Wednesday 24th October 1979
Carlo Abarth (70) died. Best know for his tuning of Fiats, Carlo Abarth was a successful motorcycle racer winning the European Championship five times. Abarth began working for Cisitalia as the technical and racing director lining up the Porsche designed single-seater, mid-engined and four-wheel drive Cisitalia Formula 1 car on the grid. Unfortunately the spiralling cost of the F1 car ended the Cisitalia Corporation and Abarth took the sports cars from the team, rebadged them Abarth Cisitalias, and continued to enter them in races.