FIAT Newswire

It's been in the rumourmill for sometime now, however, at a media preview for the new Abarth 500 held in Turin, FIAT have finally confirmed speculation that a new more powerful 500 will be released - possibly as early as November this year. This will come as great news for anyone who thought 135BHP wasn't going to be enough - with the new upgraded turbo-charged 1.4l engine putting out a massive 160BHP. Called the "esse-essee" kit (read SS) - along with the engine, it also includes a number of mechanical and visual improvements to the car and can either be fitted as an option at time of purchase, or, retro fitted up to one year after purchase, or 20,000km on the road.

Fiat has been putting a lot of money and energy into the rejuvenation of the Abarth brand as its own in-house racing and tuning division. Now preparing to unveil its second model, the Fiat 500 Abarth, at the fast-approaching Geneva show, Abarth also cut the ribbon on its new headquarters. Called Officine 83, Abarth has set up shop in the old Mirafiori engineering plant, adjacent to Fiat's design, experimental construction and engineering departments. The facility houses the racing team, the competition vehicles department and the road car unit, with the technical and design offices next to the workshops and the business offices upstairs. The interesting part, however, is not what Officine 83 includes, but rather space they left empty...