Simca Abarth 1150

The Simca Abarth 1150 was a sports car programme in which the Italian firm Abarth tuned the rear-engined Simca 1000 on behalf of Simca. The Simca 1000 began as a Fiat project, the Fiat 122, which Fiat's management passed over in favour of the design that became the Fiat 850; Simca's chairman Henri Théodore Pigozzi, taken with the study during a 1957 visit to Turin, secured it for production in France. Simca and Abarth signed their cooperation agreement in the summer of 1962, and four versions were shown at the Turin motor show in November 1963: the 1150, 1150 S, 1150 SS and 1150 SS Corsa. All used a 1,137 cc engine enlarged from the standard 944 cc unit, giving the basic car about 55 horsepower against roughly 50 for the ordinary Simca and a top speed just over 150 km/h, while the SS Corsa reached 85 horsepower and 173 km/h. Chrysler's American management, which now controlled Simca, refused to continue working with Abarth, so only a few were built and production stopped in early 1965.