Auto Design

By Giancarlo Perini © Photo: Archivio Perini©.

As the new Fiat 500 Abarth is getting ready for the first test-drives on the Balocco test-track, by a selected number of motoring writers, ABARTH is ready to start a limited production run of a racing development that will revive the epic times, when our fathers were furiously racing a smallish metal box with a small two-cylinder 595 cc. engine in the back. Almost five decades later the concept is basically the same but the outcome and the car is radically different. It is called Fiat 500 Abarth Assetto Corse (Italian for racing tuned).

So far Abarth has released only virtual images of the car but we are happy to delight you with pictures of the real thing. The number 49 on the first unit exhibited within the enclosed circle of the latest 1000 Miglia says that only 49 units will be built and they all will be legal only on tracks. I assume, though, that some tuners will soon find the way of converting some of them for the road.
The “Assetto Corse” added to the Fiat 500 Abarth says it all. Indeed it is obvious that the turbocharged engine of the street-legal 500 Abarth can deliver a lot more. The question is to design and develop a chassis, brakes and tires that can stand as much as 147 kW (just 200 bhp) and some 300 Nm of torque.

This is what the “Assetto Corse” comes with. First you have to deliver all the storming potential to the front wheels. Than the wheels and steering ability must meet with that potential and the chassis must ensure that the car stick to roads with the proper suspensions, aerodynamics and tyres.

In short the car must get the treatment of a very serious racing car, and this is exactly what Abarth specialist have done.Waiting for the first races (and perhaps a test-drive) to entertain all of us, let’s have a look to what the Fat 500 Abarth “Assetto Corse” look alike.
Technical Specifications.

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