1960 Porsche 356 Carrera Abarth (Tribute)
Price: $499,000
For Sale by Dealer in Lakewood Colorado.
Looks like the builder put a lot of time and effort into this passion project. What is so cool is that it comes with a Porsche 4 cam engine for the closest experience to a real Carrera Abarth GTL. This would be fun to get on the track. The price seems a little bit ambitious but maybe it will sell quickly.
Look out race car enthusiasts! This custom built 1960 Porsche 356 Carrera is ready to inspire the adrenaline rush you seek. This two door, high performance coupe is among the rarest Porsche models in existence as there were only 20 originally made.
Built on a Porsche 356B chassis, these aluminum cars pushed racing limits to new heights, and as Bill Ousler notes in Porsche Racing Cars, these customizations were executed to suffice an FIA regulation. At the time, the rules defined a car by its chassis and running gear, rather than by a complete calculation of the body dimensions. Al Lager Engines has recreated this masterpiece working with metal working geniuses at the Tin Element.
This incredible Porsche was built as a tribute to Carlo Abarth. It has been meticulously maintained, and with a modest 400 miles you can rest assured that this rare and unique classic will be providing a timeless legacy of style, class, and athletic agility for many years to come. You can read more about this car’s custom build and incredible history by visiting the following link:
http://www.allagerengines.com/porsche-356-registry-article/
The Porsche 356 Carrera GTL Abarth, also known as Porsche Carrera Abarth, was a racing version of thePorsche 356 built for the racing season 1960 .
In those years the Porsche accumulated numerous class victories with his cars to run mid-engine , but decided to also try their hand in class GT . One of the biggest problems was that the last road version of the 356 was noticeably heavier than the previous version: the German company then decided to turn to some company that had more experience in the field of lightening. Reference point was the ‘ Italy , where several manufacturers of racing cars and body builders had had many successes in transforming road cars in flyweights capable of winning races.
In September 1959 Porsche joined the old family friend Carlo Abarth in order to achieve 20 racing cars based on the 356B for the 1961 season, with an option for another 20 units.
Details of the transaction were very simple: Porsche would provide the frame 356B that Abarth in turn would set up a body designed and built in Italy . Note that the presence of a bodywork completely different not created for vehicle type approval problems, in that the rules of the International Federation defined “car” the set frame-engine. The regulation does not put restrictions on the body, so it were not exceeded the minimum weight value [2] [3] : Abarth exploited this flaw in the regulation. Although it was not specified in the contract, the Italian coach had assured the Porsche Zagato [4] (author of many successful GT) would have made the car bodies, though he failed to mention the meeting of September 1959 which was actually interrupting his relationship with Zagato and therefore for the Porsche project the task was given to Franco Scaglione, former designer of Carrozzeria Bertone , who was considered an expert in aerodynamics as it had designed the futuristic concept car Alfa Romeo BAT . His design for the Porsche-Abarth was quite unusual in that it combined a low snout and along with a very short tail and rounded. Abarth commissioned expert coachbuilder Rocco Motto of Turin the construction of aluminum car bodies.
Porsche provided the latest version of the Abarth 356. The basic design of the frame was still very similar to the original introduced a decade earlier. Most of the development work was directed to the engine flat four cylinders. The frame delivered to Abarth, as the latest Carrera, the engine was equipped with four camshafts with an engine capacity of less than 1.6 liters. Derived from racing engines with dry sump and air-cooled , producing 115 hp . In the following years to debut the cars were equipped with engines of 1.6 liters more driven and equipped with drains “open”, with outputs of 128 hp and 135 hp and later 2.0 liter with outputs of 155 hp and 180 hP [1] . While thesuspensions were all independent wheel, the brake system of the Porsche still relied on hydraulic drum brakes , although already the third race on the prototype of the car entered by the official team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1960 were installed brakes disk experimental [1] .
During the assembly of bodywork on the frames there were various problems that slowed production, so much so that after the first three cars built by Motto remaining were made to build the “Viarengo & Filipponi” Abarth and failed to meet the deadline of March 1960. In addition Germans complained of the quality of the prototype, which was seeping from every window, and habitability narrow even for the usual Italian standards. Scaglione had drawn a lower roof of more than 12 cm [3] compared to the series model and the highest of 1.80 m pilots had difficulty to sit in the car.
But what really mattered was like the Porsche-Abarth behaved on the track as required by the Italian 356B was lighter (the total weight saving was about 50 kg [1] ) and had a lower drag than its German equivalent . The new racing car was officially named 356B GTL, that Gran Turismo Light.
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