Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Fiat Grande Punto Abarth
































Fiat’s Abarth in-house tuning division will be making a comeback with the new Fiat Grande Punto Abarth. Set to bring Fiat back into the hot hatch game, the Grande Punto Abarth will feature a 1.4 liter Turbocharged engine making 150 horsepower at 5,500rpm on regular grade petrol, or 155 horsepower on RON98. With this engine, you get 6-speeds of manual fun to shift through. Peak torque is at 3,000rpm, with 230Nm, but only if you activate the sports mode which up the boost. Otherwise it is 206Nm at 2,000rpm. A more powerful version is also set to be revealed, with a total of 180 horses under the hood from the same engine.

The suspension system uses a McPherson layout at the front, and a torsion axle at the rear, similiar in setup to the Honda Civic 5-door Type R, something that has attracted criticism but somehow manages to perform well on the track. Brakes have Brembo twin pot calipers up front on 305mm ventilated discs, while the rear caliper is a single piston setup gripping 264mm discs.

An Abarth-tuned Fiat 500 is also in the works, which could prove to be quite fun.