From the Maranello Rosso Collection
1969 Abarth 2000 SE-014 'Cuneo' Sports-Racing Exhibition Show Car
Chassis no. SE014/001

The 'Cuneo' or 'wedge'-shaped Abarth sports-prototype body design emerged in 1969 and was heavily influenced by the demonstrable aerodynamic performance of the Lotus Type 56 gas-turbine engined Indianapolis singe-seater Speedway cars of 1968. Design was by Abarth's long-faithful chief engineer Mario Colucci, a long-time advocate of central engine mounting ahead of the rear axle line in direct conflict with the philosophy of his boss, Carlo Abarth, who always preferred overhung outboard engine mounting, behind the rear axle.

Yet again, it was the Boss's views which prevailed in the first of the Abarth 'Cuneo' series of sports-prototype cars – the overhung-engined 2000 SE014 introduced early in the 1969 season.

In fact Colucci designed the car as a development of the successful 2000 Sport Spider SE010's multi-tubular spaceframe chassis, employing the same wheelbase length of 2085mm, but with the vehicle's overall packaging being much more compact, and minimized. Colucci then clothed the end result in the newly-conceived 'Cuneo' or 'wedge'-shaped body form.

Power was provided by Abarth's familiar 1946cc 4-cylinder 16-valve twin-overhead camshaft racing engine, producing some 250bhp at 8,700rpm. The bodyshell was hand-fashioned in-house at the Abarth Corso Marche factory by resident panel-basher Giuseppe Manera. Overall weight was listed as only 560kg – 1,235lbs –and, driven by hill-climb specialist Edoardo Lualdi Gabardi – the works car challenged former Abarth star Peter Schetty's latest factory Ferrari 212E Montaga flat-12 for the year's European Mountain Championship title.

The Lot offered here is believed to be a show car with a prototype aluminium body and dummy engine (a sawn-up Abarth cylinder block with ancillaries hung on its exposed end, but "nothing inside the engine bay".

This Lot is EU taxes paid and therefore in free circulation within the EU.