Start with what the Abarth 1500 Biposto is: a 2-door coupé with 1.5-litre inline 4, built from 1952, at the height of the post-war boom. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Franco Scaglione for Bertone.
The background
The Abarth 1500 Biposto is an experimental coupé designed by Franco Scaglione, who worked for Bertone at the time. It was displayed at the 1952 Turin Motor Show. Following the Turin Show, it was purchased by Packard and brought to Detroit, where it was used for design inspiration. The car is one of the first, if not the first, Abarth cars based on a Fiat model. It features a futuristic design consisting of a central headlight, similar to the earlier Tucker Torpedo, and a vast, panoramic split window plus fins in the rear. The wheelarch design is to emphasize the sporty character. The overall design is believed to have paved the way for the Alfa Romeo BAT series of concept cars.
The 1500 Biposto mechanics were mainly sourced from Fiat models. The Fiat 1400 engine has a 2 mm larger bore and measures bore 84 mm (3.3 in) × stroke 66 mm (2.6 in), which results in 1,480 cc and (also thanks to Abarth tuning) 75 bhp (75 hp; 56 kW) output instead of the original 50 hp (37 kW). The Biposto can reach 180 km/h (110 mph). The front suspension features double wishbones and coil springs, the rear suspension has a live axle and semi-elliptic leaf springs. The car has drum brakes on all four corners. The Biposto was given to motoring journalist Dick Smith in mid-1953 as his prize for suggesting a new Packard advertising slogan. Smith sparingly drove the car for two decades, before putting it into storage. It did not reappear until put up for auction in 2003 where it was acquired by historic racer, car collector and restorer Chris M. Drake. Unveiled after a 7-year restoration by Chris M. Dr
The engineering
The engine is 1.5-litre inline 4. On the scales it comes to 870 kg. Drive goes through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2650 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Cadillac Eldorado, the Chevrolet Corvette, the Toyota Land Cruiser. Its Abarth stablemates include the Abarth 1000 GT Coupé and the Abarth 124 Rally.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Abarth 1500 Biposto — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.