Abarth-Simca 1300 GT Coupe

1963 Abarth-Simca 1300 GT Coupe by Sibona & Basano

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Le Castellet, France | November 19, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Abarth used cars from many different manufacturers as base cars for their wild creations. In this case, the base car is a Simca 1000, which was a small, rear-engined sedan produced by the French marque between 1961 and 1978.

Confusingly, there were Simca-Abarth variants of the 1000, which were really just hot sedans. What we have here is an Abarth-Simca. It’s a GT car that Simca wanted Abarth to build that they could take racing.

It’s got a Simca 1000 floor pan, an Abarth-tuned 1.3-liter twin-cam inline-four, and a Simca 1000 four-speed manual gearbox. The cars were eventually homologated for FIA competition, and they were successful in European road racing events.

This car was sold new in Italy, where it was campaigned successfully. From there, it has kind of a complicated ownership history, and frankly it’s too late in the day for me to make much sense of it. You can read more about it here and see more from this sale here. The pre-sale estimate is $405,000-$500,000.

Update: Sold $311,399.

Glas 1300 GT Cabriolet

1966 Glas 1300 GT Cabriolet

Offered by Dorotheum | Vosendorf, Austria | August 29, 2020

Photo – Dorotheum

It wasn’t that long ago that we featured a Glas 1300 GT – the coupe version of this car, which was built by Hans Glas GmbH in Dingolfing, Germany, between 1964 and 1967, when BMW took over. Over 5,000 coupes were made (including 1700 GT models), and the convertible is much rarer.

Power is from a 1.3-liter inline-four making 74 horsepower. This car has the rare five-speed gearbox, and the body was designed by Frua. Drop-tops were introduced in 1965, and only 242 examples of the 1300 cabriolet were built.

This car has known history back to new, much of it spent in Germany. The coupe we featured sold for less than $18,000 earlier this year. This car carries an estimate of $71,000-$94,000. No roof? More money. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $81,747.

Glas 1300 GT

1964 Glas 1300 GT Coupe

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Essen, Germany | March 26-27, 2020

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Here is another Hans Glas rarity. The 1300 GT debuted at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show and was updated to 1700 GT specification in late 1965. Most of the cars were coupes, but a limited number of cabriolets were also produced. BMW bought Glas in 1966, and in 1967, they launched the BMW 1600 GT, a BMW-badged version of this car with a bigger engine.

This 1300 GT is powered by a 1.3-liter inline-four rated at 74 horsepower. That enabled a top speed of 106 mph. Styling was actually by Frua, and only 5,013 coupe examples were built between the 1300 and 1700 models.

Finished in blue over black, this car is sold at no reserve with a spare engine. It’s a rare coupe that will stand out wherever it goes. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $17,892.