SCORPION’S TALE

A star was born on the lawns of Pebble Beach in August 2015. There, at the most important classic car concours in the world, a surprise nomination for the coveted Best of Show went to the 1953 Abarth 1100 Sport Ghia Coupé, chassis 205-104, a car not seen complete in public since 1954. It didn’t win – the other three nominees were considerably grander, and the accolade ultimately went to Jim Patterson’s 1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Cabriolet – but, if it had, no-one would have complained. Since 1969, when the concours began featuring only classic cars, a post-war car has won just once – Jon Shirley’s unique 1954 Ferrari 375 MM Scaglietti Coupé, in 2014 – so even to have been nominated makes clear exactly how special this little car is. And that success was still more valuable because the car was fresh from a restoration carried by its owner, who was making his Pebble Beach debut.

Karl Abarth was born in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in November 1908, which made his birthsign Scorpio – which you’ll see on every Abarth badge. From early