The sacred scorpion symbol still stirs Italian hearts, even though most are far too young to remember the glory days of Abarth&Co of Turin. At the 2006 Turin motor show, Fiat discovered that 90 per cent of visitors recognised the Abarth brand, once synonymous with Fiat-based (as well as other manufacturers’) high-performance cars and tuning kits. Having owned the Abarth name since 1971, Fiat responded promptly and the new Grande Punto Abarth is the first of a series of high-performance models.
Fiat Grande Punto Abarth.

It comes in two forms, the 155 and the 180, and we put both through their paces at Fiat’s Balocco test track in Italy. These are early days for the new Abarth venture and it has yet to be decided who will be granted permission to sell the cars in the UK. Whoever is included in that select band, both models will be available for sale here in July. The right-hand drive Grande Punto Abarth 155 will probably cost about £14,000.

Those wishing to go the whole hog and get the 180 will be required to buy the 155 and have it converted to the oddly named “esseesse” Super Sport specification. Maybe “esseesse” makes sense in Italian, but just call it the “SS” and you’ve got it. Only the complete SS kit can be bought and it must be fitted by the authorised supplier, for an extra £3,600 or so. The upgrade can be applied up to a year, and no more than about 12,000 miles, after a standard 155 has been purchased. These are informed guesses on prices but if Fiat can hold to these figures, the Grande Punto Abarth will be competitive in today’s very sophisticated hot-hatch market.

With rain early in the day, the track started wet and dried out slowly, so we had the chance to press the new Abarths safely to their limits in all conditions. The standard Grande Punto, introduced a couple of years ago, has proved a winner for Fiat. In terms of looks, performance and price, the package was right and it came in the nick of time for the company, which was then struggling painfully. The new Abarth versions now offer genuine high-performance options that feel suitably different. There’s no cynical badge-engineering here.

There are badges to distinguish it, of course, plus a new front bumper, a spoiler on the back, special lights and Brembo brakes visible through attractive 7×17in wheels. The revised suspension makes the car sit noticeably lower, though it’s only 10mm lower than standard. Inside there is a “carbon look”, comfortable sports seats in fabric or leather and special Abarth touches throughout. In short, it looks convincing.
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The “155″ stands for the metric horsepower output when 98-octane fuel is used, equating to 153bhp in our terms. It has a completely “drive by wire” throttle, with no mechanical connection, feels lively with its 0-62mph time of 8.2 seconds and sounds right. I queried the revs at which maximum torque occurs, as 5,000rpm seems unusually high. Apparently it’s correct, but pressing the sport mode button alters the throttle response and also gives an increase of about 10 per cent in torque, taking the peak down to 3,000rpm for more punch.

So far, so good. Now to test, on the wet track, the claim that there is no unwanted understeer.

It’s true, simple as that, and the lack of equally unwanted torque steer is another indication of how well this package has been engineered. Roadholding was also surprisingly good despite the weather and I could feel the ESP system doing its stuff, the car just wriggling almost imperceptibly in a near-neutral stance near the limit of its grip. In those conditions it still felt utterly secure, and traction under acceleration was remarkably good. Later, in the dry, the story was the same, only faster. The ESP system is locked, with no switch to turn it off, but the engineers maintain that however skilled the driver, the car is no quicker without it. I’m sure they’re right. It would be daft to turn it off.

Moving to the 180 “esseesse” Super Sport, with 178bhp this has almost twice the power of a basic new Grande Punto, bringing 0-62mph down to 7.7 seconds. The suspension is further revised to suit the extra power and it’s another 20mm lower. The brakes are upgraded and it runs on 18in wheels. Maybe it’s the very noticeable extra noise - which remains within legal limits - but the 180 feels a lot quicker than the 155, if otherwise similar in character. In reality, it wasn’t many seconds faster around the Balocco test track but it was much more fun. Again, the different noise inside had to be partly responsible for that.

The 180 produces quite a lot of power from a small engine, which might worry me slightly in the long run, but the warranty is exactly the same on all Grande Puntos, from the most basic right up to the 180. One thing nobody could assess was what the ride would be like on British roads. Pretty firm, I’d guess, though both models felt very acceptable on the Italian test track.

Will the new Abarth organisation succeed? As James May so rightly observed in his Telegraph Motoring column last September, you can’t preserve the past; it has gone for good. You can, however, use it as a powerful marketing tool. There is a good way to do this, and a bad way. The bad way is to get the marketing department to devise a few tweaks such as wide wheels, a mild increase in power, a badge and a few stripes. Throughout the industry, such fakes are usually rumbled by a buying public that is less gullible than some marketing experts might think.

The good way, which Fiat has chosen with this resurrection of Abarth, is to set up a well-funded separate operation and recruit the right engineers to do the job properly. Apart from the development of new models, prototypes and tuning kits, the new, autonomous Abarth will run Fiat’s competition activities under Claudio Berro.

Abarth managing director Luca de Meo insists it will be a self-standing brand, sensitive to the history of the original Abarth company, and he predicts that it will become profitable in two to three years. “We have studied history,” he says. “That’s the key to the future now.” What is that history? Austrian by birth, Karl Abarth moved to Italy in 1945, changed his name to Carlo and took up Italian citizenship. Through the 1950s and 1960s, he produced a bewildering variety of remarkable cars, often in association with Fiat, and the Abarth name became world-famous, as much for fancy and effective exhaust kits as for the exotic machines. After many years of success, the company went into liquidation in late 1971, when Fiat acquired the name. Abarth himself died in 1979.

Last but not least, how do you pronounce it? Strictly, the final “h” should not be heard, but try telling that to the hot-hatch brigade. Perhaps, after a long fight, we really should brace ourselves to rhyme it with bath now, but it will be hard.

We like:Style and performance, especially with “esseesse” kit; safe, sporting handling without excessive understeer; convincing use of the Fiat Abarth heritage.

We don’t like: Worries about ride on UK roads – but who knows? We could be pleasantly surprised this time.

By Telegraph

Just as we where getting ready to call it a day, a reader of ours dropped us an e-mail that included the first official images of the all-new Fiat 500 Abarth that’s set to be unveiled in Geneva next month. If you liked the standard 500’s appearance then you’re definitely going to fall in love with the 500 Abarth.

The sport version of Fiat’s hugely popular minicar has been fitted with an aggressive bodykit that included new bumpers, side skirts, a rear diffuser, wider fenders that house larger alloy rims, a roof spoiler, red mirror caps and Abarth decals. Add the twin exhaust outlets in the rear and this is one 500 that you won’t call cute. There are no images of the interior, but it apparent from the ghost sketches that Abarth has equipped the sporty 500 with a pair of red bucket seats.

Sorry to say, we don’t have any technical details in our hands yet, but we’re guessing that the 500 Abarth will be equipped with Fiat’s 1.4-liter turbocharged engine developing between 120 and 150 HP.

By CarScoop