Fiat 131 Abarth Rally Stradale

The (wonderful) tinkering

Well, it looks as if a youngster from the suburbs of Bochum or Zurich-Schwamendingen had been working on his grandmother’s worn-out 76 Fiat 131 with a lot of putty. And would have lost the bumpers somewhere along the way. But wrong: The Fiat 131 Abarth Rally Stradale is a machine that formed the basis for three World Constructors’ Championship titles for the Italians (1977, 1978, 1980) plus a World Drivers’ Championship (Walter Röhrl, 1980). It wasn’t tinkerers who had a go at the Fiat, but Bertone, that once so highborn carrozzeria, which was allowed to take two-door bodyshells straight off the production line in Mirafiori, then add plastic parts, the wet front and rear wings, boot lid, bonnet; the doors were made of aluminium, the sides and lifting panels of Plexiglas. Then there was some paint, the rest of the interior, transport to the Fiat factory in Rivalta, where the chassis and, above all, the engine were assembled in the Stradale, which weighed only 1020 kilos.

The engine of the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally Stradale was prepared by Abarth, the 2-litre in-line four-cylinder was fitted with a four-valve head, plus a Weber dual carburettor 34 ADF, which brought the power to 140 hp at 6400 rpm and the maximum torque to 172 Nm at 3600 rpm. Yes, 1976 was rough. The 5-speed gearbox came from the quite well-behaved Seien-131, but the synchromesh rings were removed from it, as only unsynchronised gears were allowed for homologation. The standard brakes also had to be removed; for the 400 Stradale cars required by the regulations, the completely undersized brakes of the Fiat 127 were used; in racing trim, the choice of braking system was free, so the expensive stuff could be saved for the “series”. In the rear the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally Stradale had a McPherson independent suspension, similar to that of the Fiat 124 Abarth Spider with wishbones, trailing arms and struts. The locking differential came from the classy Fiat 130, but had an alloy housing.

Well, the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally Stradale looked pretty nasty – and was, by the standards of the time. Of course, in the racing version there were completely different possibilities, dry sump lubrication for example, Kugelfischer injection, Bilstein dampers (which Röhrl brought along) – with about 240 hp and 950 kilos of fighting weight, the Fiat 131 Abarth was definitely competitive. Its weakness was the not always reliable engine, which had considerably less power than its toughest competitor, the Ford Escort RS1800 with its up to 280 hp. But on the other hand, the Fiat was extremely good-natured to drive, Röhrl loved it, it could be directed almost with one hand (the Fiat, not Röhrl).

Whether 400 copies of the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally Stradale were really built – who knows? Many of them did not survive, some of them – most of them were painted in Rooso Arancio – had to be used as a basis for customer racing, others went straight into the wall or over a precipice, that’s why the prices for good “Stradale” are very high today, more than 200’000 Euros have been paid. The example we show here (chassis number 2049112) went under the hammer at Silverstone Auctions at the end of February 2023 and was estimated at at least 120’000 pounds.

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VIN: 131AR*2035579

Auction: Artcurial, Paris 2025, estimated price 100,000 to 140,000 euros. It is actually a perfectly ‘normal’ 131 Abarth Rally, which was recently converted to Group 4 specifications – unfortunately.

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More of these? Still to come, including a few Group 4 units like the one below:

We have other fine classics in our archive.