(T) Handling 1.6 v Abarth and mods/lpg conversion

I have a selespeed and want to know if anybody has found the same. My original 1.6 was lovely to drive around the A/B roads, it was very surefooted and confidence inspiring. Not so with the 2.4, I find it soft in bends and it tends not to track very well. Is it me or is the selespeed designed soft?
Is there anything I can do to improve the handling fairly easily?
Both run on 17 inch alloys and both with 215/45/17 tyres. Would changing tyres to 225/40/17 help? How easy is it to lower the springs?
Has anybody had their car converted to LPG, I have checked it out with FIAT and they say that they are happy for this to be done but any warranty work necessitated by conversion fault will not be covered (fair enough). If so how have you found it?
Love the car and have had it for 18 months but only done 7k miles as I had a bike accident last year taking out both my legs and arms and am just getting to terms with driving (it being an auto is priceless). Now having lost the economy of Bikes in Bristol traffic I am looking to change car to long term. Would consider the diesel if it were auto.
Thanks
Steve

I have a JTD and being similar weight to the Abarth I would say that lowering the car on quality springs will transform the ride and roadholding. My confidence in corners has increased tenfold. I thought my 1.6 was very washed out in the corners but it was a 5 door.

As you all know I have the 1.6 its not lowered but has a strutbrace fitted I dont have any problem putting this car into bends at high speeds you lot are just pussyfooting around drive the bloody car thats what its meant for

yea, I would suggest getting a strutbrace fitted and the car lowered, loads of people have had their stilos lowered and it seems pretty easy

never heard of anyone getting it converted to LPG though, did FIAT say how much it would cost?

fiat won't carry out the conversion to lpg, what they have said is it must be done by an lpga approved installer, as have my insurers. Conversion cost is 1500 all in which includes a full tank of gas and 2 years warranty. Have worked it out on 12000 miles per year, petrol = 1700 gas = 680. As it is now my only form of transport I guess I'll be doing more than 12k, what's nicer is that I will be able to go out on a saturday without it costing me a weeks wages. Apparently with new sequential systems the performance loss is negligible although fuel consumption is up by 10%, 38.9 pl gas or 93.9 unleaded?

As I have already said I have no problems with the 1.6, as fast as you like in and out of bends, the selespeed though is a different kettle of fish. It may be that the engine control is not there but I don't think this is the reason. It just appears to be less taught than the 1.6.

No matter what you do to the 2.4 it will never outhandle an evenly modified 1.6. The 1.6 has got a massive weight advantage to make it handle very well.

Still, the mentioned improvements transform the car.

if you intrested in a abarth LPG, this came up on ebay! Might be easier just to swap your car or you could ask the guys some questions?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/52-Fiat-Stilo-...QQcmdZViewItem

I have my stilo lowerd -50mm and i can say i noticed a substancle improve after the lowering as before the body roll and unstability at high speed into corners was ****!

Now ive had a strut brace fitted all i can say is, ive noticed even more of an improvement being the body more taught and the car can take corners even better now - both defiently worth the money if you ask me

Oh and i did notice a slight difference when i went from 16's to 17's, slightly more grip and i would imagion that would be the same between 17's to 18's if your finking about that! Though if you go for the lower profile on your 17's you probaly notice the difference - as in you'll feel the bumps and pot holes that lude are roads!!!

I have a 1.6 5dr and worked out that @ 23-24 K / year I could recoupe the cost of an LPG conversion in 12 months (fuel saving 1400 odd quid) whereas p/xing mine (valued @ 3k) against a Stilo JTD @ 6k (fuel saving 600 quid odd) would mean I would have hang onto the JTD for 3-4 years to realise the same cost saving!

Think petrol MW + LPG would be the way to go... Multi Wagon providing plenty compensation for the LPG tank in boot but will compromise estates versatility Did a lot of research into LPG for the Nissan Serena I had but it was 6 odd months too old for the government subsidy then in place... now totally withdrawn, despite being the cleanest way you can run a car - so much for Gov. claims of greeness!

Also note car must be warmed up on petrol then switched to LPG and switched back to petrol 2 miles prior parking up for the night as LPG can be in a frozen state in pipes under the bonnet even on summers days and failure to observe this leads to popped heater matrix (ashamed to say I didnt know this and popped an LPG Espace's this way... ooops!!!)

Thanks WNWL,
Have spoken with the guy on Ebay and he has had no problems with it despite the fact it's covered 92k. I think, for me, the drawbacks of the Abarth are pureley economy and tank range, the LPG conversion will remove both of these drawbacks (600 mile range if full tank of each is used). And why lose a shed load of money swapping a perfectly good car for a smaller car or a diesel when LPG gives the best of all worlds.
LPG here I come - whoopee.
With regard to grants they ended March 2005 - just after I bought it . That said I was being quoted between 1900 & 2300 for conversion this time last year. Now I'm getting it for 1500 so the prices are naturally dropping and the systems have come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years.

actually its pretty tempting to convert to LPG, at 1/2 the price to fill up you would save £25 a time (if you had a similar sized tank), the only problem is there isnt that many LPG stations in our area, well theres apparently 4 but none close to me so it would mean a several mile drive to fill her up ... which defeats the object!

My nearest is actually my nearest petrol station which is 7 miles away, but I don't generally use it as it is not on my way to work. Again, 38.9 p/l versus 93.9 petrol p/l makes it on my route. It's basically what you choose. All of us on this site have different tastes, requirements and needs. It could be argued that I should just get a diesel and the 330d is quite tempting, but even that would require an additional 7k expenditure for a high miler. There are, I think I've said, enough LPG stations across the country. I'm not going to try to pursuade everyone to buy into lpg, do the maths and make your choice. I'll be doing a full tank of petrol a week when I return to work so it makes perfect sense

Surprisingly, having just checked, Gloucester has 16 LPG outlets compared to 15 in Bristol. Which part of Glos do you live?