**Everything You Need to Know About Abarth**

The Fiat 500 Abarth is the hot version of everyone's favorite little drivable puppy, the Fiat 500. It's faster. It looks cooler. It handles better, and it has a fricking scorpion on it.

What if I told you that this badge represents one of the earliest tuners in the world? A race-proven company so influential that its name is Italian slang for strong?

Are you ready to expand your mind and join the ranks of the illuminated? Throw up the triangle and get ready to feel the sting, baby! 'Cause it's frickin' scorpion season.

This is everything you need to know to get up to speed on Abarth.

**What is Abarth?**

Abarth is a company so influential that its name is Italian slang for strong. But what does that mean?

Well, let me tell you - it's time to join the ranks of the illuminated! With Abarth, you'll be part of a community that knows and loves the thrill of racing.

**Why Choose NordVPN?**

Before we get into the world of Abarth, I want to give a huge thank you to our sponsor, NordVPN. Guys, it's time to take your online security seriously! With NordVPN, you can safely Google...

NordVPN is accessible, easy to use, and keeps your browser secure and concealed behind a high-tech wall of smart encryption. They don't share, track, or do any data collecting whatsoever.

**Join the Abarth Community**

So, are you ready to join the ranks of the illuminated? Throw up the triangle and get ready to feel the sting, baby! 'Cause it's frickin' scorpion season!

