In the late 1950s the SIMCA company in France was still partly owned by Fiat, and Simca had made Fiat cars under licence for many years. Simca turned to Fiat to get a sportier image for the French cars and Abarth were suggested for this task. The first Abarth Simca cars were built in 1962 on the shortened chassis of a rear-engine Simca 1000, but the engine was replaced by Abarth's own 1300cc unit, and a handsome lightweight coupe body replaced the staid 'bathtub' design from France. The recipe was good enough to win the World Championship for makes in 1962, and there was a 1600 version in 1963 which used the Simca 1500 engine block. When in 1964 this Simca-derived engine was enlarged for the '2mila' (2000cc) version, it gave up to 200bhp and outrun the Porsche 904 on track.