1952 Abarth 1500 Biposto Coupe

Except for being repainted at some point in its life, this amazing one-off was totally untouched from new

This Bertone-bodied Abarth 1500 Biposto coupe is one of the most important barn finds in recent motoring history. It is among the earliest, if not the first, of the Fiat-based Abarths. It is Franco Scaglione’s first design for Bertone and the centerpiece of Bertone’s exhibit at the 1952 Turin Motor Show.

In retrospect, Nuccio Bertone and Franco Scaglione could not have known that this car would be the seminal exercise of an immortal series. They would have found it incongruous if not presumptuous to call it the first of anything. A year later, however, the strength of the concept was manifest in Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica 5. This pioneer Abarth’s primacy was implicitly recognized in B.A.T. 5’s sequence and the subsequent odd numbering system adopted for B.A.T. 7 and B.A.T. 9. With the benefit of hindsight, recognizing this Abarth as “B.A.T. 1” is no presumption at all.

After the Turin Show, Packard purchased the Abarth to demonstrate...