Google street view takes tour of Abarth factory

Abarth, known for pumping small Fiat cars full of speed, has opened the doors of its Italian factory for the world to see where the ultimate pocket rocket, the Abarth 500 and Abarth 500C, are made.

Abarth has become the first car maker in Europe to throw open its doors to Google Street View with users now able to take a virtual tour of the Abarth factory.

The result of the collaboration is the "Abarth Virtual Tour" which is open to anyone with a computer and an internet link. It is a unique and immersive experience that discovers the Officine Abarth HQ in Turin, where the marque's passion and know-how have given rise to a range of unique cars with unprecedented performance levels and in unusually small packages.

Created by the copy agency, xister, and accessible from the official website Abarth.com or from Google Maps, this fascinating tour allows users to visit every nook and cranny of the Abarth HQ.

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Starting off in the Abarth showroom - which displays historic models, Racing cars and the new Abarth range - the tour then travels along corridors, amongst the heritage and the history of the brand, ending up in a charming reproduction of company founder Karl Abarth's office.

The exploration continues to the heart of the factory, the workshop: where, virtual visitors will see the ramps with cars on which mechanics are at work, the various technical departments where the cars are assembled, along with the spray booth.

Using the virtual tour viewers can discover the entire Abarth range, with the possibility of "browsing" through all the cars with a 360° view inside the passenger compartment. One of the most interesting places to visit is without a doubt the space dedicated to the Abarth 695 Biposto, a genuine "virtual atelier" where it can be admired from all angles, both inside and out, and find out all its exclusive high-tech contents thanks to the technical drawings and videos.

There are also multiple useful Hotspots, which can be found in every navigation overview, which correspond to a detailed focus where visitors can consult multimedia content of the utmost interest. In addition, a customised Abarth graphic interface along with intuitive navigation controls make the on-line experience on Street View of the tour even more exciting and appealing, thanks to the zoom, automatic 360°, help functions and many other tools.

The "Abarth Virtual Tour" project was presented in a world preview at the recent Paris Motor Show using Oculus Rift, a head-mounted display placed over the eyes and which covers the user's field of vision entirely, reproducing everyday environments in 3D, in this case the Officine Abarth HQ in Turin. In detail, the technology used in Oculus Rift makes it possible to shift the view of the virtual world simply by moving one's head, exactly as we do in reality.

You can take the virtual tour of the Abarth factory by visiting the Abarth website at abarth.com