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Behind the badge: why Abarth has a scorpion

By Luca de Ruiter · · 3 min read

Most car badges are horses, bulls, lions or shields. Abarth has a scorpion, and the reason is simple: it was its founder’s star sign. Here is the story of the badge, from the first unframed scorpion to the one on today’s 500 and 695.

Carlo Abarth, Scorpio

Carlo Abarth was born Karl Albert Abarth in Vienna on 15 November 1908, which makes him a Scorpio. After a career as a motorcycle racer he moved into exhausts and tuning. In 1947 he became sporting director of the Cisitalia racing team, and when Cisitalia folded he took over part of its assets. On 31 March 1949 he founded Abarth & C., and he chose his star sign as the company emblem. According to the Museo del Marchio Italiano, he did not mean it only as a reference to his zodiac sign.

The first scorpion

The very first badge was a scorpion without a frame, next to the words “Abarth & C° – Torino”.

1954: the shield

In 1954 the scorpion and the name were put inside a shield, a symbol of victory. The scorpion was red and yellow, the lettering yellow on blue. Why red and yellow? One explanation is that they were typical racing colours of the time; another links them to the colours of Merano in South Tyrol.

1962: world champion

After the Abarth 1000 Bialbero won its class of the world championship for manufacturers in 1962, the badge for a while carried a chequered flag, a laurel wreath and the words Campione del Mondo, world champion. It was the first of several titles in a row.

1969: a black scorpion

In 1969 the badge was redrawn: a black scorpion with both claws pointing up, on a yellow and red field, under the word “Abarth” in white on blue.

1971: the Fiat years

Carlo Abarth sold his company to Fiat on 31 July 1971. Abarth became the sporting name used across the group’s brands, and the badge gained the Italian tricolour behind the name.

2007: the scorpion returns

On 1 February 2007 Fiat relaunched Abarth as a brand of its own. The badge was restyled by the Turin agency Carré Noir: the scorpion kept its shape but was rotated, with its head and claws in yellow and the body in red, on a shield with a modern typeface. For the brand’s 70th birthday in 2019, cars of that year wore a special badge with a chequered field. Abarths also carry a side emblem with the shield and scorpion and a lightning bolt in the Italian colours.

Why it matters when you restore an Abarth

The scorpion is one of the most copied badges in the classic car world, and a lot of ordinary Fiat 500s, 600s and 850s have gained one over the years. An Abarth badge does not make an Abarth: check the chassis and engine numbers and the documentation first. On a genuine car, the right badge for the year matters just as much: a 1970s tricolour badge on a 1960s car is a common mistake.

Sources

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