And remember, with NordVPN, you can safely explore the world of Abarth without worrying about your online security.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- You guys know about the Fiat 500 Abarth,the hot version of everyone's favoritelittle drivable puppy, the Fiat 500.It's faster.It looks cooler.It handles better,and it has a fricking scorpion on it.Well, what if I told you that that badgerepresents one of theearliest tuners in the world,a race-proven company so influentialthat its name is Italian slang for strong?Are you ready to expand your mindand join the ranks of the illuminated?Throw up the triangle and getready to feel the sting, baby,'cause it's frickin' scorpion season.This is everything you need to knowto get up to speed on Abarth.(upbeat video game music)- Huge thanks to NordVPNfor sponsoring today's video.I'm sorry you had to call again.Yes, sir, I'll handle it.Guys, that was Mr. Nord,and he's pretty upset thatyou're still not takingyour online security seriously.We talked about this last week, all right?You gotta protect yourinternet privacy todayby using NordVPN.NordVPN is accessible, it's easy to use,and keeps your browsersecure and concealedbehind a high-tech wallof smart encryption.NordVPN doesn't share, track,or do any data collecting whatsoever.So you can safely Google"Was James Pumphrey in 'Two Broke Girls?'"without anyone ever knowing.(air whooshes)Choose from over 50 to 100servers in 60 countries.And the best part is,NordVPN is very fast,so you'll never have tomiss your favorite showwhen traveling abroad.You can download it on Windows,Android, iOS, Mac OS, and even Linux.And right now, if you go tonordVPN.com/DonutNordVPN,you'll get a two-year planplus one additional monthwith a huge discount.It's all risk-freethanks to Mr. Nord's 30-daymoney back guarantee.So please check it out.I don't want Mr. Nord tobe upset with me again.(slow electronic music)(TV beeps)- All right, so there'sthis dude, Carl Abarth,and he's born in Austria in 1908.He moved to Italy as a teenager,changed name to Carloand got into motorcycles.All right, big time.As in, he designed and built motorcycles,which is(bell rings)almost as cool as being a state runner-upin improv and speechand debate in Kentucky,which is what I was doing as a teenager.(electronic air whooshes)(crickets chirping)But he wasn't just a motorcycle mechanic.He was also a motorcycle racer.He won his first race whenhe was 20 years old on a bikethat he designed and built himself.And he did that by himself,like with no fricking pit crewor support team or anything,so already, this dude is next level.Well, I'm about to throw anotherlevel on top of that level.All right, the next, next level.(video game chime dings)Carlo won the EuropeanMotorcycle Championshipthe next five years in a row.(bubbles pop)After that, he was like,(in foreign accent) "Racingother motorcycle is boring."What else can I race?"How about a train.And I'm not talking aboutjust any train, all right?This dude raced the best train,the Orient Express.Carlo destroyed that luxurious choo-chooin an 850-mile race across Austria.Abarth was tearing it up on two wheelsshowing trains who's boss.- Flawless victory.- You think you're theboss, you freaking train?Turns out you're not; I am.Everything was going great.Little did he know that his worldwas about to change forever.(in distorted voice) Forever.Carlo woke up in a hospital bed in 1939.Doctors told him thathe'd been severely injuredin a motorcycle accident andthat he'd never ride again.And then frickin' World War broke out.What is this now?Can we get a break?I'm being robbed of my adulthood.I digress.Everything that Carlo knewwas crumbling around him.I can relate, obviously.Thankfully he had plenty oftime to rethink his plan.He had to stay in thathospital for a year to recover.He probably thought of allkinds of plan B options,but one made more sensethan any of the others.Carlo knew that he hada knack for engineeringand a dirty little kink for speed.(object smacking)He just couldn't ridea motorcycle anymore.I imagine he damaged his taint.And as we established before,he'd already made trainsis (beep) so what's left?Cars.(engine revving)When the war finally ended,Carlo got a job as a design engineerat a brand new car company called Porsche.Then he moved on to an Italiansports car manufacturercalled Cisitalia, whichpromptly went bankrupt.It was post-war Europe.So it goes, bummer.But at that point, Carlowas like, "You know what?"None of these guys ever even beat a train"in a race, okay?"(motorcycle hums)"I have."I bet I can run myown sports car company."And I bet I can buyone for pretty cheap."So he bought Cisitalia, and in 1949,he transformed it into Abarth& C, not Co., all right?Just C.With his race car buddy,Guido Scagliarini,which sounds racist, but it's his name,who just happened to comefrom a very rich family.