Fiat Abarth OTR 1000
[2][3] The following variants of the Fiat Abarth OTR 1000 were produced ex-works: Bertone Abarth OTR 1000 Berlinetta: In 1965, Abarth and Bertone, who had designed and manufactured the body of the Fiat 850 Spider for Fiat, built a Berlinetta variant for display purposes; it had a redesigned, fixed-mounted coupé roof on a Spider body-in-white with an OTR 1000 Sigla 200 engine and the upgraded interior of the Bertone 850 CL Spider.
[7][8][9] Furthermore, individual Fiat Abarth OTR 1000 coupés were converted to Corsa racing versions with accessory kits.
Abarth saw the OTR 1000 as a sporty top model in the 1-liter class with the aim of using the Corsa racing version in touring car sport that was close to series production.
[10] Parallel to the OTR 1000, Abarth pursued other sporty concepts based on the Fiat 850, such as the Sigla 202/A engine for the planned OT 1000 SS Coupé from 1964 and the first versions of the Sigla 202/D for the later OTS 1000 Coupé, both with heavily modified engines Fiat cylinder heads.
Abarth continued to develop the Radiale cylinder head until 1971, most recently for racing versions of the Autobianchi A112 and Fiat 127.
Abarth received the starting vehicles for the OTR 1000 Coupés individually from the current Fiat production; he took over their chassis numbers and supplemented them with the prefix "100GC"; subsequent exact counting is therefore not possible.
However, several sources assume that Abarth at that time as part of the acceptance - similar to other manufacturers - "tricked" and presented individual vehicles twice; about 35 copies are considered to have actually been built.
More cylinder heads in OTR style were later manufactured by the company PBS Engineering; these are used to repair and restore original vehicles and also to build replicas.
A special feature is the advanced "Radiale" cylinder head developed and manufactured by Abarth, which had its premiere in this model and was subsequently used in various others.
The OTR 1000 Coupé shares other external features with the OTS 1000 Coupé produced from 1966 to 1969: At the front of the vehicle, a slightly trapezoidal radiator grille, which is narrower at the bottom, covers the special opening through which the water cooler, which is positioned at the front, is supplied with cooling air.
On the coupes, the large Abarth logo is mounted centrally on the grille, on the few OTR-saloons (seen from the front) asymmetrically on the top left.
On the occasion of the public presentation of the OTR coupé in the fall of 1965, Carlo Abarth already mentioned that a racing version with 95 hp DIN (70 kW) at the time was being tested.
On 30 April 1966, the FIA granted homologation for the Fiat Abarth OTR 1000 Coupé as a Group 4 touring car.
It was only after Abarth stopped selling the OTR 1000 in 1969 that it was classified in FIA Group 2/'70 from the 1970 season, which gave private drivers better opportunities.
[12][13] Accordingly, the cheaper, lower-rated models OTS 1000 Coupé and its racing variant OT 1000 SS Corsa proved to be significantly more popular than the OTR 1000 Coupé; in the demanding Group 5, on the other hand, customers preferred the Fiat Abarth 1000 TCR because of a weight advantage of around 40 kilograms.
Abarth's homologation efforts in the United States were similarly unsuccessful: the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) denied the OTR 1000 approval as a near-series vehicle because of its radial cylinder head by demanding its own, unattainable homologation with 500 units; this left only participation in smaller, subordinate racing events or in the category of non-series "specials" in the US.
[14] For the price of a new OTR 1000 Coupé, one could instead have purchased an Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 Spider Veloce, a BMW 2000 ti, a Mercedes-Benz 230, or two VW 1300 L ("Beetle") with money to spare.
[15] On January 15, 2015, a similar model was listed for sale through Bonham's auction house in Scottsdale, Arizona, with an estimate of between $70,000 and $90,000.
