaded Gianfranco Bossu, with whom he had worked at Bugatti, to move to Corso Marche, where they again collaborated with great expertise in the development of engines.  Recently, Gianfranco has kindly shared with me his recollections of the T140 project. 

By December 1966 a prototype engine with wet sump had been assembled.  The key features were: 120°, 5982 cc, V12,  SOHC, 24 valve, twin spark ignition, four Weber 40 LDA3C carburettors.  Bore was 92 mm and the stroke 75 mm.  The engine’s construction has previously been described as ‘modular’ in that the block and camshafts were composed of two joined component ‘halves.’  This was not of particular significance as these sub-components were newly created items and not derived from pre-existing, smaller capacity units.  However, the principle was noteworthy as applied also to the crankshaft, since it was at its centre joint – where power was taken off – that a major problem was discovered as soon as test running got underway.  The crankshaft is seen in Gianfranco’s contemporary sketch below:

 

Courtesy of Gianfranco Bossu

The arrangement is not exceptional, especially for a crankshaft of considerable length – that of the Porsche Type 912 Flat 12 917 engine, for instance, is similarly configured.  However, it was initially a weak point, giving rise to crack failures on the Tipo 240 engine.  Gianfranco remembers that the problem was solved by increasing the rigidity of the bearing supports with additional ribs and revised specification bearings.  At this stage the engine was found to be generating over 550 bhp.  With further development, including revision of the lubrication system resulting in the adoption of a dry sump in Quarter 1, 1967, 567 bhp was seen on the dynamometer; (Sample dyno graphs are seen below, with Power represented by the trace second from bottom, and Torque below that.)  With the project still in its early stages, it would have been reasonable to assume that higher output could be achieved with various upgrades, the application of fuel injection, for example.  Potential competitiveness can be judged by considering the performance of the Sixties large capacity racing power plants of Ford, Ferrari and Porsche.  The 7.0 V8 installed in the Mk.II version of the Ford GT40 developed 485 bhp; Ferrari’s mid-decade 330 P4s featured a 3 valve V12 which could give 450 bhp, while the later 512’s 5.0 V12 was good for 550 bhp; the Porsche 917 4.5 flat 12 had 520 - 580 bhp.  A disadvantage for the T240 was its weight, at 254.6 kgs (dry), whereas the 917, without the burden of a fluid cooling system, was 240.4 kgs.  It has been said that the prototype Tipo 240 engine was tested in a Lola T70 chassis, but no data exists to indicate just how well it performed on-track.

 

Courtesy of Gianfranco Bossu

But, of course, the potential of the T140 to take on that Big Three would depend also on the quality and capability of the chassis, which was designed by Antonio Tomaini.  Previously at Moretti, Tomaini had joined Abarth in 1962 to work in the design department.  However, before long Tomaini was also very active out and about at circuits, supporting the works team’s efforts, especially in terms of acquiring and evaluating feedback from the drivers.  For the T140, Tomaini set about designing a chassis in a format which would enable both an endurance racing coupe version and a Can-Am open car to be created with relative ease.  The timescale of the project did not allow the development of either the chassis or the bodywork to progress to any advanced stage, the latter being represented only by a wooden 1:1 model.  The origin of the style of the car can be seen in the contemporary OT Sport Spiders, which were Abarth’s first glass fibre-bodied products, and the 1600 OT Sport coupe.  The subsequent 2000 SE010 also provides a clear indication of how a finalised T140 would have looked.  The full size model was rendered by Sergio Seccatore who had arrived at Corso Marche in June 1966.  He recalls its initial presentation in his book, co-authored with Luca Gastaldi, Abarth Memories:

The wooden model was taken to the workshop, right beneath the technical office, and Colucci brought Abarth to see it.  Abarth looked at it but couldn’t understand the line of the car because the cuts for the doors, bonnet, lights hadn’t been made.  It was a beautiful piece of wood, a single shell.  So, Colucci called me to paint the model red.  I went to the storeroom but there wasn’t any red paint, so they gave me some iron rust preventer.  When the car was finished, Abarth came back and wanted to see the cuts for the doors, bonnet, lights, sockets and air vents, windshield.  I masked everything to paint the various parts with matt black paint.  I copied the headlights of the Ford GT40 and had the rear lights of the Alfa Romeo Giulia painted on the back.  I made holes for the headlights and started to mount one.  Abarth arrived at that moment.  He liked those solutions but when he picked up the light from the Giulia, he said it was too heavy and I had to find some others.  That one had a Zamak base and I had to find others in plastic.  So I went out on the street, to look at the cars parked there, hoping for inspiration.  I saw a Fiat 124 saloon: the rear lights were more or less the same shape and I had those purchased.  I completed the model.