(cash register dings)Make friends with rich people, guys.Then you make them like thesame stuff that you like.And then you get to do that stuff.Carlo's idea for Abarth & Cwas to apply his motorcycle,hot rodding skills to develop aftermarketgo-fast parts for cars.Actually, his real idea wasto make his own sports cars,but they didn't have enough money yet.So Abarth didn't reallyplan to be a tuning pioneer.This was just a means to a bigger goal,but that doesn't make it any less cool.This was 1949, more than20 years before AMG,before M or any of thoseguys came onto the scene.Why am I comparing Abarthto these in-house manufacturing tuners?A little thing I liketo call foreshadowing.(in echoing voice) Foreshadowing.Things are gonna get crazyfor Abarth real quick.But first, if Abarth & Cwas gonna make cars bad-ass,they needed a bad-ass logo.It's like the most importantthing for a company.You think we'd be here without this?So Carlo turned to the most badass thingthat he could thinkof, astrology. (laughs)I guess he was at a loss for ideasbecause he was like, "What's my sign/"I'll make that into the logo, done."Now, thankfully, he was a Scorpio,which is repped by scorpion,which is like the coolestone on the Zodiac calendar.If he were a cancer,we've have had a crab.(host coughs heavily and clears throat)With a sick logo naileddown, a factory ready to go,and a rich co-owner readyto drop G's on development,all Abarth needed was something to sell.Now, Carlo knew from his racing daysthat modifying exhausts was an easy wayto make motorcycles gofaster and sound cooler.Why not apply this to street cars?So that's exactly what he did.He also copped the trickfrom the Cisitalia playbookto make them look cool.A matte black finishwith flashy chrome tips,Abarth exhaust didn't just sound amazing.They were like jewelry for your cars, but(bell dings)the people of Italyabsolutely ate this up,like so much gabagool,and by the end of 1950,Abarth had sold nearly5,000 custom exhausts.Now let me say that year again, 1950.Abarth & C was founded in 1949.All of this happened in one year.What could Carlo and his teamestablish in another year?All those muffler profits gotCarlo the cash that he neededto develop more complicatedand expensive tuner parts,but more importantly, to him at the time,it meant he finally had the scratchto build a sports car of his own.Buying Cisitalia gave him a headstart'cause the deal includeda half-built race carcalled the 204A.Abarth finished the car.Then he raced it all over Europewith his business partner,Guido, behind the wheel.Guido wasn't just thescratch behind Abarth,he tore crap up in the 204A,and Abarth used the prize moneyfrom winning all those racesto build the company'sfirst street car, the 205A.All right, before I sayanything else about this car,I want you to look at it.(wind chime music)Okay, it's beautifulbecause Abarth hired a dudefrom legendary Italian designhouse, Bertone, to draw it up.This thing was quick too.Carlo and C doubled the horsepoweron the 1.1 liter Fiat engine.The 205A was sleek, speedy, sexy,and very, very expensive to produce.Abarth only sold three 205As.(cash register dings)This obviously wasn't gonna work.(metal clanks)So building your own caris expensive, we got that.And developing performanceparts took time.Good to know.With that valuable informationat hand, Carlo refocused.Maybe there was a way to workwith an established car companyto make these bad-ass roadcars that I wanna make.Maybe, but he needed to find one,one with lots of money.Wasn't already buildingsick little street racers.Company like Fiat.Only problem, Fiat was based in Turin,and Abarth was more than200 miles away in Bologna.Solution: move Abarth to Turin.This was a big, expensive business move,but it proved to be genius.Fiat was aware thatthousands of their customerswere fitting Abarthexhausts to their cars,and hey, wouldn't you know it?Now Abarth is just down the street.Carlo's just like, "Oh, hey man,"I'm new in town."Just wanted to introduce myself,"and oh wait a minute, you build cars?"Fiat saw, "We're the largestautomobile manufacturer"in Italy.""There's no way youare unfamiliar with us."Our cars are a legion.""What?"What a coincidence 'causeI can make cars faster.""What?"