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The starting MSRP of the 2012 Abarth 500 will be $22K, not including a destination charge, when it goes on sale. A John Cooper Works Mini, by contrast, starts at $30,600. More »
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Sports Ilustrated swimsuit model Catrinel Menghia is the hot, anthropomorphic incarnation of the Fiat 500 Abarth in the now-famous ad every auto enthusiast in the United States has fallen in love with. Although she's actually Romanian instead of Italian, she certainly does a pretty spectacular job playing one on TV. More »
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Fiat's been promising a Fiat 500 Abarth for those of us who don't own capri pants, but we've wondered if it would be the wimpy 135-hp lame one or the Bunga Bunga 160-hp version. Wonder no more. This new econobox is as wicked as Berlusconi. More »
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Fiat is still milking the trend that Porsche figured out a long time ago: when it comes to sporty cars with image, people will pay a whole lot more to get a whole lot less. More »
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Looks like Top Gear's planning a show on mini hot hatches like the Abarth Fiat 500, Citröen DS3-R and Renault Clio RS. Bystanders caught them chilling in Lucca, Italy's Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, a space large enough for some serious paving-stoned hoonage. Great news! More »
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Think of cars and Southern California and 1956, and the first thing that comes to mind is definitely not an infinitesimal Italian road racer. The photo archives of Orange County tell a different story. In those years of wild pastel paintjobs, one Abarth 207A Spyder made it all the way to Anaheim, California. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5767102&view=rss&microfeed=true The spicy Abarth version of the Fiat 500 promised for U.S. shores early won't be the one on sale in Europe now, but a "next generation." Also, it's got a hard date. 2012. Express your wishes below. More »
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No matter how many times, and how many carmakers slap on the vaunted Gulf racing livery, it always looks good. It's the little black dress of liveries. Update: or is it a fake? [Autofans.be] More »
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It's possible the excitement we feel about the American Fiat 500 introduction's just misplaced hope for the importation of the hot Abarth 500, which now makes us want the even hotter 212 hp Novitec-tuned version. More »
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Fiat has an unenviable reputation in the U.S.. The Abarth name here is less well known, but is revered among the enlightened. Put them together and you get something like today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Ritmo. É buono? More »
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This is a photo of legendary racer/designer/builder Carlo Abarth sitting at a table full of apples in front of his Abarth-modified Fiats. We have no context for this photo, but we don't really need it. [OMGITFS via Fragments*] More »
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It’s called the Abarth 2000 Pininfarina. It’s 40 years old. It also doesn’t exist. What a shame. More »
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No, seriously, this is a Fiat Abarth Trofeo racing on two wheels. Did you catch that? We can't really be any clearer. Steely-eyed Cinquecento stuff, this. The best part? He saves it! More »
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Lots of big news in the early evening part of the presentation from the New New Chrysler marathon news session. Click "more" to learn about the new page the Ram brand may be turning and the scoop behind the logo. More »
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One day after the big Park Street Auto Show, the All-Italian Car And Motorcycle Show takes place just across town. No way could I resist a middle-school playground packed with weird Fiats! More »
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What you see here is a rally car run by Fiat’s factory racing team in 1975 with great success. It’s called the Fiat Abarth 131/031 Mirafiori 3500 Bertone. More »
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If the rumors are true and Fiat does bring the Fiat 500 stateside we hope it brings this, the 160 HP Fiat 500 Abarth SS. More »
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If you liked the vintage documentary about the 1958 Alpine Cup, you'll just have to blow off your job for the next 40 minutes or so to watch this '65 Targa Florio documentary. More »
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October is generally the warmest month here by the Bay, so that's when you get the big car shows on the island. On Saturday, Park Street was taken over by hundreds of chromium-dipped chariots; the following day, a horde of Ferraris, Fiats, Lancias, Alfas, and the like swarmed across the bridges and set up shop on the soccer field of the junior high school at which I was forced to learn "The Hustle" in P.E. class, circa 1979. Sadly, the LeMons-veteran Ecurie Ecrappe Alfa wasn't there, but the presence of such jewels as a Fiat 2100 wagon, supercharged Lancia Scorpion, and SEAT 850 compensated somewhat. Jump, jump, and see all the purty cars! More »
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An Italian car with a glorious racing history should be given the red-carpet treatment at the Concorso Italiano, so you figure the Ecurie Ecrappe 1971 Alfa Romeo Spider should be a slam-dunk Best Of Show winner. Sadly, such was not the case, in spite of the car's great performance at many 24 Hours of LeMons races (when everything works, it's one of the fastest things on the track). Ecrappe member TheEastBayKid shot us a bunch of photos of the event; make the jump for the big gallery and EBK's description. More »
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We're going to leave Anaheim and head a few additional miles behind the Orange Curtain... to Costa Mesa, as we continue our special Down On The California Street DOTS-O-Rama. Costa Mesa, as you may recall, gets a Thomas Pynchon shout-out in Vineland, with the Great South Coast Plaza Eyeshadow Raid sequence taking place at the city's famous shopping mall. We can thank VeeArrrSix for capturing this not-very-legally-registered little yellow bomb for us; make the jump to read his description. More »
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While we feel as if we're no stranger to the new Abarth-tuned Fiat 500 — we've seen all the press shots, seen all the leaked specs and even seen a gigantic Fiat-pooping 500 — it doesn't compare to seeing it in person. Here's our first glimpse at the tarted-up Abarth 500, and although not as cute as the cinquecento, it's still as adorable as the base model. And now there's even 33% more power to love as the folks at the Turin-founded and now Fiat-owned Abarth have turbo'ed that 1.4-liter gas engine, bumping the power up from the meek 100 bhp (as Ben found out in his test drive of Fiat's 2007 small hotness) to 135 bhp at 5500 rpm. That power-play gives the 500 a 0-to-62 mph grade of 8.2 seconds. Not too shabby and definitely allows the remnants of the Abarth family to rest easy knowing the "small but wicked" past continues into the present. Full press release after the jump.
