Abarth in Sixties Sicily
During the 1960s, eighty five Abarth cars were entered for the Targa Florio. The Marque’s involvement in this challenging and characterful event peaked in ’69 when thirteen cars wearing the Scorpion Crest were on the entry list, three of which achieved class victory. The low point was ’66, with just four entries, of which one was a non-starter, two retired and the other came in 40 th of the forty four classified finishers. Overall, Abarths were class winners fourteen times, by model thus: Porsche Abarth Carrera GTL – 4, Abarth Simca 1300 GT – 3, Abarth 1000 SP – 2 and once each for OT 1600 Spider Prototipo, Abarth OT 1300, Abarth OTS 1000, Abarth 1000 Bialbero and Abarth 2000 S. The total podium count was twenty three. Although things were about to change radically, the new decade saw the focus of motor sport attention at Corso Marche remaining on the Zagato bodied coupes that had been consistently successful during the late 1950s for Abarth. In ’60 , of the seven cars ent