Before There Was The Lancia 037, There Was The Abarth 030 Pininfarina.

The Abarth 030 was a prototype race car made to race in the Tour d’Italia. Only two of these Abarth 030 Pininfarina race cars were ever built. Although they were strong performers at the 1974 Tour d’Italia, what really mattered in the end is that they didn’t finish the race ahead of the same parent company’s Lancia Stratos’, so any possibility of further development was then scrapped.

In an odd twist of fate, though, the Fiat Group decided that their original Pininfarina X1/8 and X1/20 show car designs (from which the Abarth 030 Pininfarina were derived) should be made into the production Lancia Montecarlo/Scorpion road cars, the very vehicles which were later developed into the Lancia Abarth 037 rally cars that eventually took place of the Stratos.

Their mid mounted 3.5 liter V6 produces 285 hp through its rear wheels, making the lightweight 2,000 lb racer a mighty successor to Abarth’s previous Pininfarina-designed 124 Rally.

Even though the project was ultimately abandoned in favor of further developing the “wedge”, Abarth went on to create Project 035, another successful rally car based on the Fiat 131 Miafiori production car.

Source: http://www.carbuildindex.com/40137/before-there-was-the-lancia-037-there-was-the-abarth-030-pininfarina/