The Intro
Welcome back to the 1969 car series! This is the second article in the series and it is about the Autobianchi A112, a car that is probably a little less popular than the previous car! However, that's not gonna stop us from writing about it! So, let's get into the article about the Autobianchi A112, a small Italian car that is perfect for any city environment!
The History
So, you're a fan of the old Minis? Well, let me tell you about something even better! In the late 60s, Autobianchi wanted a piece of the 'small car' pie. Autobianchi was owned by Fiat and saw how well Mini was doing, so they decided that they were going to make their own small car. At first, this is concerning because in most cases where one company follows another, the second company always creates a worse product as they are just trying to get in on the rush. However, this is an exception because Autobianchi did it completely right and, in my opinion, they made a better product!
The design of the car was not designed by some random engineer or designer at Autobianchi. No, they needed this to look good so instead they decided to hire the man who had designed the Lamborghini Miura, Countach, and Diablo to design their new small sized car. Because of this, the design is quite agreeable is actually quite good! I personally prefer the look of the Autobianchi if I am being completely honest!
Since Autobianchi was owned by Fiat, they used a smaller version of the 128 chassis to base the A112 on. The original road-going version got a 903cc engine. However, they didn't stop there as the A112 got handed over to Fiat's sport department, Abarth. We'll talk more about that in the specs section though. For now I want to talk about a sadder fact of this story. In total, Autobianchi created 1.2 million A112's during the cars almost 20 year run. However, they are quite rare today as not many of them were saved or kept in good condition. You will actually be quite hard pressed to even find one in Italy! But let's not dwell on that and instead let's move onto the looks of the car!
The Looks
If you saw the car from far away you would quickly slot it into the 'small car' category along with the Minis and the Fiats. However, upon getting closer to the car, you would realize that it wasn't a Mini or a Fiat but instead something different. The Autobianchi A112 is not the most famous of the 'small cars' but it is, in my opinion, the best looking. Let's talk about why I think that though since some people may disagree!
The grill on the A112 is perfectly placed. it doesn't slope into a frown like on the Mini and it isn't too big or too small. It is instead simple and fits the car perfectly. The grill sits between two circle head lamps that are outlined in black and sit above the two rectangular turning signals. The front of the car is simple but I think that is why it looks so good. It is a good design and a simple one. I have never been a big fan of the original Mini because the front looks sad and the rest of the car looks frail. The A112 on the other side has a determined looking front and looks like it has some meat on its bones!
Coming around to the rear of the car, we can see that Autobianchi did a good job here as well! Its actually simpler than the front of the car, with a steep sloping rear window and two square lights that hold the brake lights, the turning signals, and the reversing lights. In between these lights, there is an Autobianchi badge and, if you get the Abarth version, you get a badge signifying the amount of horse power the car has. So, overall this car is a pretty good looking vehicle! Let's look at how it does on specs though.
The Specs
The original car, first released in 1969, got a 903cc engine that came from Fiat. Once the car was passed to Abarth, it got a 982cc engine and then was upgraded further to a 1050cc engine in the later models. The top Abarth model produced up to 70 horse power which means that this thing had an incredible power to weight ratio. The car only weighed 700 kg which means that it had a power to weight ratio of 1:10, which is one of the best power to weight ratios you will see!
The car was actually pretty quick for its time and while I can't find too many stats in terms of performance figures, I am sure that the car was fun to drive around. Small cars are always fun to whip around and this one is probably even more fun considering that it has a 1:10 power to weight ratio. Unfortunately, not too many of these cars were exported to the United States and so if you would like to purchase one you will most likely have to have it imported to the United States, which is quite a hassle.
Outro
So, as we can see, this is clearly a great car. While it may not be the most popular small car, I certainly think that it is the best. The original version brings out the best of the Italian spirit while the Abarth versions shows the performance upsides of a small car. I hope that people start to see the beauty in these cars and realize their potential for restoration so that more of these little beauties can be saved!
I hope that you now know a little bit more about the Autobianchi A112! I also hope that you enjoyed the article! If you did, consider supporting the blog by joining our News Letter! If that's not your thing, you can also support the blog by sharing this article with a friend or family member or by leaving a comment below! Thank you all for reading!
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