(car engine humming)"I can make cars faster.""What?""Sorry, my bad."I made the exhaust in those cars."I said, I can make cars faster."Fiat and Abarth struck up aworking relationship in 1952.Abarth would undertake special projectsfor Fiat and in return,Fiat would foot the bill andretain rights to the cars.In the industry, that'swhat we call a win-win.After a few rollercoasteryears of big swingsand even bigger whiffs,Carlo finally felt safe.And as you psych majors know,you gotta feel safe before you can workto your full potential.And oh man, Carlo felt very safe.Just look at the firstjoint Fiat-Abarth project.This is the Fiat Abarth 1500 Biposto.Now look at this thing compared to the carthat it was based on, the Fiat 1400.That's what most carslooked like back then.Now credit for thisspaceship goes to Bertone.Bertone made this carbeautiful, but Abarth,he made it fast.He took the stock 1.5 liter Fiat engine,worked his scorpion magic,and rung an astonishing 68% more powerout of it without using aturbo or a supercharger.It was a cosmic leap in powerto match the car's cosmic looks.Carlo and C were gettingreally, really, really,really friggin' good at this.The 1500 Biposto was displayedat the 1952 Turin Auto Show,and people went absolutely ape.This car put Fiat Abarth on the map.They became the talk of the frickin' town.They were like the first power couple.The Italian super dup built a few moreover-the-top prototypes likethis one in their early years,but that's not reallywhat Abarth is known for.So we're gonna fast forward a few yearsto the introduction of the Fiat 600,not the 500, that's gonna come later.The 600 is the 500's older brother.It was a little rear engine city car,kinda like a cross betweena Volkswagen Beetleand a Mini Cooper,(thunder crashes)but without any of thereliability or performancethat made those cars good, justthe cheeky design language.But once the scorpion stunning the 600,it was nothing to fool around with.Abarth modified the 600 with bigger carbs,juiced up internals,and of course, brappy exhaust systemsto create a whole line of tuned 600s.Most of them used the stockbody modeled with fender flairsfor wider wheels and abeefy front air dram.But every now and then,they do one up real special.For example, take a look atthe Fiat Abarth 750 Zagato.If you've been watching thisshow since the beginning,you know Zagato.It's another legendaryItalian design house,just like Bertone.They designed the prettiestAston Martin ever made,the DB4 GTZ.The Fiat Abarth 750 Zagatoisn't as pretty as those cars,but you gotta rememberwhat they started with.And as you can see, Carlowas living his best life.(sexy music)He was doing what he lovedwith the financial backing of Fiatand Fiat loved it too.People were buyingAbarth 600s, racing 'em,crashing 'em, coming backand buying more of 'em.Cha-ching much?Just when Carlo thought thingscouldn't get any better,his bosses at Fiat asked himto drum up some publicityby going out and beatingsome world records.And he did it in this: theFiat Abarth 750 Record.Frickin' so confident thathe named the car Record.Basically, it was a lightweight,streamlined version ofthe Fiat Abarth 600.Lightweight as in like 850 pounds.So it only needed 47 horsepower to shattera 24-hour endurancerecord on it's first try.And this was just the first of 133 recordsthat Abarth would set.Now breaking records is cool,but again, it's not reallywhat Abarth is known for.So let's get back to that then.Let's talk about the original Fiat 500.(upbeat rock music)All right, just like the modern 500,the original was cute andslow, like, 13 horsepower slow.Carlo had his work cut out for him,but remember, he justsmashed three world recordswith only 47 horsepower to play with.He was confident that he'dwork his magic with the 500.And that's good becauseFiat was in big trouble.Now the OG 500 is an icon now,but when it launched in 1957,nobody was buying 'em 'causethe car journalists of the timesaid it was unreliable and slow,and they weren't wrong.Fiat had screwed the pooch on this drop.So they turned to theirgolden scorpion boy for help.And what Carlo came up withwas the original Fiat Abarth 500.Made it look cooler,made it handle better.He frickin' doubled the horsepower to 26.Double the power means double the speed.Double the pleasure, double the fun.An icon was born.The Abarth 500 was a successright outta the gate.It broke six internationalrecords in 1960 alone.By 1965, this hot little potatohad nearly 900 race wins to its name.Carlo and his crew turneda flop into a flyer.Abarth didn't just save the 500.They made it the pride of Italy.They made it a pop culture icon,and Abarth became so well knownas a purveyor of thingspowerful and Italianthat they started using the name of Abarthas a freakin' word todescribe anything strong.Customers in cafes didn'task for strong coffee.They asked for Abarth coffee.The 1960s were incredible for Abarth & C.They built some of theirgreatest cars to dateand their aftermarkettuning business expandedacross the globe.But Carlo was getting old.And 1971, he sold hisdream company to Fiat,trusting them to carrythe banner of the scorpioninto the fray ofcompetition in the future.Carlo Abarth passed away in 1979.He was 71 years old.He raced a train and he