The impatient driver in the Mercedes-Benz E-class never had a chance. While driving the new Fiat 500 Abarth along the A13 autoroute just outside of Paris,we somehow missed the sign indicating the speed limit had jumped far above our current pace. Suddenly, the big German luxury sedan was looming in the rear window, its three-pointed star only inches from our rear bumper. While the polite thing to do would be to move over and make way, the 135-hp Abarth does not take kindly to being bossed around. A quick gearchange from the five-speed manual transmission elicited a bark from the Fiat’s little turbocharged-and-intercooled 1.4-liter four-cylinder and the car shot down the road. In a couple seconds, the Benz is a tiny speck in the rearview mirror. Although its size is deceiving, the Fiat 500 Abarth is a full-blooded Italian sports car in a small-car package.
Reviving an Icon
When it was launched in late 2007, the standard 500 became an instant hit for Fiat, overflowing order books across Europe. For the first time, BMW’s Mini finally had a true competitor when it came to combining chic looks and fun-to-drive manners (not to mention a seemingly endless options sheet). Like the Mini, the Fiat 500 owes much of its success to a retro exterior. Inspired by the classic 500 built from 1957 to 1975, thisnuova 500 could easily have sailed along on its good looks and already-impressive sales record. Yet, Fiat remains an Italian car company at heart, for which driving passion far outweighs pie charts. The Abarth badge stretches back to the 1950s and ’60s, when company founder Karl Abarth kept busy turning grocery-getting Fiats into pint-sized track terrors. The Abarth brand laid dormant and forgotten for more than a decade before it finally was absorbed into the Fiat Group in the early 1970s.
Keep Reading: 2009 Fiat 500 Abarth - First Drive Review
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