500 abarth in autoexpress

salvo's yellow punto · 13-07-2008

this weeks issue. 500 abarth oh my god i want one!

they like the car but say they thought it would have more power and be more chuckable like a go kart.but they stil love it.stick them in the 160bhp 500.see if thats enough power. i hate when a car has too much power and they say "its too much for the car to handle" and now the 500 gets "not enough power".they have to pick on something dont they! grrr

anyway loooks great, the more i look the more i want one. i wonder what insurance group they will be?

trackdayqueen · 13-07-2008

I like it lots, just hope its not going to be a case of style over substance.

I also read that they thought it rolled a bit too much and wasn't a sharp a drive as they expected.

For an Abarth I would expect it to be a sharp involving drive. If it isn't its just a marketing ploy. Hopefully its more than that.

sikersh · 13-07-2008

reviews here:

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol...cle4315936.ece

http://www.whatcar.com/car-review-full.aspx?RT=2883

salvo's yellow punto · 13-07-2008

haha reading them 2 reviews aswell....i want one even more now

lol

sikersh · 14-07-2008

As the reviews are flying in, I thought it would be better to put them in a seperate thread.

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol...cle4315936.ece

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/...th-CAR-review/

http://www.whatcar.com/car-review-full.aspx?RT=2883

trackdayqueen · 14-07-2008

Originally Posted by sikersh

reviews here:

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol...cle4315936.ece

http://www.whatcar.com/car-review-full.aspx?RT=2883

Pretty brief reviews. Really need to wait for something a bit more in-depth to come out.

sikersh · 16-07-2008

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carrevi...00_abarth.html

tim1989 · 17-07-2008

how come in all the reviews iv seen it says that the ss well have 160bhp i fort it was going to be 180bhp

**The Beast** · 17-07-2008

Originally Posted by tim1989

how come in all the reviews iv seen it says that the ss well have 160bhp i fort it was going to be 180bhp

Thats the GP version.

trackdayqueen · 17-07-2008

This worries me:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carrevi...00-abarth.html

Admittedly, the car does slip into understeer once its limits are breached. But given that this 500 is targeted at young buyers with minimal experience behind the wheel, that’s no bad thing.

Also bought autocar today as they had a big feature on the the Abarth:

The Abarth is very usable and a lot of fun, even if its not a car that you can easily steer with the throttle. Its trajectory tightens slightly if you ease the accelerator- more so if you've experimentally switched off the TTC- but the speedier way ahead is 'slow in, fast out', rather than lifting off slightly mid-corner to adjust your line before crushing the throttle

The latter part of that last sentence is what makes the Teg so much fun, you carry way too much speed in, lift off the rear end comes round, when at the required angle you nail the throttle as you can see through the apex and bang your out.

And then:

You can fling the 500 at bends with relative abandon, knowing that the electronics, within reason will sort things out.

So i'm a little dissapointed that it doesn't look its going to be as much of a fun chassis as i hoped, or really that it could be lots of fun but the nannying ESP won't let you enjoy it.

Its a pity Renault aren't allowing any test drives/reviews of the Twingo RS as of yet. I'm expecting it to have a sharper more driver focused chassis than the Abarth, which will probably do it for me.

white 500 · 17-07-2008

there is also a feature of the marangoni 500 (supercharged 1.4 )in max power, 2 page spread.
this does worry me as max power is the choice of the essex boy racer.
i may test drive an abarth but to be honest i think it looks a bit tacky compared to the standard car, and from watching the vids on the italian abarth website it sounds like it has a bit of turbo lag? its using the 1.4 turbo "fire" engines are these the same as found in the punto gt

sikersh · 17-07-2008

Originally Posted by trackdayqueen

This worries me:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carrevi...00-abarth.html

Also bought autocar today as they had a big feature on the the Abarth:

The latter part of that last sentence is what makes the Teg so much fun, you carry way too much speed in, lift off the rear end comes round, when at the required angle you nail the throttle as you can see through the apex and bang your out.

And then:

So i'm a little dissapointed that it doesn't look its going to be as much of a fun chassis as i hoped, or really that it could be lots of fun but the nannying ESP won't let you enjoy it.

Its a pity Renault aren't allowing any test drives/reviews of the Twingo RS as of yet. I'm expecting it to have a sharper more driver focused chassis than the Abarth, which will probably do it for me.

What you forget though is the majority of people are going to be using it for everyday driving on normal roads and are not going to be doing 70 into a corner.

Like Autoexpress say, its a great '1st step' car on the performance ladder and for only £14k, so I don't expect it to be the same as a car in the £18k region.

My current 100HP 500 has ESP and to be honest the car is A LOT of fun when you fling it about and drive it hard, so I'm not worried about it on the Abarth, although I agree you should be able to turn it off if you fancied killing yourself........and your car!!!

Si

milfy · 17-07-2008

i do like this photo before and after

minifunclub · 17-07-2008

Soooooo cute!

milfy · 17-07-2008

Originally Posted by minifunclub

Soooooo cute!

i want both wheres my cheque book

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