01
Origins
The A112 of 1969 packaged Fiat's transverse front-drive revolution into three metres of tautly styled city car, beating the corporation's own 127 to market by two years and effectively sketching the European supermini before the term existed. It was nimble, chic and classless — Turin's answer to the Mini in spirit as well as size. The A112 Abarth of 1971 became the legend: a snarling small hot hatch avant la lettre, its 58-and-later-70 horsepower enough to make it the first fast car of half of Italy, with a one-make race series feeding drivers toward serious careers. Across four facelifts and seventeen years, over 1.2 million were built. When production ended in 1986, the marque effectively went with it — Lancia badges took over, but the A112 had already secured Autobianchi's immortality.
Autobianchi A112-Abarth-Mk2 Rear · No machine-readable author provided. Luc106 assumed (based on copyright claims). · Public domain
