R&T SUMMED UP THE FIAT-ABARTH BIALBERO perfectly: “expressly for the discriminating enthusiast.” The magazie continued in December 1959, “This extremely small Italian car, which has the rather top-heavy title, Fiat-Abarth 750 Bialbero Record Monza Coupe, makes no pretense of being a dual-purpose, family-type sports car. It is rather, an all-out sporting vehicle in the grand manner and it presents the closest attempt we have seen toward getting a full performance ‘gallon’ from the proverbial pint-pot.”
Fiat-Abarth Twin Cam. This and the following images from R&T, December 1959.
Thanks, Karl/Carlo. As described at SimanaitisSays back in March 2024 in “Ferrari Growl from a Tiny Tiger,” “Vienna-born Karl Abarth came to Italy in 1947 to work on the Porsche-designed Cisitalia Grand Prix car. He stayed on to make engine components and became famous for what he extracted from Fiats of various displacements.”
The Bialbero. “Compared directly with the other cars in the 750-cc category,” R&T said, “the Bialbero (twin-cam) fares very well for it is faster than all but the much higher prices out-and-out racing cars.” See, for example, the Osca.
Not Priced Like Salami. “On the other hand,” R&T assessed, “when you think of what $5000 will buy in other makes of cars, there is a strong tendency to dismiss the Bialbero from your mind with a mental shudder…. Also, it goes almost without saying that a confirmed big-car owner will not be interested. But then, many of them seem to be of the opinion that automobiles should be like salami, priced by the pound.”
But Highly Valued. R&T continued, “The true dyed-in-the-wool enthusiast will accept a car purely on its intrinsic merits as a machine and to such a person the Abarth Twin Cam is most desirable. It is a perfect little dream; whatever it may lack in total performance (it isn’t fast enough to humble any Corvettes), it makes up for with a sporting character and a really aspiring exhaust note.”
’Nuff said (though this is drawn from early in R&T’s road test).
An Unlikely Background. “All this mechanical loveliness,” R&T described, “comes from the most unlikely background. The Fiat 600 sedan, which is surely the smallest, cheapest, and slowest car ever to win general acceptance, furnishes Abarth with the vast majority of the parts used in the Twin Cam.”
“The chassis,” R&T recounted, “is used almost as purchased from Fiat even though the Abarth is nearly twice as fast as the 600 sedan from which it stems…. No changes were made in the suspension geometry; the leaf springs and A-arms at the front with coil springs and diagonal pivot swing axles at the rear proved to be satisfactory. The spring rates and shock damper settings were too soft, however, and these were brought up considerably.”
Short-Course Setup. R&T continued, “The transmission is, like the rest of the car, mostly Fiat but with some non-standard gears. All Abarth Bialberos are fitted with a special set of close-ratio gears but our test car—which was set up for short-course racing—had a 4.87 final drive and 4th gear was 1.03…. We might mention here that the speedometer drive gear had not been changed with the final drive gearing on our test car and that is the reason for the extreme speedometer error shown in the data panel.”
Gee, I wonder if it added to the Bialbero’s sense of speed?
The 747-cc Twin Cam Four. Little remains of the stock 600 but for its block. R&T noted, “Aside from the new cylinder head, the most impressive part that goes into the Twin Cam ‘kit’ is the crankshaft.” R&T was surprised at the sturdiness of the one fitted, counterweighted (unlike the stock one) and its extremely close fit: “There cannot be room for more than a feeler gauge thickness in any direction when the crank is in place.”
R&T was particularly impressed with design and incorporation of the twin-camshaft head: “Special cylinder heads for economy engines have been made for years in every country in the world. Most of these have been so handicapped by compromises added to make them fit basically unsuitable engines…. Fortunately, this is not the case in the Abarth design….”
The magazine went on to detail well-executed changes in things like locations of carbs, generator, and water pump. “The fundamental excellence of the design,” R&T concluded, “is convincingly demonstrated by the very high efficiency of the engine.”
Accommodations. R&T recounted, “The controls, even though small and somewhat close together, are well placed and drivers of small-car experience will have no trouble in adjusting to them. The instruments look as big as pie plates and with white lettering on a dull black backing they are extremely easy to read.”
The Best Handling Rear-Engine Car. “The steering,” R&T reported, “is very light and the general handling of the car belies its 60% rearward weight bias. Only a simpleton would try to crowd the car without first becoming accustomed to it but, although it has some peculiarities, there are no real vices. If fact, if the right technique is used, some understeer can be induced temporarily and even though the tail must eventually swing out pretty hard, we still rate this as the best handling rear-engined car we have ever tested.”
R&T’s Conclusion: “As stated earlier, the Fiat-Abarth Twin Cam will never have universal appeal—and that alone is a good reason for buying one…. There is something both endearing and faintly preposterous about the Bialbero, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Seeking a definition of “brio”? Look no further. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024