Strip the Abarth Cisitalia 204A back to its specification sheet and the character is already there: 1109 cc I4, 83 PS. Abarth built from 1948 to 1950, in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted. The shape is credited to Giovanni Savonnuzzi.
The background
The Abarth Cisitalia 204A was the first product of the recently founded Abarth & C.. As part of a deal in which Abarth took over the liquidated Cisitalia assets, the erstwhile Cisitalia 204 was marketed under both the Abarth and Cisitalia brands.
Abarth received two complete 204 Spiders and two or three unfinished chassis in various states of completion; in total six 204A were built. Abarth went on to develop several more cars derived from the Fiat 1100-based Cisitalia 204, following up with the Abarth 205A Berlinetta, Abarth 207A Spyder, Abarth 208A Spyder, and the Abarth 209A Coupé.
The engineering
The engine is 1109 cc I4; the output is 83 PS. On the scales it comes to 510 kg. That is roughly 163 horsepower per tonne: quick by any era's standard, the kind of figure a hot hatch or a sports saloon posts. 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 2100 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Abarth line-up the Abarth Cisitalia 204A has a clear place: it handed the line to the Abarth 205A Berlinetta; the factory was Turin, Italy. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the BMW HH, the British Motor Corporation Austin 16 hp. 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 Cisitalia 204A — 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.