This here is the actual, factual Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition special in the flesh, photographed at the Autopolis Fiat dealership in Luxembourg. We say this because yesterday, we reported on the limited run special and Fiat's photoshoped picture that made the internet rounds. While our friends from Auto55 and Autofans verified the story with the official press release, we were left wondering what the Italian mini with the classic racing-livery would look like in real life.
Today, our pondering came to an end as the Marketing and Communications director of Autopolis Luxembourg dropped the first real life shots of the car in our mailbox. We believe Fiat should have released these photos instead of the 'chop from the beginning, but we'll give them props for keeping a close eye on the web-o-sphere and swiftly reacting to our post.
As for the car itself, it was created by the Italian brand's official importer for Luxembourg, Autopolis, in association with Gulf Petroleum, to celebrate the latter's 10th anniversary in the country. Only ten examples of the Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition will be built, each priced at €25,000 (not including VAT) a piece, which is about US$34,000. Aside from the iconic Gulf Racing livery, the special edition 500s also get the 'esseesse' performance kit that pushes the 1.4-liter turbo engine's output to 160-ponies, a Monza sport exhaust and Corse-Sabelt racing buckets with the seatbacks finished in Gulf-blue.
The Fiat 500-based, Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari, is possibly the closest we'll ever get to a baby model from the company with the Prancing Horse logo. And now, almost a year after its world premiere at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show in Germany, Fiat has confirmed UK availability.
Only 152 examples of the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari will be available in right hand drive form in Britain, each carrying a steep price tag of £29,600, which comes to around €35,500 or US$46,900 at today's exchange rates. That's roughly what you'd pay for a BMW 135i Coupe M Sport (£30,675) in the UK. Those select few buyers get what Fiat describes as a Ferrari inspired design with a unique Scuderia Red finish complemented by racing stripes, carbon fiber mirror caps, 17-inch Corsa Grey wheels, additional air inlets / outelts and quad tail pipes.
The hot hatch's interior has also been upgraded with carbon fiber bucket sport seats from Sabelt that weight 10 kg or 22 lbs a piece less than the standard seats, a flat-bottomed black leather steering wheel with red leather inserts, carbon trim and a new instruments specially made by Jaeger Under the skin, the Prancing Horse-branded mini sports a pumped up version of standard Abarth 500's 1.4-liter turbocharged four-banger with 180-horsepower at 5,500rpm and 250Nm of torque at 3,000rpm, hooked up to a five-speed automated manual gearbox. Fiat says its can accelerate from 0-62mph (100lkm/h) in seven seconds and has a top speed of 140mph (225km/h), while returning 43.3mpg UK (36.1 mpg US) on the combined cycle. Completing the mechanical upgrades are the four-pot Brembo discs and recalibrated dampers. Those interested can place their order through Abarth's 17-strong UK dealer network. photos
If you feel the regular Abarth 500C could benefit from a few more ponies under the hood, Fiat's performance division has the answer in the form of the Esseesse edition. The tuning package bumps output of the standard 1.4-liter turbocharged engine from 140HP and 206Nm to 160HP and 230Nm, respectively. As a result, the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) drops 0.6 seconds to 7.5 seconds, while top speed increases from 205km/h to 209km/h (130mph). The scorpion-branded version of Fiat's 500 rag-top convertible that was shown in Paris featured a two-tone paint job with a white chromatic line separating the two colors, and came fitted with a Record Monza exhaust silencer and unique 17-inch alloys with 5 diamond shaped spokes.
Apparently, Italian tuning firm Romeo Ferraris believes that the Fiat 500 is a dish best served with lots of power. Named after the legendary Italian circuit, the 500 Abarth Monza is a limited edition Fiat on steroids sporting extensive engine and styling modifications. At the heart of the 500 Abarth Monza is a heavily tuned version of the stock car's 1.4-liter force fed engine featuring a new and larger turbocharger complete with an intercooler, optimized ECU and a custom sport exhaust system, just to mention a few of the upgrades. The end result is an eye-popping 260-horsepower. All that power is transferred to the front wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox and a limited slip differential. The 500 Monza rides on 17-inch Romeo Ferraris alloys, wrapped around in 205/40 Yokohama Parada tires, while a Brembo brake set and a sport suspension with adjustable shocks complete the performance package. The tuners at Romeo Ferraris also developed a styling kit with a front carbon fiber splitter, hood air intake, rear diffuser, and black mirror housings and door handles, plus Autodromo Nazionale Monza livery. As for the interior, the designers applied the same white color theme accented by red and blue stripes as the exterior, with most parts of the cabin dressed in a combination of leather and Alcantara. Only ten units of the bespoke Fiat 500 will be built.
