It is common knowledge that you should never bring a knife to a gun fight, right? What if you brought a knife that was so heavily modified that it could call in a drone strike? Then that knife would be far more useful in said fight. That’s kind of what I think this 450-horsepower Fiat 500 is. It may have started life as a knife, but now it’s circling overhead for a laser-focused carpet bombing attack on your puny little gun.
Allegedly this time attack Fiat still retains its original 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder T-JET engine, though it has been fitted with a much larger turbo and the internals are surely much more serious to handle the extra helping of boost. This car started its life as the most aggressive version from Abarth, the 695 Biposto, which was already a 190 horsepower 185 lb-ft monster with a scad of lightweight componentry. More than doubling the power with a huge turbo is one way to crank up the fun quotient on track. It also makes for a slightly unruly throttle-on corner exit.
I guess with enough aero you can make anything stick, but this car just looks a little bit wrong going this fast around a race track. With a wheelbase the size and shape of a Tic Tac box, a tall and narrow body, and sticky tires, it feels like this car should be violently flipping over as soon as it turns into the first corner. What even are physics?
I absolutely adore this little friend that spits fire. It’s like a Charmander starter that you leveled up to 75 and prevented from evolving because you wanted it to learn new moves quicker, and then just liked the idea of a cute little thing that could one-shot all five of Lorelei’s water and ice types in the Elite Four, despite having a type disadvantage. No? Just me? Okay, anyway, spitting flames is cool.