FIAT 500 ABARTH ASSETTO CORSE
The retro-kicky new Fiat 500 is expected to arrive in the United States by 2011. In addition to the two-door hatchback, a runaway hit in Europe, look for a convertible, a wagon, and a mini-SUV. Enthusiasts will keep their eyes peeled for the 135-hp Abarth 500, with considerably more power than base models. But one 500 you won't see here is this one, number twenty-six of forty-nine Fiat 500 Abarth Assetto Corses. A racing car built to compete in multiple European support series, it's already sold out its limited run, but our Abarth-loving benefactor had the foresight to buy one off the stand at the Turin show and bring it to America. We're glad he did, because it comes closer to fulfilling the Abarth ideal than any Fiat model in ages.
With a mere 1.4 liters of displacement, a tiny engine by modern standards, the Assetto Corse (meaning racing trim) still wins the largest-engine-of-the-day contest here walking away. And that's before you consider its 200 turbocharged and intercooled hp or the 221 lb-ft of torque being pumped vigorously through its seventeen-inch front wheels. This is nothing like walking.
Sitting inside the Assetto Corse's stripped, carbon-fibrous interior, helmet snug and all cinched tight in its single racing seat, it's easy to see where 397 pounds have been shed, even with the addition of a full roll cage. So lightened, this Abarth is scary fast, a virtual supercar next to the company we've been keeping.
Because the nonadjustable seat is set for a taller driver, I can barely see out and have a slightly tentative purchase on the pedals, which only magnifies the terrorizing effect of so much get up and go running through the front wheels in a tall, narrow car with crazy turn-in.
But leave it to Seinfeld to zero in on the most esoteric of differences between Abarth's tiny new rocket versus its more languidly beautiful creations of the 1950s:
"The materials in the new 500 just don't excite me like the older stuff does. If only they could figure out a way to get that old-car smell into a new car. I don't know if it's the paint or the horsehair or the carpet -- old cars never run out of smell. That's the only thing I don't understand; they continue to pump out smell year after year.
"I don't know, I'd rather go slower and smell that stinky smell."