The Fiat-Abarth Zagato – Petrolicious

Fiat-Abarth Zagato
Carl Gustav Magnusson’s Fiat-Abarth Zagato

The guys at Petrolicious are back yet again with a beautifully shot car video featuring an iconic car – this time its the Fiat-Abarth Zagato.

The car is owned by Carl Gustav Magnusson, an enthusiast who has run the modern Mille Miglia five times.

In his first five races, each driven with a different family member by his side, Magnusson had piloted a Fiat Abarth Zagato 750 GT Corsa. However for his sixth outing Magnusson went in search of his current “double bubble”.

“For three decades and twenty-four races, the Mille Miglia was among the most grueling races anywhere on the planet. From 1927 to 1957, racers from around the world tore across a thousand Roman miles of Northern Italy, drawing millions of spectators and making GT sports cars from Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo–among other marques–famous. A pair of fatal crashes in ’57, however, put the kibosh on the Mille Miglia.

In 1977, the event was revived as a vintage rally and the roads between Brescia and Rome were once again alive with the scream of racing engines. Cars eligible for entry in this modern-day event are those from which at least one vehicle took place in the original race, making Magnusson’s car among the last eligible models produced. Quick and tough, it’s easy to see how these cars placed second in the 750cc class in the 1956 Mille Miglia and won that class in 1957.

For Magnusson, the Mille Miglia is months away, but he isn’t letting this car sit idle: he drives it several hundred miles each month, blasting through the local canyons before the sun is even up, all to ensure that the car doesn’t forget that it was meant to race.”