Romeo Ferraris Fiat 500 Abarth Stradale Turns It To 11

I liked the Fiat 500 Sport quite a bit.  And that was with 101bhp.  It's a fun little car, with Italian flare, enough cute to make a Mini puke, and a fun little chassis that likes the curves.  How much more fun would the 500 be with oh, say, triple the horsepower?  I'd bet a lot.  I want to drive one.

This is the Fiat 500 Abarth Stradale, built by Romeo Ferraris.  It's a road-legal version of their 360-horsepower Abarth race car, complete with a carbon-fiber widebody kit that gives it a striking resemblence to everyone's favorite Sith Lord.

While the Abarth race car makes a ridiculous 360bhp from 1.4L, it's toned down a bit for the road going version - with 300bhp.  Romeo Ferraris is pretty tight lipped on what all they've done to pull 214bhp/l(!) out of Fiat's MultiAir four cylinder, but reasonable guesses can be made:  fortified internals, massive turbocharger, uprated fueling system, Rhode Island-sized intercooler (which is pretty visible), full exhaust, etc.  The power difference between the two is likely due to the presence of cats, and tuning for pump gas instead of race gas.  One would hope the clutch, flywheel, and transmission have been suitably fortified as well.

In addition to the monster turbo engine (that's more power than a Lancer Evolution, out of 1.4L), the 500 Abarth Stradale gets a race-ready interior.  Fixed-back buckets with 4-point harnesses probably fix the 500's biggest problem - the sky high seating position.  The integrated roll cage helps with peace of mind.  Of course, being a road car, it still retains a full interior - now trimmed out in carbon fiber and suede.  Looks great.

It's still not quite as over the top as the Motore Centrale 500, which rotates the entire drivetrain around 180° so it's sitting in the rear seats powering the rear wheels, but come on.  A widebody 300bhp Abarth 500 with 4-points?  Hell yes.  Where do I sign up?