When the A112 Abarth arrived in September 1971, the same year Marcello Gandini's Countach stopped the Geneva show dead, few noticed that the man behind Lamborghini's wedge had also drawn a 700kg shopping trolley for Milan. Yet the little hatch shared his pen, and a good deal of his mischief. The 1981 Autobianchi A112 Abarth now for sale in Pornic, on France's Atlantic coast, is a late chapter in that story: red, three-door, four-cylinder, utterly of its decade. A Clockwork Orange was in the cinemas, Gainsbourg was on the radio, and Fiat had quietly decided to see whether front-wheel drive could sell to people who fancied themselves above a plain 127.
The scorpion in Fiat's pocket
Autobianchi was a Fiat and Pirelli venture founded in 1955, taken over entirely by Fiat in 1968; the A112 anticipated the Fiat 127 technically and became the brand's most successful model. The Abarth badge was the interesting bit. Abarth increased displacement from 903 to 982 cc, adding dual carburettors and a sport exhaust for 58 horsepower. Then came the real one. In 1975 displacement grew to 1,050 cc and power climbed to 70 PS (51 kW) at 6600 rpm, all for 700 kg, and that car was the first A112 to use a five-speed manual. Fiat even founded a one-make young drivers' cup around it.
On a mountain road it becomes comedy of the best sort. The pushrod four, a distant descendant of the Fiat 600 engine, wants revs; the chassis wants provocation. Ask any owner what they remember and it is rarely the straight-line pace. The best thing about the A112 Abarth is second gear, which can take almost any car up to 1.4 litres. The rest is done sideways.
Buy the metal first
This 1981 car is a fourth-series "Nuova", refreshed in 2015 with new paint, engine work and, per the log, a full set of replacement carburettors. Two things demand scrutiny. First, rust: the A112 corrodes with Italian enthusiasm, so sills, floors, inner arches, door bottoms and the front valance want probing, not admiring. Second, originality of the Abarth-specific hardware, the twin-choke set-up, exhaust and trim, since these are the parts that make it an Abarth rather than a re-badged Junior, and they are the hardest to source now. At 15,000 EUR the asking sits toward the upper band for the model, where only clean cars belong.
Why a dead marque still matters
Autobianchi is gone, folded into Lancia and then into history, which is precisely why the survivors have quietly firmed up in value. The Abarth versions were fun and quick, with a strong following in Italy and France, and a French car with documented family history and a maintenance book is exactly what that market rewards. Before committing, verify the numbers, put it on a lift with someone who knows these cars, and read the log line by line. A tired A112 hides its sins in the sills, not the spec sheet.
