A familiar shape...?

x_atlas0 said:

In the first picture, it looks like the front of a DB4, the middle of a first-gen Barracuda, and the back is E9. Pretty neat, if you ask me.

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"The engine, in common with most Fiats is the heart of the car. Abarth modified Lamredi's superb design by the addition of a second twin-draft Weber carburetor and a "hotter" cam-shaft to lift the engine from its standard 105 bhp rating to 136 bhp. The performance, combined with the beautiful induction roar and exhaust sound, soon gave birth to the car's nickname "The poor man's Ferrari".

"Abarth's work however did not give rise to "super-performance". The sheer weight of Ghia's coach-built body (curb weight nearly 2,900 lbs.) was to keep the 0-60 mph time to around 10 seconds. The real strength of the car was to allow it to cruise all day at 100 mph in comfort, in true "Grand Tourer" style.

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Carlo Abarth did however take the engine a stage further. In 1960, he bored out the block slightly from 2279 cc to 2323 cc, fitted three (40 DCOE) twin-choke Webers, increased the compression ratio from 9.3:1 to 9.8:1, fitted a hotter camshaft and re-routed the exhaust through a swept manifold and separate lines. Net result of these modifications was an increase in power to (Rainer advises) some 210 bhp and a corresponding top speed in excess of 130 mph.
With this car, he set a whole new bunch of endurance records, the most significant being the 72 hour endurance. The "Big Healy" 2000 had held that record of 95mph for about 4 years. Abarth smashed it by turning in 112 mph. By today's standards those speeds, whilst significant, are not out-of-the-ordinary. In the early 60's, they were something else, and today still impressive for the size of the engine.

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Styling lines and shapes are not the only things the Fiat 2300S may share in common with the E9:

Of those 7,200 it is believed that as many as 70 came to the UK, most of which have rusted away. Fiat's capabilities in the 60's did not include body protection and that, combined with Fiat's use of cheap steel imported from the Iron Curtain and our prodigious use of salt during winter in this country, took its toll on car bodies very quickly on the UK roads. A lot of people have commented at Fiat Club Shows. "I had one of those, but one day when I had a puncture I tried to jack the car up. The jack kept going up but the car stayed on the ground". I think that says it all!

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Pininfarina's version of the Fiat 2300coupe:

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Resemblance? Pre-Hoffmeister kink? '55 Chevy Biscayne "Motorama" show car.