Tag Archives: Abarth

Don’t Mention the War

This bizarre looking vehicle is a Porsche 356 Carrera GTL Abarth, a lightweight racing car from 1960 resulting from a rare collaboration between Germany and Italy.

Previous partnerships between the two European powers were – thankfully for mankind – disastrous failures, but the Porsche 356 Carrera GTL Abarth was… OK, not great either.

It overheated, the steering couldn’t turn enough, and there were a few ‘differences of opinion’ between Porsche and Abarth when it came to acceptable build quality.

However unlike their 1940s effort, the two nations persevered and re-engineered the 356 Carrera GTL to the point where it became a rather excellent racing car, successfully competing across Europe and taking three consecutive class wins at Le Mans.

This neat Model Team recreation of the German-Italian racer comes from Tim Inman, who has managed to replicate the 356 Carrera GTL’s decidedly odd bodywork in brick form.

Opening doors and a lifting engine cover reveal a detailed interior and rear-mounted engine respectively, and there’s more to see of Tim’s Porsche 356 Carrera GTL Abarth at his photostream.

Click the link above to join the Axis Powers’ 1960 campaign, which was a lot better than their 1940 effort…

Scorpion King

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Notable only for being Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s first lead role, the 2002 fantasy adventure ‘The Scorpion King’ is an appalling turd of a movie. A spin off from ‘The Mummy’ franchise, it took the shonkily CGI-ed character from the second Mummy instalment (itself only worth watching for Rachel Weisz) and dragged it out over ninety stupefying minutes.

However some scorpion spin-offs are worth a look, and the car in this post is one of them.

The Autobianchi A112 was created through collaboration by Fiat, tyre-maker Pirelli, and bicycle manufacturer Bianchi, launching in 1969 and being – as most Italian cars of the time were – rather excellent.

Over a million Autobianchi A112s were produced before the brand was eventually merged into Lancia, with the design also forming the basis of the rather good Fiat 127, the less good Seat 127, the pretty bad Polski-Fiat 127, and the miserable Yugo 45.

Of course being effectively a Fiat, Italian tuners Abarth got their hands on the A112 too, and uprated the tiny 900cc engine to 1,050cc, taking power from around 45bhp to a mighty 70 in the process.

Today’s post is an A112 in Abarth flavour, as built by previous bloggee Zeta Racing in full ‘Technic Supercar’ specification. Capturing the look of the real car brilliantly, Zeta has engineered his Lego replica with a working engine, gearbox, steering, and suspension, along with opening doors, hood, and hatchback. Zeta’s model also includes fully remotely controlled Power Functions drivetrain, with motors powering both the front-wheel-drive and steering, the gearbox, and equipping the car with working brakes.

It’s a fantastic build, presented beautifully, and enhanced with few choice decals (including the famous Abarth scorpion), and there’s much more of Zeta’s Autobianchi A112 Abarth to see at his photostream. Click the link above to check out one Scorpion King worth viewing.