COBI Fiat Abarth 595 - Executive Edition Set 24353

COBI's Fiat Abarth 595 Executive Edition is a 1:12 model built from 1,223 blocks, 24 cm long, in yellow. The wheels turn and steer, the doors open, the engine compartment is accessible, and the interior is detailed. The display base is black with elements in the colours of the Italian flag and a nameplate. A windscreen part was designed specially for this set.

The scorpion on the bonnet

Carlo Abarth was born in Vienna on 15 November 1908, which made him a Scorpio, and he put the scorpion on everything he built. It was not a marketing study — it was his own star sign.

His business was not building cars but making other people's faster. Abarth sold exhaust systems and tuning kits by mail order, in numbers, to owners who fitted them at home. The Fiat 500 was the ideal customer base: cheap, everywhere, and desperately underpowered. A 595 kit took the little twin from around 18 hp to roughly 27, with a sports exhaust, a bigger carburettor and a reworked head.

Abarth backed the claims with a guarantee: if the car was not measurably quicker on the road, he refunded the money. He also drove himself, setting a series of international class records in the 1960s, in his fifties.

In the COBI range

Set 24354 is the same car in the standard edition, white with a black roof stripe and 1,091 pieces, at a lower price.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,223 · Scale: 1:12 · Also included: display stand and nameplate
Model dimensions: 24 × 11 × 12 cm (9.4 × 4.3 × 4.7 in)