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John Floyd MANY of you will remember the scorpion as the symbol of Abarth, the Italian tuning organisation of some years ago, its association with Fiat being legendary.

Born in Vienna, Austria in 1908 Karl Abarth spent his lifetime designing and manufacturing performance vehicles. Later he moved across the border and became an Italian citizen and changed name to Carlo, he then formed the successful Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia, better known as Cisitalia.

The birth of the company we know today came about, when he and Armando Scagliarini registered Abarth and manufactured racing cars and performance exhaust systems.

Abarth's fascination was with smaller cars and in 1959 he focused on the Fiat Cinquecento and created a highly competitive track car, then in 1971 he sold the company to Fiat. Last week, fifty years after the original, the Fiat 500 Abarth was reborn.

I visited Fiat's testing ground at Bocolla for the international launch of the 500 Abarth. Situated between Milan and Turin the facility, the second largest in the world, was originally used by the Alfa Romeo F1 team, the perfect site for Fiat and Abarth to unveil the new addition.

Body styling leaves you with no doubt that the Abarth 500 is very different to the standard car.

The front has a larger central intake and two intakes on either side of the bumper ducting air to the two intercoolers, the lower spoiler is extended housing the turbocharger. The rear sports a deep bumper with an integrated aerodynamic diffuser and two large tail pipes and rooftop level spoiler. All this standing on a set of 16 or optional 17? alloy wheels which carry the Abarth scorpion on the centre boss.

Specially designed Abarth seats provide good support, the dashboard and instrument layout is similar to the standard unit but with the addition of an analogue boost gauge which incorporates a shift indicator. The three-spoke steering wheel with moulded grips, aluminium pedals with rubber inserts and a leather trimmed gearknob and handbrake lever ensure that you have maximum control at all times.

Under the bonnet there's a 1368 cc 4 cylinder 16 valve turbocharged engine that produces 99kW at 5500 rpm and 206 Nm of torque at 3000rpm, that's with the sports button activated which alters the mapping and provides overboost.

Transmission is though the front wheels via a five speed gearbox. Top speed is claimed at 205 km/h and 0 to 100 km/h in 7.9 seconds with a combined fuel consumption of 5.4 l/100 km.

Brembo have supplied the purpose designed brakes and the 500 has ABS, EBD, ESP, ASR, HBA, Hill holder and TTC to keep it all on the road. Torque Transfer Control (TTC) improves the transfer of drive torque to the wheels.

Blue&Me MAP with Telemetry makes its debut on the 500 Abarth and has been developed from Magneti Marelli's racing experience.

For a lucky few, two special limited editions of the 500 Abarth are available, the Opening Edition and the Assetto Corse. I addition to cosmetic changes the Opening Edition is powered by a 147kW, 230 Nm power plant giving the 500 a lot of grunt But this edition is already sold out.

Second up is the Assetto Corse a full blown track car fitted with a roll cage and fully prepared for racing, this mill pushes out 147 kW but with torque increased to 300 Nm and a six speed gearbox. The idea is to run a challenge series for the car and if you are lucky you may get your hands on one of only 49 built so far.

I experienced the Fiat 500 Abarth and the Assetto Corse on the track. The standard Abarth is a remarkable car offering the driver a vehicle that can be driven hard with absolute confidence, the chassis dynamics and the perfectly weighted steering make quick direction changes easy. On the longer bends you can feel the TTC trying to take control, but not too intrusively. Engine performance was extremely good and very tractable and 200kph comes up very quickly on the long Bocolla straights, that's where the Brembo brakes come in and they are more than up to the task, showing no signs of fade after some very hard laps.

In the Assetto Corse I was a passenger next to one of Fiats test drivers and he proved just how quick a small capacity car can be once it's had the Abarth treatment. The overall performance was stunning.

Priced, in Europe, at 18 500 Euros the order book is filling rapidly, not surprising either. The new Fiat Cinquecento Abarth is a great tribute to the founder, Karl Abarth, whose birth sign of the scorpion will once again put a sting in the tail.

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