If Abarth was even a shadow of it's past...

...there should be a Mopar Hemi V8 mounted in the rearend of a Fiat 500. The transaxle would be the same 500 Abarth transaxle of the current car (just moved to the back) so to help keep the Hemi from destroying it, they have pizza cutter tires on it.

... and it overheats because of poor cooling so you have to prop the trunk open when driving

Hmmm, an Italian version of the Shogun??? That would be a hoot! You just know Jay Leno would buy the first one!

In reply to Huckleberry:

Nahh, use some big rally scoops.

In reply to WildScotsRacing:

But since it's abarth, it scoops it from within the cabin and would suck the side glass in if you don't crack the window.

That's nothing like Abarth's past. If they really wanted to embrace that approach, they'd put Something like the MV Agusta V4 in there.

In reply to RossD:

10/10 would drive.

Yeah I became aware of Abarth way too late (1980s) and after prices had already taken off. The one I liked was the Fiat Abarth Zagato OT 2.0. Looked sort of like an old Toyota Corona but with a 2.0 200 hp engine in the back.

The other odd ball I really like is the Ginetta brand, especially the G12. They had "the" shape down way before anyone else

Huckleberry wrote: ... and it overheats because of poor cooling so you have to prop the trunk open when driving

The decklids weren't propped up for cooling. It was the mechanical tach drive under the distributor. Without it there is less than a centimeter clearance. The tach drives were 35mm tall so they had to prop them up to fit

Then they noticed the cars were a bit faster with them up so they opened them more

Then they took advantage of that space for things like headers, carburettors and the oil system.

But if Abarth was to relive its pre-Fiat buyout glory years it would have the cars rebodied in sexy, sleek alloy shapes by legendary italian coachbuilders. Removing weight and adding aerodynamics.

So this

Would become this

Abarth exists the crazy guys are just working for alfa now.

BTW, I know where there's an Abarth-Zagato double-bubble rotting in the trees. I'd love to fix it up, but don't have the time or resources. Anyone who feels up to it on the West Coast PM me.

RossD wrote: ...there should be a Mopar Hemi V8 mounted in the rearend of a Fiat 500. The transaxle would be the same 500 Abarth transaxle of the current car (just moved to the back) so to help keep the Hemi from destroying it, they have pizza cutter tires on it.

Sounds more like a Gasser than an Abarth. But it would be pretty cool if they did something like that as a Pro Stock body or some sort of Mopar Performance display creation.

Couldn't find any pictures of a Fiat 500 set up like that back in the day, but this was done to a lot of other small Italian cars:

Those poor Topolinos!

Jumper K. Balls wrote:

Huckleberry wrote: ... and it overheats because of poor cooling so you have to prop the trunk open when driving

The decklids weren't propped up for cooling. It was the mechanical tach drive under the distributor. Without it there is less than a centimeter clearance. The tach drives were 35mm tall so they had to prop them up to fit Then they noticed the cars were a bit faster with them up so they opened them more Then they took advantage of that space for things like headers, carburettors and the oil system. But if Abarth was to relive its pre-Fiat buyout glory years it would have the cars rebodied in sexy, sleek alloy shapes by legendary italian coachbuilders. Removing weight and adding aerodynamics. So this Would become this

+10, Informative!