The 500 Abarth Esseesse (SS) is quite simply… Nuts!
Around the city and towns the little four-seat 500 is an absolute laugh a minute. It is a 'supermini-supercar' or is it the other way around? All I know is the 500 Abarth Esseesse is a true driver’s car that provides lots of fun at a fraction of the price of similar performing cars.
In the real world you can’t drive a supercar up to the rev limiter in first gear without breaking the motorway speed limit, the Abarth Esseesse revels in delivering street legal fun. On the open road the Esseesse is a little fidgety but that’s to be expected as the suspension is lower and firmer than the standard Abarth. Plus the 500’s track and wheelbase are relatively small in dimension. Towns and cities are the natural hunting ground for this pocket rocket where it can take on all comers and usually win! Think of it as a Springer Spaniel on a short lead, it’s eager to take off!
There are a few styling clues to show the world you are driving a performance 500 with an extended front bumper and beautiful twin exhaust pipes at the rear. Inside the four-seater you get leather, a ‘sport’ button (leave pressed on for max power) and more scorpion logos than you could shake a stick at instead of FIAT badges. FIAT wants Abarth to be a standalone brand. The 500 Abarth isn’t officially on sale in Ireland but you can import one personally through the UK and be completely covered for your manufacturer’s warranty by the FIAT network here. You should be able to land a 500 Abarth with taxes paid for less than €23K give or take a few quid. The Esseesse version is a dealer fit pack that costs an additional £2,500.
The 1958 two-cylinder Abarth FIAT 500 weighed in at just 440kgs! Carlo Abarth managed to double the car’s power to deliver a whopping 26bhp. Today the standard Abarth uses a four-cylinder, 1.4 litre turbo charged engine with 135bhp, weighing in at a relative rotund tonne. As you can imagine 135bhp is plenty of power in a car that’s the size of a shoe. The Esseesse version has a further 25bhp (160bhp/230nm) added and that’s a recipe for great craic. 0-100km/h takes just 7.4 seconds and thanks to performance disc brakes all round the Abarth can stop as well as it goes.
Abarth has regained its street cred with the 500. The Abarth legend is all about the man Carlo Abarth or to use his birth name Karl Abarth. He was born in Austria in 1908 on November 15th, so his star sign was the Scorpio. Abarth adopted the Scorpion logo and this is why all Abarth models feature the scorpion badge. He made racing motorcycles first but following a bad crash he moved to building cars. He became an Italian citizen in the mid 1940s and changed his first name to Carlo. Abarth went into the motor racing business for a period with Ferdinand Porsche. In 1949 he started the Abarth company with a car built by modifying a FIAT 1100. By 1971 Abarth’s business was taken over completely by FIAT. Carlo died in late October 1979 under the same star sign he was born the scorpion. I think Carlo would love the latest car to carry his name.
500 Abarth Esseesse is a happy car that will keep you grinning.
Michael Sheridan
