You know names like Stratos, Escort, WRX and Quattro, but would you believe that the little Fiat 131 you see here is the genesis for a rally stomper that took home the manufacturer’s World Rally Championship three times? That’s right…in 1977, 1978 and 1980, the 131 Abarth Rally clenched the title. Based on the 131 “Mirafiori” series, these little rear-drive homologation specials used what was a winning formula for rally for a long time: light weight (partially a result of having Bertone-designed plastic hood, trunk lid, air dam and mudguards), a high-revving four-banger up front (in the Abarth Rally’s case, a 16-valve, double Weber carbureted 2.0L unit) and the rear wheels doing the grunt work. The live rear axle of the standard 131 was ditched in favor of an independent rear unit, and the five-speed manual transmission went without synchromesh…if it was to go on a competition car, it had to be in the homologation cars. It might look like the grandfather of every rice rocket you ever saw in the early 2000s with it’s bright blue paint and ripsaw exhaust note, but 138 horsepower in this little car was enough to be entertaining…though, to be honest, we’d rather have the 230-ish horsepower version that Walter Röhrl drove in 1980.
