2013 Abarth Panda. Come Again?

Abarth was relaunched in 2007 and since then the performance arm have covered some of the latest range of Fiats with their magic. They first got their hands on the Grande Punto and upped the power from the 1.4L T-Jet engine from 118hp to 148hp and then extracted even more power from it a year later with the Essesse kit. Later in 2008 they had the very popular Fiat 500 to play with and gave it a turbo changed 1.4L petrol with 133hp and a maximum torque output of 152lb-ft. Now Abarth have revealed they're currently tuning up the latest Panda.

Sounds like a mad recipe doesn't it? The very humble and practical Italian city car with crazy Abarth technology. Unlike the rest of the Abarth range the Panda Abarth will come with Fiat's 0.9L two-cylinder Twin Air turbo petrol and then the performance division will tweak it so that it will produce 110hp meaning a 0-60 time of 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 110mph. The bonus of the twin air engine is a claimed 60mpg so this mad sounding recipe is now starting to sound quite sensible.

To make the driving experience much better, Abarth will fit better brakes on the Panda as well as fitting lowered and stiffened suspension.

The Panda will come with the usual Abarth trinkets; a white paint job with Abarth stripes down the side, large wings and spoilers and 16" alloys. The interior will see sporty bucket seats, a short throw gear stick and a much sportier steering wheel. There are some optional choices too including a louder exhaust system and bigger 17" alloys. They're even considering making an even more crazy Essesse version of the Panda as well which will probably be released soon after the usual Abarth in 2013 if it makes it into production.

All this sounds good, the Panda with A.D.D is expected to cost around £15,000 which is around the same as the bigger but not so mad Skoda Fabia VRS but hold your horses though because just take a look at what the little Abarth is expected to look like.

Don't know about you but I think this Arbath looks a bit ridiculous compared to the Punto Evo Abarth and the 500 Abarth which look much better in my opinion. This thing looks like a sporty cube.