As has been mentioned plenty of times before, the 500 handles MUCH better when it's got a bit of weight in the back. Taking the spare wheel out will only make the balance even worse.
Tuning Are there any simple performance mods for the 500?
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Tuning Are there any simple performance mods for the 500?
You are second-guessing the OP.
all they want is to make their car a bit more sprightly.
the removal of the spare wheel will have a negiigible effect on handling and will make the car a bit faster during day to day usage.
all they want is to make their car a bit more sprightly.
the removal of the spare wheel will have a negiigible effect on handling and will make the car a bit faster during day to day usage.
I'm sorry but you're still wrong. The 500 suffers from the fact that the rear is extremely light and the more weight within reason you can get in the back the better the balance, taking the spare wheel out of the back will have a noticeable effect with the rear being so light.
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Not to mention that 13kgs is less than half a tank of fuel..., can anyone really tell the performance difference between full and empty, I wonder.
That weight in the back is doing nothing good for the car on a straight road when you want to overtake another car and that is where the 1.2 litre engined 500 is most lacking. It is the weakest point of the car and people are forced to compromise on this only because the 1.2 litre car comes under the 120g/KM threshold, otherwise they'd be going for a more expensive diesel or less economical 1.4 engine.
I wouldn't suggest taking the wheel out of a 1.4 500 because the buyer of that car made a conscious decision to go with that car despite the extra cost and higher taxation.
Your values are not the values of the OP and you are second guessing them.
OK fair point 
But I would still suggest that overall the benefits in handling and also if you got a flat far outweight the small gain in acceleration
But I would still suggest that overall the benefits in handling and also if you got a flat far outweight the small gain in acceleration How often when driving a 1.2 litre FIRE engined FIAT have you tried to overtake a boll*x in another car who decides to accelerate to beyond the speed limit leaving you running out of road and forcing you to abort the overtaking manoeuvre.
From my experience there are a lot of people like that out there and it is one of the reasons why I don't regularly drive a small engined car anymore.
From my experience there are a lot of people like that out there and it is one of the reasons why I don't regularly drive a small engined car anymore.
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Indeed. Or put another way 1.4% of the car's total mass. So the improvement in acceleration would be to reduce your 0..60 from 12.9s to 12.7s.
Running without spare wheel and on empty, the 0..60 should be about 12.4s.... except it won't be anyway because of the momentum in the flywheel, particularly in 1st. Plus all of that is dependent on the engine performing exactly to spec and temperature and humidity being exactly as per the test conditions, and the road surface having the same balance of rolling resistance and tractability.
So basically it's all ******
