Passion. It’s an intense emotion towards someone or something. And that’s the word Kevin Flynn uses to describe the Fiat 595 Abarth. It fits the description. One look at it and you know that it isn’t meant to be practical and yet, you want one. The 595 Abarth heralds the launch of the Abarth brand and we are at the Buddh International circuit to have a go at one of the most evocative offerings to come out of Fiat’s stables.
It looks bloody brilliant, the 595 Abarth. It retains the cuteness of the Fiat 500 with the right amount of vents, slats, strakes, stickers and 17-inch deep dish alloys to have even bearded alpha males swooning over it. On the inside, it’s all business with Sabelt racing seats wrapped in Alcantara that do a good job of holding you as you go drive around, and the chunky steering that is brimming with feedback. Get on to the driver’s seat and there’s a large circular dial staring right back at you with a circular boost gauge protruding on the dash to your left.
Under that small bonnet is the 1.4 litre T-Jet turbo-petrol motor that makes all the right kind of noises and whistles and goes like stink too. 158bhp in a small package that weighs 1035kg translates to a power to weight ratio of 153bhp per ton. Those figures alone indicate that you are going to have a lot of fun behind the wheel of one.
It’s time to go out on the track. For the first two laps I keep an eye out for stray bottles that might just roll out on track. You see, barely a few days before the drive, the prestigious BIC was home to a big fat Indian wedding. From hosting F1 races to a wedding destinations, how the mighty have fallen.
Luckily for us, they have done an ace job of cleaning up so we can concentrate on going bonkers. And we do. The 595 has a front- wheel drive layout with the underpinnings reinforced with Copaf dampers at the front and Koni’s at the rear with the addition of thick anti-roll bars rounded off by wide 17- inch Pirelli rubbers.
The dampers are frequency selective dampers that adjust themselves to the road conditions and thus are more responsive, not to mention sporty. All this is complemented by the Torque Transfer Control that works like an LSd, braking the spinning inside wheel and sending more power to the wheel with grip.
This translates into a mouse hopped up on steroids that wants to dart into corners. Turn hot into a corner and chuck the steering wheel and you will have the car doing a lovely four- wheel drift. The delicious steering wheel comes with the right amount of feel and feedback for some seriously quick laps.
Turn in is sharp and there is enough torque above 2000rpm to shoot out of corners with a chirrup from the fronts. It is quite the track tool, cornering flat, and has loads of grip courtesy sticky Pirelli P Zero neros. The cross- drilled Brembo brakes come with excellent feedback and bite.
The proverbial fly in the ointment though is the dull 5-speed AMT gearbox. It is too unrefined and dim-witted to be seamless or sporty. Even in manual mode, you have to furiously tap away at the paddles and even then the downshift only comes halfway through the corner. Why can’t we get a manual?
All in all, the Fiat 595 Abarth is a heart-over- mind car. A fabulous looking car, a great track tool and blessed with a terrier of an engine; it’s as much fun as a barrel-full of monkeys. If only they’d give us a stick shift I might start looking for Rs. 30 lakh.