Fiat 500 Abarth Esseesse review
Fiat 500 1.4 T-Jet Abarth Esseesse Road Test
Test date 25 March 2009
Price as tested £17,207
For Charm and verve, interesting interior, keen handling, showroom appeal
Against Unyielding ride, limited interior toom, lacks straight-line pace of other rivals
Since 2002 the Mini Cooper has had things all its own way. While there is no shortage of hot hatchbacks on the market at the moment, there is a shortage of ones that, like the Mini, have an inherent showroom appeal and a hefty dollop of cheek to accompany their performance and handling. Well, now there’s the Fiat 500 Abarth, too.
The Abarth brand was reborn last year with the Punto Abarth (Fiat would like us to see it as a brand in its own right, but it needs to make significantly greater changes to Fiats before we’re ready to do that). The 500 Abarth is offered with a 1.4-litre turbocharged engine in two stages of tune, depending on whether it’s in standard form or, as tested here, with the optional Esseesse (SS) performance pack that boosts its poke. The Esseesse components are delivered in a crate, for £2500.
Base 500 Abarths rival the Mini Cooper. In its Esseesse trim, the Abarth 500 is the closest competitor there is to the Cooper S – at least, it is in terms of conception and image. But can it match it for speed and interaction, too?
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