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It looks like the Jalopnik readership did some agonized soul-searching and decided to go with the 308/Esprit combo over the somewhat imcomplete 365 at a 7-to-3 ratio in yesterday's Cheap Ferrari Edition Choose Your Eternity poll. But an Italian car versus an Anglo-Italian 2-fer brings to mind an interesting PCH dilemma: what happens when you pit a geeky-yet-cool Italian car against a geeky-yet-cool French car? No dreamworld Quattroporte versus SM here; instead it's a pair of cars that don't cost all that much and can even be driven... straight to Hell (i.e., your garage). More »
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Fiat's not kidding around with the launch of its Abarth tuning marque. Following an initial launch at the Geneva auto show earlier this year, The company's treating the venerable racing shop — and Fiat property since 1971 — as its own motorsport lifestyle brand, with swank, high-style offices, a racing division to rallying and racing projects and an online TV channel. All of this hoo-ha is required, considering only hardcore enthusiasts are aware of Abarth's racing achievements and scorpion logo. Watch for the T-shirts on ultra-tanned, coffee-slugging youngsters at a Bolognese cafe near you. More »
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With the old fashioneds well emptied and the hoopla surrounding the Pebble Beach Concours moving into forgotten, it is now time to present the never prestigious Jalopnik Choice Award. This 1959 Fiat 600-based Abarth Zagato 750 is part of the San Diego Collection, and on the block for a 125K. The Karl "Carlo" Abarth worked 750cc engine kicks out 57 horsepower, which propels the double bubble top coupe to a top speed of 112 mph! Fun to drive invariably comes as part of car's 1200-pound curb weight. Style is courtesy of Zagato. The final bid on this as-yet-unsold car was 88K. We're hoping to find the 500-dollar restorable version hidden underneath seventy three boxes of old Sunset magazines at a Burbank garage sale. [Fiat Zagato via the San Diego Collection] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=291999&view=rss&microfeed=true Judging from the satisfying exhaust burble that surfaces near the end of this clip, the return of the Abarth Cinquecento will be a watershed moment for the modern Fiat brand. It could even elevate the 500's revival to the pinnacle among retro plays, a trend that appeared to be fading out with each passing Mini Cooper. Rumors place the Abarth-tuned 500 on American shores by decade's end. Would that it were true. – Mike Spinelli More »
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That sound you just heard was our heart doing a triple gainer off our sternocleidomastoid muscle. Apparently, Automotive News Europe reports Fiat is considering the sale of an Abarth-tuned Fiat 500 in the US. Such rumors have been ripping through the car-o-sphere since word first came down about the revived cinquecento. But now, it's Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne's loose lips doing the gossiping. Marcionne says he's like to sell an Abarth 500 in the US as competition with BMW's Mini Cooper and Volvo's C30. But it's unclear whether such a car would get a Fiat badge, considering the company's more intent on keeping Alfa Romeo's US return on track. That means we could see Alfas by 2009, and perhaps an Abarth 500-based Alfa Junior? The mind reels. – Mike Spinelli More »
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Maybe it's all the stripes and fat tires against the Fiat Grande Punto's hot hatchness, but both the Abarth Rally2000 racer and Punto Grande win our Wish We Had It Here prize for 2007. And by here, we mean the US, where the new Abarth tuners will join other Fiats in being entirely absent. Word is, this lack will continue for the forseeable future. – Mike Spinelli More »
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The return of Abarth is near. If you'll recall, the motorsports firm of Carlo Abarth spent the 1950s and 1960s building race-winning cars sports cars that showed up many a big name. It also built tuning kits for Fiats, and was eventually taken into the bosom of the Agnelli dynasty. Now, Fiat's reviving the name for a new factory tuner and a rally team. The Grande Punto Abarth will appear at the Geneva show with its rally cousin, the Abarth S2000. Both bear the Scorpion logo, but it's the rally car that's the true scion of Carlo. The four-wheel-drive S2000, built for the International Rally Championship, produces 270 hp, while the Punto Abarth creates 150 hp from a 1.4-liter turbo, though an add-on tuning kit will boost power to 180 hp. It'll also get a six-speed, Brembo stoppers, an aero kit and wider meats. Yes, please. – Mike Spinelli More »
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Quick history: Before Fiat bought Abarth in 1971 as an in-house tuning shop, the motorsports firm that bore the name of Viennese car tweaker Karl "Carlo" Abarth, began transforming modest Fiat 600s into racing legends as far back as the 1950s. Now, as we gleaned from Fiat Group's product plan leaked late last year, the company's planning to revive its Abarth tuners, starting with the Grande Punto and extending to the new 500 subcompact. Now, AutoExpress reports the Abarth Punto will be a full-on hot hatch, inspired by the company's rally program, with a twin-turbo mill producing around 200 hp. Expect a Geneva debut. – Mike Spinelli More »
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Fans of race-bred Fiats of old will be pleased to see the Abarth badge associated with the Fiat Trepiuno concept, which is said to be a harbinger of a new, retro-styled Fiat 500 on the way. Eurocar Blog located some sketches that depict the Trepiuno in the red-and-white livery of legendary motorsports tweaker, Abarth, along with renderings of what could be the new 500's interior. Word is the new model will show up in mid-2007, possibly developed in partnership with Ford. More »
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