Abarth 208 A Spider Boano - Carlo Abarth's American debut
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Summary
What becomes apparent in its early phase was Abarth's ambition to be categorized as a "real" car manufacturer - something that would continue throughout the company's history until its sale to Fiat in 1972. Abarth operated, perhaps even more clearly than Ferrari, on three tracks: with racing cars, road-going racing cars and more comfort-oriented Gran Turismo cars. For this reason, there were a whole series of Abarth models in the 1950s that were not primarily built for motorsport purposes - such as our 208 A Boano Spider.
This article contains the following chapters
- A new competitor with ambitions
- Folding headlights as a necessity
- An American story
- Skillful mixture
- Repaint by Corrado Lopresto
Estimated reading time: 9min
Preview (beginning of the article)
It is attributed to the American designer Harley Earl, the panoramic windshield. The Le Sabre, first shown at the GM Motorama in 1951, amazed the audience of this roadshow series of events with its wide windshield. However, the idea was not entirely new, as these "wrap-around windscreens" also appeared elsewhere at the beginning of the 1950s: in boat building. Although still manufactured in two parts, the "panoramic windscreen", as it is described in German, was first seen on a boat built by yacht builder Riva on Lake Como the year before - in Italy. What followed shortly after the Second World War, on both sides, was a lively, mutual copying and inspiration of designers. A rather banal example that appeared in a similar form at many other European manufacturers: in 1949, the Fiat Topolino was given a horizontal radiator design and headlights set into the fenders, as the Americans had already practiced on many models shortly before the start of the war. The Americans in turn perfected the pontoon shape, which Pininfarina brought to full bloom for the first time with the Cisitalia 202. The American Kaiser of 1947 is considered to be the first four-door production car with such a body style - even though it is unlikely to have been influenced by Italy. But the signs of the times had arrived here and there in the same way and were understood.
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