I am fortunate to have known my
Simca Abarth 1150SS since it was brand new, fresh off the boat from
Turin. While it took 35 years from this point for the car to actually
become mine, it has been an interesting journey which I would like to
share with you.
In 1965 the father and son team
of Edward and John Stinsmen, regular participants in the Pennsylvania
hill climb championship were looking for a faster replacement for their
Simca 1000 sedan. While the Simca handled well, other cars in its class
out powered it by a large margin. A trip to the New York Auto Show and
meeting with Al Cosentino of Faza fame and Falco Jappelli, commercial
director of Abarth & C. brought a solution.
Mr. Jappelli told the Stinsmen's
about the Simca Abarth 1150. The story goes that in 1962 Carlo Abarth
had great plans to capitalize on the racing success of the Abarth Simca
GT race cars by producing a run of modified Simca 1000 sedans. The model
was designated the Simca Abarth 1150. It was available in 4 versions:
the 1150, the 1150S, the 1150SS and the competition version, the 1150SS
Corsa.
According to Mr. Jappelli there
were three prototypes and a test mule built in 1962. One vehicle, 107S/0123
was still housed in the experimental department at Abarth & C. and
was available. This vehicle may have been the 1962 Turin Auto Show car
although I cannot verify this with 100% accuracy. Photos from the Turin
Auto Show seem to support this claim.