Pocketrockets. Arguably one of the most involving and grin-inducing types of cars. When it comes to smiles per mile – under real-world driving conditions – they’ll easily give even the best of sports cars a good run for their money. Add to that a degree of practicality and not least expenses – both purchase and maintenance – which are much easier on the wallet, and you have yourself a winner!
Furthermore, the first pocketrockets are now old enough to be true and proper classic cars. And no, we’re not talking about the first GTi – i.e. the Golf. The enthusiastic driver could get his kicks in nimble front-wheel-drive sprinters well before that, and this weeks Prime Find is perhaps one of the very best and most characterful.
This weeks Prime Find is perhaps a little different from previous ones – if not for you, then at least for me. How’s that you ask?
Well, it all starts way back when I was about eight or nine years old. My father owned a BMW & Honda dealership in Denmark with his best mate, who also had a son about the same age as me. Needless to say, us two kids were used to getting picked up in a wide variety of BMW’s. I’ll have to be honest – when my father’s colleague on one occasion rocked up in this tiny little and quite square buzz-box, I was sceptical to say the least. Perhaps even outright disappointed! We buckled up and he launched the silver Abarth A112 down the road. It was a matter of mere seconds before I was utterly converted! The soundtrack, the cornering abilities and the velocity of the whole – very physical – experience was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It was love…
That childhood experience stayed with me, though I never got around to doing anything serious about it. Then about three years ago during one of my usual visits to Denmark, I bumped into this fabulous wide-arched Abarth A112 at a casual classic car harbour meet in Copenhagen. I ended up chatting with the owner, Rasmus, who was very accommodating and told me all about his Italian pocketrocket while he let me sit in the driver’s seat and dream. We ended up agreeing that if he should ever want to sell, he would contact me. Imagine then my surprise, when an email from Rasmus dropped into my inbox earlier this week! Apparently, it’s time for him to move on and try something different…
His Abarth A112 was born in 1976, thus making it a third series car in the long-lived A112 range which remained in production from 1969 to 1986. The Abarth is rather modified having the slim chrome bumpers from the series 1 cars to complement those wide arch-extensions and fat Roti split-alloys. Rasmus tells me that he had the car resprayed only 2000km ago. At the same time, the engine was fully rebuilt, bored out with new pistons, aggressive camshaft, larger Weber carburettor, and more. A new Abarth exhaust system finishes off the engine tuning nicely, while a fully adjustable suspension will help you keep all that new-found power under control. Rasmus say’s the car is in great condition, and I have no doubt that this little rascal would put a huge smile on your face no matter which other classic car you’re currently entertaining yourself with.
Here are some of the pictures Rasmus sent me in his email:
So what in the world am I doing presenting Rasmus’s hot Abarth A112 as the Prime Find of the Week? I’m not totally sure myself…
There are few things in life I would rather do than buy this little Abarth. I must confess that I have thus far never owned an Italian classic – something which I sorely want to address. And how better to do so, than by adding this mid-seventies A112 to my garage? Heh, it’s even from 1976 – like me! This has “It was meant to be” written all over it. But as regular readers will remember, I have only very recently bought a massive project of a 1963 Rochdale Olympic. I have committed to a full restoration which will no doubt have a noticeable impact on my account balance. Just after that, I entered partial ownership of a Mazda RX-7 Elford Turbo with our very own Claus Ebberfeld. It is at this point that I need to remind myself of a friends very wise words, when he said: “Anders, we just can’t own every cool classic car in the world“. It’s the painful truth.
So if I can’t have the Abarth myself, I figured that the least I could do was share it with our readers and perhaps thereby contribute to it going to a good and caring home where it can continue to be driven and enjoyed. Rasmus is asking DKK 65,000 which currently equates to approximately £ 6,850 or Euro 8,650. I should probably stress that I haven’t seen Rasmus’s Abarth A112 in the flesh for three years now, and that plenty of work has been done to it in the meantime. Needless to say, you should always have a thorough pre-purchase inspection done before any money changes hands. All that said, to me it seems like an awful lot of fun at a very reasonable price. The temptation is almost unbearable, and secretly I’m of course hoping nobody buys the Abarth from Rasmus, so that he’s still got it up for sale come autumn when Claus and I are planning to sell our RX-7 again…
But just in case you’re just as turned on by this Italian pocket rocket as I am, and you’re also capable of acting quicker than I am, then you’ll obviously need contact details for Rasmus. You’ll find them in this advert: 1976 Abarth A112
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk