NF500 / abarth 500

Normally HAMANN-Motorsport is seen as a tuning company for BMW and for offering styling and tuning upgrades to luxury cars. But this time the Laupheim-based technicians have taken a break from the norm and devoted themselves to something rather unexpected, the Italian built Fiat 500.

Those clever bods at HAMANN took to the task with great enthusiasm for the cool little retro sports car and developed the new and extensive HAMANN Sportivo tuning programme. The range includes wheels, exhausts, suspension, brakes and tuning gear for the Fiat 500 range, all designed to improve style and performance for those who just couldn’t, or don’t to wait for the official Abarth 500 upgrades.

Available across the Fiat 500 range is the HM sportivo wheel, which HAMANN claim offers both improved style and fantastic handling. The matt black varnish rim in one piece has a diamond-polished outer edge and is offered in the size 7.0 x 17. HAMANN recommends matching tyres in the sizes 195/40 ZR17 or 215/35 ZR 17 by its technology partner Hankook, but we’re sure any other high end rubber will do just as well. A complete set can be yours from 1,420 €.

The HAMANN-set for lowering chassis leads to a further improvement in handling the car and ensures that the vehicle centre which is made up from four progressively spun springs is lowered by 30mm.

For the 1.4 petrol, HAMANN have prepared a sport exhaust system. The system includes a muffler (from 390 € onwards) with two round end pipes made of high-grade steel (70 mm diameter), a pre-muffler with metal catalyst and a sport fan manifold. All components can also be obtained individually.

Also for the 1.4 Fiat 500, HAMANN developed a stable sport braking system for improved stopping power. The set consists of two perforated and ventilated brake discs (diameter 280 x 28mm) at the front axle in connection with red 4-piston fixed yokes and steal flex brake lines. The back axle can be upgraded with brake discs measuring 240 mm in diameter.

For the 1.3 Diesel Fiat 500, HAMANN have joined other tuning houses in offering and ECU program upgrade, which increases power to 90 hp / 66 kW at 4,000 r.p.m. (standard: 75 hp / 55 KW) and a maximum torque of 230 Nm at 1,750 r.p.m. (standard: 145 Nm at 1,500 r.p.m.).

As for a final flourish to your HAMANN Fiat 500 make over, how about an aluminium pedal set including footrest and a car mat set with an embroidered HAMANN sportive logo?

According to a report by AM-online, Fiat in the UK will have 12 specialist Abarth dealerships in the UK by July 2008, of a total of 14 planned outlets for the Fiat family’s sporting brand.

Apparently some Abarth dealerships will have their own stand alone sites alongside or near to current Fiat franchises, while others will have an Abarth zone integrated into their current showroom space.

In the AM-online article they also reveal it will cost existing Fiat dealers anything from £40-£80,000 to become an Abarth franchise, which that investment potentially being repaid within a year.

Special thanks to KevinB who originally posted these images on our New Fiat 500 forums.

The photographs, taken by a super sleuth based in Poland, show the recently revealed Abarth version of the popular Fiat 500 strutting its stuff on the streets among everyday traffic.

While these images in themselves reveal nothing new about the forthcoming hot hatch version of the Fiat 500, it is always nice to see future models mixing it on the street, apparently in the latter stages of development and testing. The only visible disguise here is the clever(?!) covering of the Abarth badges, which may fool some, but it wasn’t fooling Kevin’s spotter, or us for that matter, nice try Fiat.

[Disclaimer: We may have added the NF500.com stickers shown in the windows ourselves]

Members of the 500 Wants You website have been emailed this week, telling them to watch the official Fiat 500 website for updates and information on the new 500 Abarth model. The emails are suitably vague and mystic, but say to watch out on Monday and Tuesday 18th and 19th February. The official Fiat 500 website has also been updated with a link to the Abarth website, and other new features.

Monday is also the opening date for the new Abarth headquarters in Turin, so it will be interesting to see what reports come back from there, as well as what will happen on the Fiat sites ahead of the Geneva Motorshow, where the 500 Abarth will be officially revealed to the public for the first time.