Type of body: Hatchback (2 drs)
Number of cylinders: 4
Service history: Present
Registration number: PM-47-93

Carlo Abarth was a man who understood that you don't have to be big to bite hard. Born in Vienna, moved to Turin, and carrying a scorpion as his emblem, because that was his star sign, and because that's exactly how the brand felt too: small, venomous, and with a sting in the tail you never saw coming. While the rest of the car world was thinking in litres and cylinders, Abarth was thinking in cunning. Take an utterly ordinary Fiat 600, that well-behaved little Italian people's car of which millions pottered about, and rebuild it into something that made Porsche drivers nervous out on the circuit. That was the art of it.

And that's where the name Nürburgring comes from. The 850 TC wore that legendary Green Hell right there in its type designation, because the little Abarths tore their class to shreds out there. A car weighing less than a tonne, with a tiny engine in the back you could lift with both hands, treating the longest and most punishing race track in Europe like its own back garden. Down at the dodgems, the big boys had to watch their backs, so to speak.

What Abarth did was surgical. The 633 cc of the well-mannered Fiat was bored out to 847 cc, the heads and camshaft went under the knife, and where the people's car dutifully produced 22 hp, this thing suddenly delivered more than double. And because the poor engine in the back was practically suffocating in the heat during a race, they often ran with the engine lid propped half open. That even became the calling card: you spot an Abarth 850 TC by that rear lid standing ajar at an angle, as if the little beast was storming round the circuit gasping for air.

Right, back to the Abarth 850 TC Nürburgring from 1963 on offer here. Bianco, solid paint, four seats on paper, though that's mostly theory, and a manual four-speed box. This particular car has a history you can almost reach out and touch. It was first registered on 17 August 1963 in Palermo, Sicily, in the name of one Francesco Tagliavia, resident of the Via Puccini. The original Italian registration papers are still with it, the PA plate 109876, the road tax receipts running into the seventies, paid at the post office in Collesano among the olive groves. That isn't documentation, that's a family album on paper.

The car stayed in Sicily for decades, passed to the Valvo family in Paternò in 2008, and was properly certified by the Registro Fiat Italiano in Turin in 2013. That certificate states in black and white: no non-conforming parts, engine 100D.000 converted by Abarth to 847 cc, original Abarth type plate present in the engine bay, veicolo in buono stato d'uso. For the enthusiast who can read such certificates like a detective novel: this is the real thing, with a passport that adds up.

Let's be honest for a moment, because that's what one enthusiast owes another. This is a restored racing classic well over sixty years old, and it shows. The bodywork carries the marks of several lives and several restorations, as nearly every surviving competition Abarth does. These cars were built to go hard, not to survive in a climate-controlled cabinet. Anyone after a concours queen with factory-fresh perfection should look elsewhere. Anyone who gets the romance of an authentic little Sicilian racing monster, with a story going all the way back to Palermo 1963, knows exactly what they're looking at. A physical inspection simply comes with the territory for a car of this calibre, and quite right too. In fact, you should want it.

The finest thing about this car is that it lies about nothing. It's small, it's venomous, it's Italian right down to its scorpion tail. You don't climb in for comfort, you climb in for the sound of four cylinders scrapping their way to the red line, for the looks at every classic event, and for the feeling that you're sitting in something that once made David versus Goliath literally come true on the circuit.

They didn't build cars like this to keep. Who dares let it gasp for air again?

Notable features:
• Abarth 850 TC Nürburgring from 1963, one of Carlo Abarth's iconic venomous dwarves
• Motore Fiat 100D.000, converted by Abarth (Abarth 214) to 847 cc
• Original Abarth type plate present in the engine bay
• Certificato di Rilevanza Storica from the Registro Fiat Italiano (2013), no non-conforming parts
• Complete Italian history from first registration in Palermo, 17 August 1963
• Original registration papers PA 109876 plus road tax receipts running into the '70s
• Manual four-speed box, 4 cylinders, bore 62.5 mm / stroke 69 mm
• Bianco with solid paint, 2-door closed coupé body
• Sicilian ownership history documented down to the detail
• A genuine enthusiast's racing classic with a verifiable passport

With a ristretto espresso and the scorpion in the corner of my eye,
Nick Slinger

STEP 2 IN SHOWROOM | HooG Selections

The Abarth 850 TC 1963 is now in our showroom in Katwijk - € 54.950. The full presentation is complete: the cover is off and the car can be viewed right away.

At HooG Selections exclusively carefully selected classic vehicles, fully documented:
✔ Over 75 professional photos
✔ Fully scanned service history
✔ Official Carfax vehicle report
✔ Paint thickness report per body panel
✔ Complete original documentation

Visit our 6,000 m² showroom in Katwijk or view everything at:
www.hoogselections.nl