A little fun build I thought of

1. Choosing the car

I was looking for a small, light and cheap car to use for this build. After browsing the classifieds for some time I came to the conclusion, that the Fiat Cinquecento Sporting might be the perfect option. With a weight of roughly 700kg and a wheelbase of just 2.2m, it’s a wonderful basis for a nimble track project. Another advantage of the Cinquecento Sporting is the fact, that, here in Germany, a more or less rustfree car goes for around 500€ with valid TÜV (German MOT), making it one of the cheapest cars you could buy.

2. The engine

The standard Cinquecento Sporting has a 1.1litre NA 4-cylinder engine, delivering a rather sluggish 54hp. For obvious reasons I would love to have a bit more hp in a track car. And after choosing the Cinquecento, the decision for an engine was fairly simple. Fiat’s TwinAir engine is the only mass-produced two-cylinder engine used in a car at the moment and with a healthy 103 hp, the 875cc engine would be more than enough to make the Cinquecento fun to drive. Being smaller than the original 1.1litre, the engine should comfortably fit under the Fiat’s tiny bonnet. And it gets even better considering that the TwinAir is lighter than the FIRE (Fully Integrated Robotised Engine, an engine series used by FIAT since 1985, for those who aren’t familiar with FIAT engines). The engine sounds quite nice, too.

3. Suspension upgrades

To be a bit more nimble, the car could definitely need a stiffer suspension setup. So some coilovers and new anti-roll bars would be the next things on my list. A strut brace would be nice too, but I’d have to see if it would fit with the new engine built in.

4. Weight reduction

This one was quite obvious since it’s present in almost every build ever done. But even in a car weighing only 700kg, there are a few parts which could be thrown out, such as the rear bench, the speakers and the sound insulation. I’d love to fit some nice bucket seats but a short research has shown that it’s not easy to find some which would fit in the tiny car.

5. Safety

Maybe the most important part of the build would be improving the car’s safety. In the video above (I’m aware that this is a Seicento but there’s not much of a difference after all) you can see how badly it performed in a crash test. So I’d definitely put a roll cage into the car. Actually, after seeing this, I’d suggest a roll cage to everyone dailying that death trap. Installing a fire extinguisher could be useful too.

6. Paintwork

Thinking about the paintwork, there’s actually only one way to go. The Martini livery just suits almost every italian race car ever and as you can see above, it was originally used on the Cinquecento in rallying. It’s one of the most legendary racing liveries in the world and for many people it’s the most beautiful too.

So, I hope you liked my little imaginary build project. Sadly the parts for this would cost roughly 6-8 times as much as the car itself (paintwork & TÜV approval not included), what makes the whole project rather senseless. But somehow I’m still tempted to do that at some point.

What about you? Do you have any project ideas you’d want to share?