As you might have expected, Abarth, the tuning arm of FIAT has announced plans to build a factory tuned version of the freshly launched Fiat 500C. Even if the 500 city car will be less expensive, it will compete head to head with compact sports cars like the John Cooper Works Mini.

The Abarth 500C will be with a choice of two engines. The first is a 1.4 Liter Turbo-Jet making 133 HP, 15 HP more than the Mini, as well as an Esseesse model cranking out with 157 HP. Either way it is more than enough grunt to give the 500C some much needed get up and go.

Like for the coupe version, Abarth version will wear a bodykit that consists of redesigned front and rear bumper, restyled hood, lower hanging side skirts, a roof spoiler and rear diffuser. The side mirrors are dressed up with red painted covers and a pair of polished exhaust pipes sticks out from underneath the new diffuser. The factory tuned Abarth 500C will also be offered with a set of larger 16 inch rims or the optional 17 in alloys. The way that the small car market is looking, it may not be too long before we can buy one of these striped little hot hatches from Abarth.

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