Abarth Simca 1300 - 1962

The ACO, organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans event and part of the calendar for the two new championships, decided to introduce special rules and, under the name “experimental cars”, allowed sports models and prototypes that were not related to production types but could serve as a basis for future GTs.

The ACO, organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and listed on the calendar of both new championships, decided to adopt special rules and welcomed sports models and prototypes that were not related to production types and could serve as a basis for future GTs under the heading of “experimental cars”. This encouraged the emergence of cars built on the basis of production models or parts, but specially developed for racing. In the 1 to 1.3 litre category, French brand Simca, a subsidiary of Fiat since the 1930s, entered the competition with a sports car derived from its small Simca 1000 rear-engined sedan. To do so, it turned to Italian tuner Carlo Abarth, who, based on his experience tuning small Fiats, developed a highly competitive, compact and lively sports car. It was based on the chassis and suspension of the 1000 and was powered by a 1300 engine, which was derived from the 1000's block and delivering almost 125 hp. The car was named the Abarth Simca 1300, but was also known as the 1300 Bialbero, a reference to its twin overhead camshafts and the Fiat Abarth models.

The first models, featuring the blue colours of Abarth & C., made their debut at Le Mans during test runs in April 1962 with Belgian driver Mauro Bianchi, whose two cars finished eighth and tenth, and Swiss driver Tommy Spychiger, who finished ninth. The entry list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June included six Abarth Simca 1300s, five of which belonged to the official team. However, only three of them actually started the race, namely numbers 41, 42 and 62. Due to engine or gearbox problems, all three cars had to retire between the fourth and seventh hour. The other car, in the yellow colours of the Belgian national team, was driven by Claude Dubois and Georges Harris. They completed 268 laps and finished fourteenth out of the 18 cars that made it to the finish line (about a third of the participants). The Abarth Simca 1300 was the winner in its cylinder class, an expected result given that the Abarth Simca 1300 was the only model registered for the prototypes in this category. Less expected was the shared first place in the energy index classification, based on engine power, with a Lotus Elite from the official Lotus team racing the same cylinder class in the GT class.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans was the most glorious chapter in the car's history. Three more entries followed in subsequent years, but the car never made it to the starting line. The car's overall record is much better: between 1962 and 1969, it achieved no fewer than thirty outright victories (including the 1963 and 1965 Inter-Europa Cup at Monza and the 1964 500 kilometres of the Nürburgring) and some fifty class victories out of more than 150 races.