Description:

SOLD - SOLD - SOLD

We are pleased to offer this gorgeous Abarth Osella PA1 chassis 08 for sale. The car has continuous history from new and is in excellent condition. 

It was bought by the current owner in 2011 who had a complete rebuild done and a new, correct 2.0 Abarth engine fitted (instead of the FVC it had). The nose section was strengthened in honeycomb aluminium to provide additional protection. Despite this extensive work, the car has only been used once at the Barcelona Masters event in 2011 where it qualified on pole but DNF-ed in the race due to a throttle linkage problem. The engine was then rebuild and has zero hours !

As the car has not been used since, it still looks as new ! All it needs to go racing again is a re-commissioning service and updating with belts, fire extinguisher, fuel cell and a new FIA HTP.

The car comes with a spare set of wheels and miscellaneous running spares.

This no-stories Abarth Osella PA1 is simply stunning and will provide its new owner with lots of enjoyment in the many historic race events it is eligible for.

History: 

At the end of 1971, Fiat took overall control of the Turin based Abarth sportscar company with whom they had been racing partners with for many years. Fiat however weren’t interested in continuing with racing, preferring instead to invest in rallying,  so for 1972 they struck a deal with Abarth racer and entrant Enzo Osella to take over the Abarth racing programme. Originally, Osella used the previous year’s cars suitably updated, as the Abarth-Osella SE021, the last such car to use an Abarth type number. For 1973 Osella produced a new design, the Abarth-Osella PA1, of which 10 would be built.

Chassis PA1/08 was sold new in 1973 to Spanish racer and hillclimber Luciano Ottero who had started his racing in the late-60s in the popular Spanish Renault R8TS touring car series before progressing into the sports car class with an Alpine-Renault A110. For 1971 Ottero bought what would be the first of five prototype Abarths which he would use to tackle the Spanish Hillclimb Championship over the next three years. In 1971 he used a year old 2-litre Fiat-Abarth SE010 to finish 9th overall in the championship. For 1972 Ottero bought two more Abarths, a 1971 spec 2-litre SE021 which he started the year with, and the fearsome 3-litre V8 SE022, a left-hand drive car which had been built specifically for the hills. He won one event in the 3-litre car and placed well in other events to finish 6th overall in the series and runner-up in the regional Castilla hillclimb championship

In 1973 Ottero bought two more Abarths starting off the year with a 1972 spec 2-litre SE021 which netted him wins in the opening two rounds of the championship at Puerto del Pico and at Castro de Beiro. Ottero was then beaten by the faster Porsche 908/03 of Fernandez at the next three rounds, so Ottero bought the brand new Abarth-Osella PA1/08 to try and get to grips with the Porsche.

The PA1 though was relatively unsorted and untested to take any more wins, but Luciano managed to finish 2nd at Jaizkibel, 2nd at San Feliu, and 3rd at Puig Major. Luciano then had one last attempt at beating the Porsche by switching back to the older SE021 for the event at Gran Parada, which he won. With the combined points of both cars, he finished 3rd overall in the championship.

Along with Jose Uriarte as co-driver, Ottero entered PA1/08 in the ’73 Barcelona 400 Kms held at Montjuich Park, but they failed to qualify as they were effectively trying to race a car which had been more set-up for hill-climbing. PA1/08 only did one more event after that, in May ‘74 at Jarama where Ottero finished 4th. For the rest of the year he went back to hill-climbing but in a March 742 Formula 2 car leaving all five Abarths, including PA1/08, sitting at home unused and in dry storage where they would all remain for some years until bought in 1988 by avid collector and historic racer Francesco Molino of Varese, Italy.

Molino didn’t appear to do anything with the car other than keep it in dry storage as part of his private collection, but in 1993 Molino swapped PA1/08, and PA1/04, for Colin Poole’s ADA Group C car. Colin had both Abarth PA1s restored with the early chassis work on PA1/08 being carried out by Arch Motors in the UK using jigs produced from the restoration of PA1/04.

Colin then raced PA1/08 in the Masters historic series from the late 90s until 2002 when he sold the car to London based historic racer Jeremy Agace who successfully raced the car with a Ford Cosworth FVC engine.

In 2005 the car was rebuilt once again and repainted in the 1973 factory works livery which it currently wears today. Jeremy continued to race PA1/08 in historics until he sold it to the current owner in 2011. PA1/08 was then rebuilt and race prepared by Raceworks Motorsport of Hertfordshire with a proper Abarth 2-litre engine and raced for the current owner at the Barcelona Masters event in 2011 by Alan Simonson.