TheSamba.com :: View topic - Abarth & Co.- is there more out there?

Wed Feb 03, 2010 5:42 pm

Speaking with a good friend of mine in Italy last night, I asked him why it's so difficult to find anything older than an oval window in Italy. He explained to me that first of all, the VW Beetle was competing on Fiat ground against the Fiat Topolino, the 500 and 600 model, which sold for considerably less than their Germans counterpart.
Which brings me to my next question. I have an early 1956 Oval, built in late 55. I was fortunate enough to score a NOS Abarth 4-tip exhaust that I plan to fit along with my Judson SC. I'm wondering why the Abarth Co., with their amazing racing heritage in the 1950's, stopped short by only producing an exhaust for one of the most widely distributed automobiles in history? Certainly, they had to look at the numbers and say, "Momma Mia... we mussa be pazzo not to jump on that ravioli wagon"
I have tried to research more information on the samba and I've dug deep into the Internet, but I see nothing to suggest that Abarth may have produced other performance parts for early VW's.

Mark

Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:07 am

There sure is some stuff out there. This illustration of a Abarth carburator kit is from a Danish magazine dated 1956. There is also a text in danish stating the fact that it is a kit made by Abarth (not shown here).

I happen to have the exact same kit mounted in my zwitter, and I can assure that it is for real. The manifolds are both stamped with "Abarth" logo. The dimension on the manifolds tell that it is made for 25 Hp heads. You can also see from the illustration that the engine has a flat distributor cap, also reffering to 25 hp engine.

The short story I came across, is that Abarth made carburator kits for various small cars in the early fifties. Due to financial difficulties they went back to focus on mufflers only. Out of common sense I would recon the 25 hp kit was made before the 36 Hp engine hit the market in 53. I don't know any history on my kit other that it was found in Sweden some years ago, said to be mounted in a zwitter also, with a 25 hp engine.

Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:27 am

6V-Knechten wrote:

There sure is some stuff out there. This illustration of a Abarth carburator kit is from a Danish magazine dated 1956. There is also a text in danish stating the fact that it is a kit made by Abarth (not shown here).

I happen to have the exact same kit mounted in my zwitter, and I can assure that it is for real. The manifolds are both stamped with "Abarth" logo. The dimension on the manifolds tell that it is made for 25 Hp heads. You can also see from the illustration that the engine has a flat distributor cap, also reffering to 25 hp engine.

The short story I came across, is that Abarth made carburator kits for various small cars in the early fifties. Due to financial difficulties they went back to focus on mufflers only. Out of common sense I would recon the 25 hp kit was made before the 36 Hp engine hit the market in 53. I don't know any history on my kit other that it was found in Sweden some years ago, said to be mounted in a zwitter also, with a 25 hp engine.

I had followed your other post and was somewhat aware of the fact that this kit existed. I'm very excited that you've posted a photo illustration to make this a concrete fact and not fiction. THANK YOU
What type of Carburetors were used?

Sun Mar 27, 2011 5:53 pm

Do you have any information on the carburetors and air cleaners?
Mark

Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:28 pm

Yeah, I heard that no one could ever get this setup to run and tune correctly, hence the scarcity because most of them got tossed on the junk heap. I will take these off of your hands in order to keep you from getting distracted with the completion of your car.