At the end of 2010 Romeo Ferraris unveiled the Abarth 500 Estremo, but now the company is celebrating their 25th anniversary and an occasion like that calls for a much more stylish and special vehicle: the Abarth 500C Anniversario.
The car is painted in a two-toned fully chromed exterior paint, which captures the attention with its unique reflections, but does not dazzle in the sunlight, as the percentage of chromium does not exceed 60%. The top is painted in silver chrome, while the lower is painted in red. The exterior kit is finished by a new set of 17" wheels wrapped in high performance tires.
Under the hood, the 1.4 liter turbocharged engine has been tuned with a new air filter, turbocharger (this also includes turbo accessories), a downpipe with fresh catalytic converters. The result is an increase of 63 HP up to a total of 203 HP. The competition kit is finished with new Brembo parts (280 mm rotors and four-piston calipers for the front axle).
Okay, just reading the name of this car should make everyone wonder just how much it is going to cost, and don’t worry, we’ll get to that. First let’s introduce the car. The Abarth 500C is typically no more than about $25,000 and features lots of little goodies, like that four cylinder inline engine that delivers a weak 140hp. Now add a tuning package from Fenice-Milano that consists of a little bling bling, and now this expensive ride starts to sparkle.
Just how expensive is this little car? Well, take the base Abarth 500C, add 24k gold inserts and an Apple iPad Supreme Edition made out of 24k gold and diamonds, and now you got yourself a $660,000 vehicle. That’s right, that is what a Chinese customer ordered and paid for this bedazzled 500. Ridiculous? Absolutely. Intriguing? Hell yeah!
Hit the jump to read more about the Fenice-Milano La Dolce Vita Gold and Diamonds 500C.
Full story
A standard Abarth 500 develops a total of 135 HP, but how about cranking it up a few notches and almost doubling the output? The package capable of this comes from Romeo Ferraris and is called the Estremo (that’s Italian for extreme). Their package develops a total of 260 HP and can be ordered for both coupe and convertible versions.
The car is painted in Blu Pozzi, an exterior color reserved for supercars like the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and 599 GTB. The exterior also gets ice cap chromed mirrors, opening vertical doors, and "260 hp Far" applied on the hood and tailgate .
For the interior, the tuner is has chosen tobacco colors for the grain leather coating for the sports seats and all the plastic parts (instrument panel, door panels, rear panels, pillars). The sun visors and surface of the trunk get special carpeting and Alcantara.
In order to obtain the 260 ponies, the tuner has modified the parameters of the ECU and replaced most of the standard components of the engine compartment with high-performance products (turbine, injectors, pistons, camshaft, flywheel intercooler and front).
With the increasing number of tuned-up and special edition Fiat 500s being released recently, it didn’t really come as a surprise to us that Fiat was going to do something unique with the 500 to introduce itself to the US market.
And wouldn’t you know it, they actually did.
The setting was the four-day Exhibitalia event in Miami where Fiat was on hand to participate in its first American art exhibit. During the four-day event, the Italian automaker displayed an array of vintage and new Fiat 500 models, showcasing the model’s iconic Italian design.
Fiat’s involvement at the Exhibitalia event at the Art Basel in Miami also included the participation of a number of renowned artists and two student teams from the University of Miami, all of whom worked on the car as their “inspiration and canvas” in the creation of their artworks. While others opted to create designs using certain body panels of the little hatchback, one such artist – Christian Balzano – decided to use the whole car and turn it into his own personal Fiat 500 Art car.
As far as US debuts are concerned, you have to hand it to Fiat for doing its part to ensure splashy debut for their popular 500 hatchback.
Short Press Release after the jump.
Full story
The Fiat Abarth 500 has become one of the more popular hot hatches to sprout special editions these days and this Abarth 500 ‘Monza’ edition is no different. Limited to only 10 units, this limited run hot hatch pays tribute to the legendary Italian racetrack just north of Milan.
Though it’s not as fancy and as flamboyant as many other special edition 500s we’ve seen in the past, the Abarth 500 Monza’s combination of sound and simple aesthetic interpretation and surprising performance power makes it a real collector’s dream. The fact that only ten people in the world can have a chance to own one makes it that much more enticing.
Full story
