There are some cars that enter our imaginations forever. They don’t have to be the fastest, the sexiest or the best; very often it is impossible to say what is so attractive about them. It’s just something indefinable that reaches into our psyche and takes root there.

I have to admit that I’m a sucker for the look of a car. It can be the most unreliable, cantankerous bag of nuts and bolts but, if it looks good, I’ll forgive it. And my definition of good looks can be pretty strange at times so you might find a lot to disagree with as I add posts to this blog. But hey, that’s what it’s all about after all - discussion and debate, an opportunity to speak our dreams out loud.

I defy you to dislike the car in the header, however. Do you know what it is? Looks like a little Ferrari, perhaps an early Dino, doesn’t it? But it’s not. It’s just an Abarth, a FIAT-engined little flier dating from 1966 and called the OT 1300.

Abarth was an Italian company specializing in tweaking and rebodying FIATs and Simcas, often with racing in mind. During the fifties and sixties they produced some seriously quick and pretty little cars, many of them the stuff of dreams, if you were into small-engined screamers, as I was.

It was in searching for pictures of one of these, a gorgeous Zagato-bodied Simca Abarth with a delightfully fat rear end, that I came across the OT 1300. Forty years too late, I have found the dream Abarth of all time.

It is no wonder that I never heard of it until now; it remains elusive and I can find very little detail on its specifications. By detective and guesswork, I can say that it was intended mainly for competition, enough being made for the road to ensure homologation and no more. It was found that at speed its aerodynamics prevented air entering the cockpit and so a scoop was fitted on the roof to prevent asphyxiation of the driver; as a result, it is often known as the Periscopa - for obvious reasons.

If you wanted to pick up one of the few remaining examples today, it would cost you in the region of 120,000 euros. That’s way beyond my pocket but I think I prefer the dream to actual ownership anyway; classic cars can cost an awful lot of money in maintenance. It’s sufficient for me to gaze at that photo of a road version and revel in its looks.

They don’t make them like that anymore.