The car is an Abarth 207/A with chassis N. 001 and is the first of approximately ten to twelve similar cars built. There were two similarly styled road cars in the series as well, one a roadster and one a coupe.
The owner, Dr. Karl Brigandi (Garden Grove, CA), owned this Abarth beginning 1956 and it was raced 1956 to 1958 by himself and Carmela Martin, known earlier as "Carmela Brigandi" and then "Carmela Clark".
The doctor's family held on to the car until September of 1980. My guess is that the photograph was taken circa May, 1957 when a concours was held at Holidayland and the car was in attendance.
John de Boer - The Italian Car Registry
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/3025758974/
http://www.maseratiexperts.com/abarth.htm
Some things just get lost in PR history, but its good that we by chance get a glimpse of the cars in the period.
ReplyDeleteThere's another pic of it here, racing (and maybe a discrepancy with the '001', I don't know) http://www.maseratiexperts.com/abarth.htm
ReplyDeleteAh, just found it here too, claiming that it's #005
ReplyDeletehttp://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1957/Palm_Springs-1957-11-03a-214.jpg