Sanremo Rally to honour the Fiat Abarth 124s

Forty years after the cars appeared on the World Rally Championship scene, the famous old Fiat Abarth 124 cars are being honoured by the organisers of the 2017 Sanremo Rally (March 30 - April1).  

Seven works Fiat Abarth 124s lined up before the start of the Sanremo Rally in 1974. (Photo: Martin Holmes)For thirty years Sanremo had been an integral part of the WRC, and continues nowadays as a major round of the Italian national championship.  

In this connection the rally will also be held as the second round of the new one-make Abarth 124 Trophy, for the newly introduced retro-style production cars.  

The plan is for invited owners of original style Fiat Abarth 124s to parade their cars and to be seen alongside the new version cars.  

The old Fiat Abarth 124s were popular cars, one of the final successful rally models before the revolutionary new generation special rally cars came along.  They were as successful in private hands as when run by the factory.   

These cars won three WRC events, but never finished higher than second at Sanremo.
 
- Martin Holmes 

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