By Guilherme Marques
This is not going to be the most impartial text I have ever written. This is also not going to be the best buying advice I have ever given, at least not in a rational perspective anyway. This one is about the Abarth 500 – I drove it, I loved it, I bought one. I won’t ever sell it.
Abarth is one of the most iconic names in motorsport. Back in the 50s and 60s Carlo Abarth took several small Fiat models and turned them into real life giant slayers around racetracks and rally stages all over the world.
There were so many amazing cars then; if you feel like it just ‘Google’ Abarth 850 TC, 124 Abarth Rally and, of course, Abarth 500, to name but a few. Let me also tell you that after Carlo Abarth sold the company to Fiat in 1971, the guys from Turin kept it as their racing department, and under the leadership of the brilliant Cesare Fiorio gave us landmark cars like the Lancia Stratos, Lancia 037, Lancia S4 and the unforgettable Delta Integrale.
The Abarth 500 is not the most comfortable car in the world, the most spacious or the most practical, but you have to wonder: if I, someone who drives pretty much everything, bought one, it cannot be that bad. It isn’t – trust me. It is actually a masterpiece. Not rationally, but emotionally. Drive one. Fall in love. Buy it. And, most of all, don’t ever sell it.