beat it.He bought a bankrupt company.He built one of the mostsuccessful performance housesin history.He took economy cars andbuilt world record holders,race winners, and rally champions.He is an internal bad-ass,and to honor the eternal bad-ass,Fiat put all the Abarth &C designers and engineersin charge of the Fiat racingdivision, like fully in charge.They were given free rein towork on Fiat's racing cars.And at this time in the 70s,Fiat was focused on rally racing,and they were campaigninga hard top versionof their little roadster, the 124 Spider.Once the scorpion got hold of that Spider,the rallying world learnedto fear bugs big time.The 124 won the EuropeanRally Championship in 1972and again in 1975.Now that was cool,but Abarth figured thatthey could do better.The next car is reallyfreaking cool, you guys,but don't take my word for it.Tyler, the creator, owns one,and he's just about one ofthe coolest people on planetFun fact, I used to write for him, so...I mean, one look at this thing,and you'll see why hereps the scorpion, boom.Box flares, baby.The stock Fiat 131 is pretty uninspiring,clean, very generic.And if performance wasas boring as its looks,but in the hands of Abarth,the little rear wheel drive131 became a rally legendthat gave it a sick flared out,lightweight fiberglass bodyand a rippin' two-liter245 horsepower engine.And it won the World Rally Championshipin 1977, 1978, and 1980, a three-peat.They just weren't feeling it in '79.They had an off year.Now naturally, race fanswanted their own versionof this hot littlescorpion for the street.And they were like, okay,because Fiat had to build some road carsto satisfy competition rules.So 400 131 Rallies hitEuropean dealerships in 1974.Now, after all that success,weirdly, Abarth just sort of ceased to be.Fiat was a huge company, and in the '70s,they were getting even bigger,swallowing up brands left and rightlike Nolan at a banana farm.(electronic music)One of those bananas thatthey swallowed up was Lancia,another Italian car companywith iconic racing heritage.And for some reason,Fiat put all their racingenergy towards Lancia.No, I can't really complain about thatbecause Lancia in the '80smade some of the most incrediblerally cars of all time.The Delta Integrale isprobably my favorite car.Tyler, the creator, owns one of them too.But Fiat's decision to focus on Lanciabasically shut the door on Abarth.And in 1981, Abarth & C was no more.Fiat continued to use the nameto market slightly hot rottedversions of their cars,but this badge engineeringfell flat to true Abarth fans.The banner of the scorpion,for the most part,remained folded up in a closet.That's where scorpions live.Until the newly merged Fiat Chrysler Groupdecided to re-introduce Fiat to Americaafter a two decade hiatus.Now these guys, they're not dumb.They knew getting Americansto buy small Europeanhatchbacks was tough,and they knew selling theretro Fiat 500 hatchbackin America would be an uphill battledespite all the attentionits design was getting.Now it didn't take much ofa marketing study to seethat Americans loved Volkswagen's GTI.Fiat Chrysler quickly realizedthat they needed a GTIversion of the new 500.And what's up?Guys, I was just looking in the closet.I found this really sick scorpion banner.2007 Fiat Chrysler Group relaunched Abarthas the performance arm of Fiat,just like in the good old days.And with it came a new, highperformance Fiat 500 Abarthand a new Fiat 124 Spider Abarth.These cars are almost universallyconsidered fun as heck.They have a big dedicated fan base,and anyone who spendsany time behind the wheelof an Abarth knows why.They look very silly to me,(car whooshes by)but they sound good.(car hums loudly)With the Abarth 595, 695,and even the Abarth 1241 makeEuropean Rally Championship series,Fiat are honoring Carloand the Abarth brandexactly how they shouldby making cars faster, louder,(car engine revving)and more fun.(upbeat music)(sighs) Looks pretty good.(man spits)- Donut has posters?- Yeah, Donut has posters.- Donut has posters?(man spits out drink)- Yeah, Donut has posters.- Donut has posters>- Yup, Donut has posters.- Wow!- Wow!- Wow!- Wow, (laughs) posters.Hang 'em in your bedroom, your office,or have 'em professionallyframed for your garage.Get your Donut posters justtoday at donutmedia.com.- Wow!- Wow!- Wow- Wow, (laughs) posters.(TV beeps)Thank you guys so muchfor watching this videoand everything else on Donut Media.Go ahead and hit that subscribe buttonso you don't miss anythingand hit the like button'cause it really helpsus in the algorithm.The algorithm is the only God that I know.We have a ton of merch thatI'm really excited about.Go to donutmedia.com,check that stuff out.Follow me on Instagram at James Pumphrey.I love you. (smacks hand)(uplifting music)