The topic of "continuation," "replica," "remake," or whatever you want to call them cars has been discussed in the motoring press at length, and everyone has their own opinion. I believe Aston Martin has made some "continuation" DB Zagatos. Carroll Shelby will make you an "original" Cobra any time you give him the money to do so. Are those cars "real"? People seem to have different opinions. I believe there are people in the UK making C and D Jags on the same bucks as the originals, but those aren't "real" because they don't have the Jaguar name on them. So if the company still exists and wants to associate itself with the production of a car, then it's "real," and if not, then it's not real?
There are some awful replicas that make no attempt to be in the spirit of the original-- in the 1960's here in the states we you could get a fiberglass body kit that looked sort of like a Ferrari to put on a Volkswagen Beetle chassis. We are not discussing those here.
Personally, I think that because they were so rare, the Abarth 1000 bialbero / monomille is a perfect example of a car that is totally acceptable to build a remake of. How many of the covered headlight, ducktail rear cars exist? About a dozen? How many people would love to have one? About 1000? What does a real one cost? The only one I know of for sale is 200,000 Euros. So if Guy makes it possible for those some of those other people to have a car that looks and drives almost exactly like the real one, I think that's a good thing.
Here in the US the Cobra is a very commonly "replicated" car. So much so that when you see one you assume it's a replica unless it's at the Monterey Historics or something. Have all those thousands of replicas detracted from the appeal of a real one? No-- on the contrary they keep the enthusiasm alive for the car. If no replicas had ever been made the young people of today wouldn't know or care about Cobras.
I know things are different in Europe, but here in the States Abarth is a dead marque. A few real car enthusiasts have heard the name, but few know anything about them. When my 1000 TC replica gets here it will be one of maybe ten in the country, and I hope to take it to the Concorso Italiano to let people see it.
The important thing to keep a marque alive is to keep cars on the road and at track and hillclimb events where people can see them. That's where a young person sees a great looking and sounding car and asks, "What's that?" Do you think many young people travel to the Pont and Aumueller collections? Only people who already love the cars go there.
So anything we do to keep the cars in the public eye is a good thing. If it has a fiberglass body instead of alloy, so what?
So if having the cars on the road is a good thing, the only question is what they should be called. Should Guy call them Morenhouts? It would be accurate, since that's who actually made them, or ordered them to be made. (Enzo Ferrari did not design or physically build the cars that carried his name--he just paid the men who did so.) If Guy's remakes said "Morenhout"on them he couldn't be criticized for calling them Abarths. But isn't it better to give the credit to Karl Abarth, the originator of the concept ?
Guy is not claiming these cars are originals--they are remakes, and everyone knows it. And I think all Abarth enthusiasts benefit from his efforts.
Jim Oddie