1970 Abarth 2000 SE19 Racer

In the late 1960s and early 1970s one of the most popular and closely contested racing classes was for two-litre Group 5 sports racers. It was natural that Carlo Abarth would join in since his one-litre and 1300cc cars had dominated their class in the Sports Car World Championship for some years, taking 7,400 class and overall wins by 1972.

Abarth’s 1970 two-liter Group 5 car was built around a spaceframe with stressed sills. Front suspension was by coil springs and double wishbones with coil springs, horizontal links and radius arms at the rear. Disc brakes were fitted all round. The four-cylinder mid-mounted engine used an iron block with an Abarth alloy twin-cam cylinder head, a five main bearing crankshaft, two twin-choke Weber carburetors, and it was allied with a five-speed gearbox. With an output of 250 bhp @ 8,000 rpm, it was more powerful than the 235 bhp Cosworth FVC unit used by rivals such as Lola and Chevron.

Abarth had the...