Lucarelli-Monza Crafts Extreme Fiat 500 Abarth with RWD and Mid-Mounted 230HP Engine

There are tuners and there are tuners with some taking the easy way out going for a quick fix while others take up the challenge to create something truly unique. Italy’s Lucarelli-Monza belongs to the second category of tuners. The Monza-based tuning house has revealed details on its newest creation called the 500 Abarth Motore Centrale R230.

As its name implies, the heavily modified Italian hatchback gains a new layout with a mid-mounted engine and rear-wheel drive. Of course, such a radical change is not an easy task with the company having to re-engineer the entire vehicle.

Among other changes, the rear seats of the production model were dropped to create space for the engine while there’s also a new rear suspension set-up and a high-performance braking system with 335mm front- and 305mm rear- discs coupled with four-piston calipers.

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Chrysler Group to Unveil New Production Model and a Race-Inspired Study at New York Auto Show

We’re used to the Chrysler Group unveiling new or heavily refreshed models lately, and it looks like the company will keep the product momentum going at next week’s New York International Auto Show. According to a brief statement from the Detroit automaker, the company is planning the premiere of an unnamed production model and what is being described as a “race-inspired project vehicle” at the Big Apple. Chrysler is being quite secretive about the debuts as the company did not give out any other details. Read more »

Abarth 500 Turned into a 230HP Mid-Engined RWD Track Toy

Italian aftermarket specialist Lucarelli-Monza has transformed the Abarth 500 into a mid-engined track beast named Motore Centrale R230. The car will be unveiled at the upcoming Top Marques Monaco show (April 14-17), alongside the Spada Codatronca.

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IED's Abarth SCORP-ION Coupe Concept

If the rumors are true, Fiat's Abarth division may soon get its own version of the Alfa Romeo 4C mid-engined coupe, but for now, fans will have to make do with the SCORP-ION sports coupe study that was unwrapped at this week's Geneva Motor Show.
The SCORP-ION is a conceptual proposal for an environment-friendly sports car designed by the students of the Master of Arts in Transportation Design at the Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin (IED) and constructed in cooperation with Abarth. The strictly two-seater study measures 4.01 meters long and is powered by four electric motors, one on each wheel. Check out the video from the Geneva Show presentation after the break.


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Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition

This here is the actual, factual Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition special in the flesh, photographed at the Autopolis Fiat dealership in Luxembourg. We say this because yesterday, we reported on the limited run special and Fiat's photoshoped picture that made the internet rounds. While our friends from Auto55 and Autofans verified the story with the official press release, we were left wondering what the Italian mini with the classic racing-livery would look like in real life. 

Today, our pondering came to an end as the Marketing and Communications director of Autopolis Luxembourg dropped the first real life shots of the car in our mailbox. We believe Fiat should have released these photos instead of the 'chop from the beginning, but we'll give them props for keeping a close eye on the web-o-sphere and swiftly reacting to our post. 
 

As for the car itself, it was created by the Italian brand's official importer for Luxembourg, Autopolis, in association with Gulf Petroleum, to celebrate the latter's 10th anniversary in the country.
Only ten examples of the Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition will be built, each priced at €25,000 (not including VAT) a piece, which is about US$34,000. Aside from the iconic Gulf Racing livery, the special edition 500s also get the 'esseesse' performance kit that pushes the 1.4-liter turbo engine's output to 160-ponies, a Monza sport exhaust and Corse-Sabelt racing buckets with the seatbacks finished in Gulf-blue. 

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Fiat's Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari

The Fiat 500-based, Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari, is possibly the closest we'll ever get to a baby model from the company with the Prancing Horse logo. And now, almost a year after its world premiere at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show in Germany, Fiat has confirmed UK availability.

Only 152 examples of the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari will be available in right hand drive form in Britain, each carrying a steep price tag of £29,600, which comes to around €35,500 or US$46,900 at today's exchange rates. That's roughly what you'd pay for a BMW 135i Coupe M Sport (£30,675) in the UK.
Those select few buyers get what Fiat describes as a Ferrari inspired design with a unique Scuderia Red finish complemented by racing stripes, carbon fiber mirror caps, 17-inch Corsa Grey wheels, additional air inlets / outelts and quad tail pipes.

