Background
Abarth was born in Austria, but later was naturalized as an Italian citizen. And at this time his first name Karl was changed to its Italian equivalent of Carlo. Abarth was born in Vienna, during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
engineer entrepreneur motorcycle racer
Abarth was born in Austria, but later was naturalized as an Italian citizen. And at this time his first name Karl was changed to its Italian equivalent of Carlo. Abarth was born in Vienna, during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Before World World War II
As a teenager, he worked for Castagna in Italy (1925-1927), designing motorbike and bicycle chassis. Back in Austria, he worked for Motor Thun and Joseph Opawsky (1927-1934), and raced motorbikes, winning his first race on a James Cycle in Salzburg on 29 July 1928. After a serious accident in Linz he abandoned motorbike racing, and designed a sidecar (1933) with which he managed to beat the Orient Express railway on the 1,300-kilometre (810 mi) stretch from Vienna to Ostend (1934).
In 1938 Abarth was long hospitalized and had his racing career end, due to a racing accident in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
He remained in that country (with some visits in Austria and Italy) until the war was over. After World World War II
Following this, he moved to Merano, where his ancestors originated from.
The first automobile outcome of this cooperation was the rather unsuccessful Tipo 360 F1 prototype (see also Porsche 360). The Commonwealth of Independent States Italia project ended when Dusio moved to Argentina (1949).
Abarth then founded the Abarth & C. company with Cisitalia racing driver Guido Scagliarini in Bologna (31 March 1949), using his astrological sign, the scorpion, as the company logo.
The same year, Abarth & Company moved to Turin. Financed by Scagliarini"s father Armando Scagliarini, the company made racing cars, and became a major supplier of high-performance exhaust pipes, that still are in production as Abarth. On 20 October 1965 Abarth personally set various speed records at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
He sold the company on 31 July 1971 to Fiat, although he continued to manage it as a Chief Executive Officer for a period.
Later then moved back to Vienna, Austria, where he died in 1979. Carlo Abarth was married three times.