FRS/BRZ vs. Fiat 500 Abarth

[Lasse]

Well, i like 500 abarth quite much. Still there is no competition which car is sportier and more driver's car.. 500 is most appealing hot hatch i think.

GT86 gonna be superior in so many ways.

[griso]

Originally Posted by Itgb

Well, US pricing on the Abarth was released today... $22,700 including destination.

it sounds good,in Italy 500 starts from 18950€ (about 24k $)
I love the exhaust sound of it.

[KeepGuessing]

Originally Posted by GenkiElite

Hahaha, Fiat! Im not driving a car J-Hoe is pimpin.

quoted for truth brother....

The fact that FIAT came out with a gigantic "homosexual" ad campaign for the gay pride celebration in Spain speaks volumes about the demographic/aim of these cars.

Whether or not the Multi-air engine in the Fiat 500 will be faster with money invested or not. If i needed a bug eyed micro car to get my "sporty car fix" I'd get a mini 10 out of 10 times before this...

[Itgb]

Originally Posted by Dark

500 got only 3 stars safety, while all Subaru got 5 stars. Fiat can go back and make a better/safer car.

Just to have all the facts on the table. It earned an IIHS Top Safety Pick. They also replied to the mediocre NHTSA rating and found they had used a car before a modification to the seat bracket assembly was implemented. So if retested again, it would probably perform better.

And what does every other Subaru model besides the BRZ have anything to do with this comparison? This is FR-S/BRZ vs. 500 Abarth. When the NHTSA and IIHS review the BRZ, then we can make a real comparison.

The 500 Abarth is still 230lbs lighter than the FR-S/BRZ and has 20lb-ft more torque. Plus since it's a turbo, an easy ECU flash would probably bump the power up even more. You know power is going to be harder to come by with the N/A engine in the BRZ. I think it will be a blast to drive regardless that it's not RWD.

And they made amends for the JLo crap. I'll just leave this here...


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[catharsis]

That interrior is absolutely gorgeous.

[KeepGuessing]

Originally Posted by Itgb

And they made amends for the JLo crap. I'll just leave this here...


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Sorry but that doesn't make amends for this..

and yes..THIS is actual FIAT advertisement.

[GenkiElite]

^^^^I think we can just stop here. No further discussion is needed.

[Lasse]

I have to go to test drive 500 abarth... I really need to go, it's most exiting and interesting car after GT86 and MR2. I'm still little skeptical about abarth, cos i didn't like AlfaRomeo MiTO that much. It did lack passion or something but Abarth is different story? Can you buy those Abarth parts afterward? I'm talking about mostly engine tuning and exhaust.

[Gardus@Supersprint]

If you mean if you can turn a normal 500 in an Abarth, you can't.

A Cooper S is a better car anyway.

[Zgrinch]

POS

[86fanatic]

Hands down the Abarth has the best sounding exhaust. Other then that I don't see a reason to buy. It's not really a driver's car, more of a fashion accessory to take to the ice cream parlor.

[Lasse]

Originally Posted by Gardus

If you mean if you can turn a normal 500 in an Abarth, you can't.

A Cooper S is a better car anyway.

No, i don't mean that. I mean Fiat 500 Abarth has different versions, like Essessee (Which is 160hp). It has different exhaust (sounds very nice and add +5hp ) suspensions and so on. Can you buy those parts afterwards in normal 500 Abarth?

[Gardus@Supersprint]

On the 500 the essesse kit is basically just a remap...there is the exhaust from Magneti Marelli with 4 exits made in mild steel and with a very unreliable valve.

On the Grande Punto Abarth instead the essesse kit included a bigger turbo...and that's what you want.

The problem is the GPA essesse kits are very rare, a friend of mine, tuner and president of Abarth Club Italy, has a few spare ones in his garage.

The best tune on the 500 after many tests is:

Essesse kit from the GPA
Full Supersprint exhaust (downpipe, cat, centre pipe, rear exhaust)
Serialtuning map (he's a tuner in Italy)
Forge Intercooler

With this the car is very fast AND reliable.
It doesn't lose torque in the low range and pickup / spool up are very fast.
200/205 hp and 320 nm of torque.

[Mango22]

What a fracking blast that car was to drive! If the BRZ was not coming to the US I would get one of these Abarth cars for sure. The shifter and clutch were so good. I actually liked the Abarth shifter and clutch better than the BRZ's. Say what??? yes it was good, really good. The seats and seating position were perfect placement of the clutch and shifter. I came away with a big grin after driving that car. The muffler is more vocal than I would have liked, since it would attract unwanted attention, but it fit the car and the fun factor. the car was equipped with the option 17inch rims and surprisingly the feed back was not harsh or choppy, therefore FIAT did a great suspension tuning on this car, especially for its short wheel base. Much better than the mini cooper S. I have owned a MINI S (with a reduction pulley) and this Abarth was so much more fun to drive.
Anyhow, thats my 2 cents. That car was a blast to drive!