A few months after the premiere of the (facelifted) Punto EVO, and Abarth has announced that it has prepared its own version of the three-door supermini packing a 1.4 liter turbocharged Multiair four-banger that will debut alongside the souped-up 500C that we told you about earlier today at next week's Geneva Motor Show. Fiat's performance division has sourced a larger turbocharger from Garrett in order to lift output to 165-horsepower and 250Nm of torque (at 2,250 RPM). 100 km/h rolls by you in 7.9 seconds, meaning there's got to be more than just a power boost to make this worthy of the Abarth name. And there is. In the handling department, the Abarth provides a beefed up suspension consisting of McPherson struts up front and a torsion-bar-eqipped "semi-independent" rear suspension out back. Combined with a new, bigger anti-roll bar and 20% stiffer springs, the Abarth should make a standard Punto EVO feel like a boat - or so to say. Aerodynamics have improved over the outgoing model and more than couple of beauty enhancements have also been made.
Abarth's Punto EVO has changed thus: a wider front bumper, realigned air inlets/outlets, redesigned rear bumper (featuring a carryover diffuser with new details and reorganized reverse/fog lights), color-matched side-skirts and new rear spoiler, different satin finish on the exhaust tips, new 17-inch wheels, and a fresh set of graphics. All that, and they've gone back to the old badge (shield versus circle). Inside, drivers have access to optional Sabelt racing buckets and a new vehicle dynamics system that allows them to control braking/steering/engine characteristics with a 2-mode lever (Sport and Normal) housed on the center tunnel. The selected driving mode appears on the dashboard, while a shift light (Gear Shift Indicator, or GSI) resides in the Jaeger-filled instrument panel. Other features to be found on Abarth's latest hot-hatch include Start&Stop technology and Torque Transfer Control (TTC), which provides a locking differential that is automatically activated in sport mode. While output has gone up, so has fuel economy and green-ness with the hot hatch returning a combined 6.0 lt / 100km (39.2 mpg US) with CO2 emissions of 142g / km. Now the real good news (as if no one saw it coming): an SS kit which pushes the envelope even further. The SS features lowering springs and 18-inch wheels in white or titanium, while output is cranked up to 180-horsepower and the brakes are beefed up with new pads and vented discs.
The Fiat 500 Abarth has certainly caught the attention of the tuning world in Europe. Making its world premiere at the '09 IAA in Frankfurt, the Hamann Largo is one of the most impressive tuning proposals for the Fiat 500 Abarth yet, putting to shame the official 180HP+ Ferrari-badged Abarth 695 special with its heavily modified 1.4-liter turbocharged engine that makes a jaw-dropping 265 horsepower at 5,630 rpm and 348Nm pr 257 lb-ft of torque at 4,200 rpm. Pretty impressive if you consider that the base model makes a mere 135HP and 206Nm. Hamann has yet to disclose performance figures, but we reckon that 265 ponies in a car the size and weight of the Fiat 500 should a spectacle worth seeing - don't know about driving though... A sport exhaust system that includes an end muffler with four pipes, a pre-muffler with a metal catalyser and a sport manifold along with a high-performance brake system with internally ventilated brake discs and 4-piston callipers up front and optional 257mm discs at the rear, as well as a sport suspension that lowers the car's centre of gravity by up to 60 mm complete the list of performance mods.
True to Hamann's nature, the Largo features an aggressively styled bodykit with new fender extensions that broaden the car body by 30mm at the front and 35mm at the back, beefy side skirts, front and rear aprons and a diffuser at the back. The Largo rides on 18-inch alloy wheels wrapped in high-performance sport tires measuring 215/35 ZR18 or optionally, 225/35 ZR18. As for the interior, changes include but are not limited to, an aluminium pedal set, a door mat set and embroidered logos. Pricing and more details are to be announced at a later date. photos
The Grande Punto Abarth “esseesse” kit or SS for short, was officially revealed at the IAA 2007 last week. Available exclusively from authorized Abarth dealers in early 2008, the sport kit includes a number of visual and mechanical enchantments. With the “esseesse” kit, the Abarth’s 1.4-litre turbocharged engine delivers 180 hp @ 5,750 rpm and a maximum torque of 272 Nm (201-lbs/ft) compared to the standard model’s 155 Hp and 206 Nm (152-lbs/ft) of torque. Combined with a 6-speed manual gearbox, the enhanced engine raises the Abarth’s top speed from 208 km/h (129 mph) 215 km/h (134 mph) while acceleration from 0-100 km/h (62 mph) drops from 8.2 sec to 7.7 sec.
Other mechanical modifications include the special suspension set up (both the front and rear suspension has been lowered by a further 20 mm compared to the Grande Punto Abarth), and the enhanced braking system (the front discs are perforated and fitted with high-performance pads).
Since being faster isn’t enough for most people, the “esseesse” pack also includes a very aggressive bodykit that adds new bumpers, side sills, large twin-exhaust pipes, a roof spoiler, plenty of stickers and 18-inch alloy wheels. For the moment at least, Abarth hasn't announced any accesories for the interior so we added the photos of the standard Grande Punto Abarth's cabin. According to Fiat, the “esseesse” kit is reserved especially for the Grande Punto Abarth, and can only be installed at official Abarth dealers. The car can be converted at the time of sale, up to 1 year after purchase, or after 20,000 km on the road. Once the work has been done, the tuner will deal with the administration required to have the vehicle approved. photos