The hot hatch's interior has also been upgraded with carbon fiber bucket sport seats from Sabelt that weight 10 kg or 22 lbs a piece less than the standard seats, a flat-bottomed black leather steering wheel with red leather inserts, carbon trim and a new instruments specially made by Jaeger
Under the skin, the Prancing Horse-branded mini sports a pumped up version of standard Abarth 500's 1.4-liter turbocharged four-banger with 180-horsepower at 5,500rpm and 250Nm of torque at 3,000rpm, hooked up to a five-speed automated manual gearbox.
Fiat says its can accelerate from 0-62mph (100lkm/h) in seven seconds and has a top speed of 140mph (225km/h), while returning 43.3mpg UK (36.1 mpg US) on the combined cycle.
Completing the mechanical upgrades are the four-pot Brembo discs and recalibrated dampers.
Those interested can place their order through Abarth's 17-strong UK dealer network. 
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Paris Show: Abarth 500C Esseesse

If you feel the regular Abarth 500C could benefit from a few more ponies under the hood, Fiat's performance division has the answer in the form of the Esseesse edition. The tuning package bumps output of the standard 1.4-liter turbocharged engine from 140HP and 206Nm to 160HP and 230Nm, respectively.
As a result, the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) drops 0.6 seconds to 7.5 seconds, while top speed increases from 205km/h to 209km/h (130mph).
The scorpion-branded version of Fiat's 500 rag-top convertible that was shown in Paris featured a two-tone paint job with a white chromatic line separating the two colors, and came fitted with a Record Monza exhaust silencer and unique 17-inch alloys with 5 diamond shaped spokes.

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Romeo Ferraris' Fiat 500 Abarth Monza

Apparently, Italian tuning firm Romeo Ferraris believes that the Fiat 500 is a dish best served with lots of power. Named after the legendary Italian circuit, the 500 Abarth Monza is a limited edition Fiat on steroids sporting extensive engine and styling modifications.
At the heart of the 500 Abarth Monza is a heavily tuned version of the stock car's 1.4-liter force fed engine featuring a new and larger turbocharger complete with an intercooler, optimized ECU and a custom sport exhaust system, just to mention a few of the upgrades. The end result is an eye-popping 260-horsepower. All that power is transferred to the front wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox and a limited slip differential.
The 500 Monza rides on 17-inch Romeo Ferraris alloys, wrapped around in 205/40 Yokohama Parada tires, while a Brembo brake set and a sport suspension with adjustable shocks complete the performance package.
The tuners at Romeo Ferraris also developed a styling kit with a front carbon fiber splitter, hood air intake, rear diffuser, and black mirror housings and door handles, plus Autodromo Nazionale Monza livery.
As for the interior, the designers applied the same white color theme accented by red and blue stripes as the exterior, with most parts of the cabin dressed in a combination of leather and Alcantara.
Only ten units of the bespoke Fiat 500 will be built.

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Geneva Preview: New Abarth Punto EVO

A few months after the premiere of the (facelifted) Punto EVO, and Abarth has announced that it has prepared its own version of the three-door supermini packing a 1.4 liter turbocharged Multiair four-banger that will debut alongside the souped-up 500C that we told you about earlier today at next week's Geneva Motor Show.
Fiat's performance division has sourced a larger turbocharger from Garrett in order to lift output to 165-horsepower and 250Nm of torque (at 2,250 RPM). 100 km/h rolls by you in 7.9 seconds, meaning there's got to be more than just a power boost to make this worthy of the Abarth name. And there is.
In the handling department, the Abarth provides a beefed up suspension consisting of McPherson struts up front and a torsion-bar-eqipped "semi-independent" rear suspension out back. Combined with a new, bigger anti-roll bar and 20% stiffer springs, the Abarth should make a standard Punto EVO feel like a boat - or so to say.
Aerodynamics have improved over the outgoing model and more than couple of beauty enhancements have also been made.

Abarth's Punto EVO has changed thus: a wider front bumper, realigned air inlets/outlets, redesigned rear bumper (featuring a carryover diffuser with new details and reorganized reverse/fog lights), color-matched side-skirts and new rear spoiler, different satin finish on the exhaust tips, new 17-inch wheels, and a fresh set of graphics. All that, and they've gone back to the old badge (shield versus circle).
Inside, drivers have access to optional Sabelt racing buckets and a new vehicle dynamics system that allows them to control braking/steering/engine characteristics with a 2-mode lever (Sport and Normal) housed on the center tunnel. The selected driving mode appears on the dashboard, while a shift light (Gear Shift Indicator, or GSI) resides in the Jaeger-filled instrument panel.
Other features to be found on Abarth's latest hot-hatch include Start&Stop technology and Torque Transfer Control (TTC), which provides a locking differential that is automatically activated in sport mode.
While output has gone up, so has fuel economy and green-ness with the hot hatch returning a combined 6.0 lt / 100km (39.2 mpg US) with CO2 emissions of 142g / km.
Now the real good news (as if no one saw it coming): an SS kit which pushes the envelope even further.
The SS features lowering springs and 18-inch wheels in white or titanium, while output is cranked up to 180-horsepower and the brakes are beefed up with new pads and vented discs. 

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