1973 Abarth Osella PA1 2.0 Litre Sports Race Car

Carlo Abarth founded the company in 1949; his plan was to produce race cars and associated tuning components primarily for Fiat in Turin. The sixties saw successes for Abarth in saloon and sports car racing, mainly in the smaller engine capacity divisions. He was also involved with Porsche and Simca, possibly provoking the purchase of Abarth by Fiat by mid-1971. The distinctive red and yellow Abarth Scorpion logo would now only adorn Fiat road cars and race cars of Enzo Osella. It was not long before the first 'supermini', the Autobianchi A112 Abarth became 'de riguer' for enthusiastic drivers throughout Italy, a brand that still evokes the Fiat 500 Abarth road car today.

Osella became involved with the factory sports car race program and in 1972, the Scuderia Bresia Corse entrant contested the European 2-litre Sports Car Championship. This would pitch the Italian marque against the best of the Chevron and Lola opposition. Arturo Merzario set the early pace with a win at Circuit Ricard-Castellet in France. Later wins throughout Europe landed the Championship for the Abarth Osella SE-021. For the 1973 campaign the hopes of the team rested with the extremely attractive and competitive PA1. Whilst the sportscar side of the business flourished, single seaters became part of a somewhat painful addition to the operation with Formula Two and Formula Threes cars being produced. This would eventually lead to 132 poorly financed Grand Prix starts mainly providing many drivers with their first F1 experience, Jo Gartner for one getting his only Grand Prix start with Osella F1.

The Abarth Osella PA1 offered today is chassis #08 from the 1973/74 season and its earliest known result was a fourth at Jarama when driven by Luciano Ottero. Eventually ownership fell into the hands of Francesco Molino, an amateur Abarth racer and a collector. He had already purchased parts directly from Abarth's original Volpiano workshop close to Turin. This was before Fiat acquired the company. Ottero became the owner of five 2-litre racers over the years, still owning two that are at his Pescara home. Eventually two of the cars would come to England, PA1#04 and PA#08, they were swapped in the early nineties for, coincidentally, the ADA Group C car that is also in our sale today! Early chassis work on #08, a chassis that Molino had bought from Enzo Osella, was carried out by Arch Motors in the UK using jigs produced from PA1-04.

Colin Poole eventually sold the car to Jeremy Agace who raced successfully with a Ford FVC engine. It was decided by our vendor, the new owner, to restore the car to its original specification with a race program in mind. He purchased a new Abarth 2-litre engine and full race preparation was undertaken by Raceworks Motorsport of Hertfordshire.

At the 2011 Master Series round at the Circuit of Catalunya Barcelona this Abarth Osella PA1 was on the front row of the grid, ahead of Lola T70's. This is testament to the preparation of this racer and the car's potential to be a front running contender in some of the very prestigious events such as World Sports Cars Masters, Classic Endurance Racing, Martini Trophy etc. With such a competitive package this is without doubt an opportunity to be at the front end of any sportscar event with an investment of probably half that your fellow competitors, irrespective of all this PA1 is one of the prettiest sportscars of the seventies with outstanding preparation to match. The car comes complete with a virtually "zero hours' engine, correct FIA papers and well proven support if required.