Tomaini followed the conventions of the era in the construction of the chassis – mainly a tubular structure with aluminium and fibreglass panelling.  Some previous reviews of the T140 have cast doubt on how competitive it might have been, not only by way of engine performance, but also in terms of weight.  However, Abarth was quite adept at producing lithe prototype racing cars – the 2000 SE010 of 1968, for example, weighing in at just 480 kgs, to which the basic frame contributed a tiny 39 kgs.  For comparison, consider the contemporary Porsche 907, for which a kerb weight of 600 kgs has been quoted.  Tomaini and a design drawing of the T140 are shown below:

 

The mid-Sixties saw a considerable shake-up in the competitive hierarchy of endurance sports car racing.  Particular focus was increased on the Le Mans 24 Hours race and the determination of Henry Ford II to avenge, on-track, Ferrari’s rebuttal of a Dearborn take-over.  This gave rise to the GT40, a car which certainly delivered on Henry’s ambition, since it was driven to victory at Le Mans for 4 successive seasons, 1966-69.  The first two of those wins were achieved with the use of a 7 litre V8 engine.  For the governing body, the FIA, this caused concern – how could a good number of competitive entries be sustained if the performance benchmark was set by such a large capacity engine, especially, given the Paris-based FIA’s natural European-orientation – the continent’s automotive industry at that time being mainly engaged in projects with engines half that sort of size.  As a solution, and without preamble or consultation, on 12^th June 1967, the day after the second Ford victory by A J Foyt and Dan Gurney in a Mk.4 GT40, the FIA announced that for 1968 new ‘classes’ would apply for endurance racing, as defined by Appendix J to the International Sporting Code: Category A, production cars, Group 4 Sports cars; Category B, Group 6 Prototype sportscars.  For homologation, a manufacturer would have to produce at least 50 cars for Group 4 eligibility and engine capacity had to be less than 5 litres.  A 3 litre capacity limit applied for Group 6.  With a subsequent revision of the homologation requirement to 25 units, both Porsche and Ferrari would develop, respectively, the 917 and 512 models which provided some spectacular racing in 1970-71.

For Abarth, however, the announcement was wholly negative.  It was immediately concluded that the company did not have the financial strength and physical capacity to build and sell fifty T140s.  Equally, the continuance of the project to result merely in the construction of a very few examples to contest the Can-Am could not be justified on a cost/benefit analysis basis.  Sergio Seccatore’s recollection was that very soon after the FIA’s announcement, ‘We piled everything in a corner of the workshop and the story of the T140 ended like that.’  However disappointing that might be from my perspective, it’s quite possible that many at Corso Marche at the time breathed a sigh of relief.  It is said, for instance, that Carlo’s then manager of the mechanical chassis and bodywork department, Mario Colucci, was doubtful that the car could be built at a competitive weight.  Apparently, he also thought that the reported engine output values were somewhat exaggerated.  As with technical matters, such as the relative merits of a mid-chassis location for an engine against those applying to a rear-of-axle mounting, Colucci often acted as a foil to Carlo Abarth’s thinking, and he probably thought it prudent generally to counteract Carlo’s inherent optimism.  Though that optimism flowed from Carlo’s confidence built on a proven record of commercial and racing successes, it can equally be said that Colucci was well qualified to judge the specifics of chassis weight, he having designed the first tubular frame used by Abarth, for the 750 Sport, soon after he joined from Alfa Romeo in 1960.

Though the original project scope had included the manufacture of sufficient components to assemble two prototype engines, only a single unit has been seen in recent times.  This had been acquired by Engelbert Moll, former Abarth works driver (1963) and was a significant item in the collection of Abarth products held at his premises in Solothurn, Switzerland.  The Tipo 240 engine was the subject of much interest when displayed with other cars and engines from Moll’s collection at the Retromobile show in Paris, 2018, as seen in the photograph below.  I have been told by Tony Berni, global authority on Abarth and proprietor of Berni Motori, Maleo, Italy, that in the autumn of 2022, Moll sold his entire collection and it is now relocated in Japan.

 

As for the car, there is better news to report.  A BMW M73-engined replica was built by Hansi Marz in association with Udo Siekmann of Scuderia Gemini Corse and run at the Berni Motori track day held at Autodromo di Varano de’ Melegari in June 2017.  The car can be seen on the circuit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzKN0_ep5Gk.  It also featured in a Petrolicious article https://petrolicious.com/articles/the-abarth-historic-track-day-showcases-the-best-of-the-beloved-brand-from-bologna which included the photograph seen below:

 

It is quite commonplace to read critical comment about both the decision to embark upon the T140 project and the subsequent abrupt cancellation.  But it is not hard to see that the situation came about because both Abarth and the FIA planned and operated at the time with unusually well preserved secrecy.  What is less well known is that Abarth was not the only marque in that era which started a highly ambitious sport prototype project which came to nothing.  This was the aspiration of Dr Alfredo Belponer.  In the early Sixties he determined to create a new scuderia to support the activities of amateur racing drivers in and around his hometown of Brescia.  Establishment – and formal recognition – of Scuderia Brescia Corse became possible in late 1964 when Carlo Abarth agreed to support the team’s registration with the sporting authorities.  The Scuderia was soon successful, primarily in sports car events, and by 1967 was running a GT40 at Le Mans.  But Belponer had the ambition and wealth to go further, and he asked Bertone to create a Group 6 prototype.  The Carrozzeria obliged with a design named ‘Panther’ and it was unveiled in Turin and Geneva in Spring 1968.  More information about the Panther is available; here: https://supercarnostalgia.com/blog/bertone-panther

 

Scuderia Brescia Corse intended to order several Panthers and use them in an extensive international endurance racing campaign.  However, what Bertone could not do was produce suitable motive power for the car.  Belponer entered into discussions with BRM, seeking a supply of the Bourne-made F1 3.0 V12s, modified with durability rather than peak power, in mind.  When negotiations stumbled, he switched his quest to Maserati, but there too, no deal could be finalised.  As a result, just as with the T140, after much earnest effort, considerable expenditure and enthusiastic activity, the project just quietly expired.  The Panther is seen below:

 

I can’t help but wonder – how well would a Panther have gone with a short stroke, 5.0 Tipo 240 engine behind the driver’s seat!