Fiat 500 Abarth

A few days ago I already posted some pictures of the Fiat 500, and I promised to post the Fiat 500 Abarth the next day. It has taken me a few days more, but here it is: the Fiat 500 Abarth!

First and foremost, this particular 500 is highly customizable: there are four different trim levels (Naked, Pop, Lounge and Sport), 15 interior trims, nine wheel options, 19 decals and 12 body colours. Add to this a selection of accessories, and you get about 500.000 different possible personalized combinations of the 500! That's literally to each his/her own car, in a way.

Furthermore, there are several different versions available as well: there's the default Abarth 500, the Abarth 500 Essesse (pronounced "SS"), the Opening Edition, the Assetto Corse, the Abarth 695 "Tributo Ferrari", the Abarth 500 SpeedGrey, the Abarth 500 "Cabrio Italia", the Abarth Punto "SuperSport", the Abarth 695 Competizione, the Abarth 695 Tributo Maserati, the Abarth 500 595 Turismo, the Abarth 595 Competizione and the Abarth 500C. Confused yet? I won't be trying to tell them apart...

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the Fiat 500 Abarth (default edition), and one picture of the version built by Hamann - I hope you like them!

Fiat 500

In 2007, Fiat released a modern copy of the original rear-engined Fiat 500 from 1957, and if you look at both cars side by side, not much has changed it seems.

But lack of change doesn't necessarily equal bad: the new Fiat 500 was instantly popular. It took Fiat about three weeks to sell a whole production year worth of cars (58.000 units to be precise), and production had to be increased drastically to keep up with demand.

It's not hard to see why: the Fiat 500 is almost as iconic as the original, and it is a really nice car. Besides the standard versions, there are several special editions, as well as special versions - most notably by Abarth, which I'll post tomorrow. For now, here are some shots of the standard Fiat 500.

A small bit of trivia about the first picture: during the presentation of the Fiat 500, all new Fiat 500s were covered with a cloth resembling the old version. Pretty neat!

... a few interior shots ...