Abarth Fiat-Abarth 595 History

Carlo Abarth unveiled the Fiat-Abarth 595 at the Turin Motor Show on 31 October 1963. Based on the air-cooled, rear-engined Fiat 500, Abarth bored and stroked the twin-cylinder engine from 479 cc to 593 cc, added a higher-compression head, and extracted around 27 hp — roughly double the standard car's output — from an engine the size of a motorcycle's.

Produced in two series, the first (1963–1965) used the 500 D bodyshell and the second (1965–1971) switched to the 500 F body. The companion 695 variant, shown at Geneva in March 1964, pushed displacement to 689 cc and up to 38 hp in SS form. Together the 595 and 695 established Abarth's philosophy: maximum performance from minimum engine, achieved through precision engineering rather than brute displacement.

Production ran until 1971 when Fiat acquired Abarth. The cars won countless European hillclimb championships in their classes and created a template — hot Fiat 500 with a Scorpion badge — that Abarth would return to triumphantly four decades later.