After an early season shakedown at Harewood Hillclimb in Yorkshire, Abarth UK kicked off its celebrity media motorsport programme with a class win last weekend. This came courtesy of Autocar’s Matt Rigby, during Bognor Regis Motor Club’s well supported Sprint at Goodwood circuit near Chichester.

The Abarth Hillclimb drivers

The team’s two immaculate Abarth Grande Punto esseesse cars formed part of a 94-strong entry, and were driven to great effect by four members of Autocar’s editorial team, led home by Rigby who finally won the standard car class, just 0.4 seconds ahead of team mate Ollie Stallwood in second place.

Rigby’s previous motorsport experience, limited solely to endurance go-karting, provided ample encouragement for his team mates, who nevertheless just failed to eclipse the young road tester, who sportingly attributed his success to the forgiving nature of the Abarth Grande Punto. “It was a joy to drive around Goodwood circuit, and I was able to improve my time by over three seconds on the final run – just enough to stay ahead of Ollie!”

Grande Punto Abarth at Goodwood

A series of hillclimb events now await the team as it prepares for Doune, near Stirling, in Scotland on 20/21 June; Shelsley Walsh (Worcester) 4 July; Gurston Down (Somerset) 19 July, and Harewood (Yorkshire) 2 August. Abarth UK’s motorsport season closes with another Sprint at Thoresby Park, Nottingham, on 12 September.

Ivan Gibson, head of the Abarth brand in the UK, says: “This programme was devised with the basic idea in mind that an enthusiast can enjoy competitive club motorsport with an Abarth road car at the weekends, while using it normally for all domestic duties during the week. We’re delighted that Autocar was able to provide our first team this season, and congratulate Matt Rigby on a great drive.”

Grande Punto Abarth at Goodwood

The Abarth Grande Punto esseesse, which is available through Abarth’s 16-strong UK dealer network, is powered by a 180bhp 1.4-litre turbocharged T-Jet engine which delivers 272Nm of torque at 2750rpm through a six speed gearbox. Top speed is 133mph, with 0-62mph acceleration in 7.5 seconds.

Abarth will be attending a series of hillclimbs at venues across the UK to showcase the performance of the Grande Punto Abarth.  The events will be organised by local motorsport clubs and will take place at the following dates and venues:

• April 25th Goodwood, Nr Chichester
• June 21st & 22nd Doune, Stirling, Scotland
• July 4th Shelsley Walsh, Worcester
• July 19th Gurston Down, Dorset
• August 2nd Harewood Hillclimb, Yorkshire
• September 12th Thoresby Park, Nottingham

Abarth will be entering two Grande Punto Abarth esseesse at each event, driven by selected motoring journalists, who will have been driving the cars on the road for a week prior to the event so as to gain an all-round picture of the car’s performance.

Local dealers have been invited to enter their own demonstrators, and Abarth owners can also compete.  However, to do this you’ll need to apply for a competition licence, and will have to pay both for membership of the organising club and the event entry fee (typically around £100 for each event).

Spectators are welcome to most events (admission is typically around £10 per person), and the Abarth hospitality rig will be in attendance.

Grande Punto Abarth at Hillclimb circuit

A special Grande Punto Abarth “SuperSport” is making the scene at Geneva, garbed in Airfield Gray paintwork – the same colour sported by the Scorpion’s historic race cars and, as the story has it, taken from the planes based next to the brand’s original headquarters – enlivened by a racing-inspired livery.

Grande Punto Abarth

Equipped with a 16-valve 1.4 litre engine pumped up to deliver 180 horsepower, with a wrenching 270 Nm peak torque at speeds as low as 3000 revs, the Grande Punto Abarth “SuperSport” racing version hits a top speed of 215 km/h and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in only 7.5 seconds. In addition, a variable back-pressure dual-mode exhaust system enhances engine sound, producing a distinctive throaty roar over 4000 rpm. With performance features like these, there can be no doubt that this is a car whose whole heart and soul is in racing.

Performance also benefits from a number of changes that the “esseesse” kit makes in ride height and trim attitude, giving the car a more solid stance with firmer, shorter springs, 215/40 R18 tires and specially designed 7.5 J X 18 alloy wheels. The kit puts the car into a real sprinter’s crouch, dropping its roll center by 20 mm. Just as important, the brake system features cross-drilled discs all round, together with high-performance front brake pads.

On the inside, the show car boasts Sabelt Abarth Racing leather-upholstered seats – lightweight and track-approved, as befits the car’s sporting spirit – and the Abarth Blue&MeTM MAP satellite navigator with telemetry capabilities developed with Magneti Marelli. This innovative device provides four different functions. The first – Monitoring – displays the main in-car parameters (engine rpm, vehicle speed, engaged gear) acquired and transferred by the Blue&Me system to the PND Portable Navigation Device via Bluetooth. The Track function, accessible if the driver is on one of the circuits stored on the device’s SD memory card, displays a set of additional information such as the car’s location on the track (provided by GPS) and lap times. The third function – Configuration – makes it possible to store telemetric data for a route and associate them with a personalized session identified by the driver’s name, circuit and date. Stored information can be easily retrieved and analyzed later with the fourth, Analysis, function.

We’ve already seen the rather brief 500 Abarth esseesse kit installation video from Abarth, but the one we’ve been looking forward to is this one, from our Berlin friend Kristian Kopacsi:-

The 5 min 32 sec video shows the installation of the esseesse kit in much greater detail, including a particularly nice sequence showing the replacement of the front brake discs.  Thanks, Kristian.

The price of the 500 Abarth esseesse kit has been announced as £2,500 including VAT and fitting.  The cost of the kit itself is £2,150, but allowing for 4 hours labour takes the on-the-road cost to the £2,500 figure.

That makes a base 500 Abarth esseesse something in the region of £16,100, compared to, say, a Mini Cooper S at £16,575.

Remember, the 500 esseesse kit is much simpler than the Grande Punto Abarth’s esseesse kit – there’s no replacement turbo or associated ancillaries, for instance.

Technical details of the 500 Abarth esseesse are here.

Fiat 500 Abarth Esseesse

Abarth at the 2008 Bologna Motor Show

Abarth is using the 2008 Bologna Motor Show mainly to show off its new 500 Abarth Trophy (Trofeo Abarth 500), with a 600-square-metre temporary outside structure that showcases the preparation of the 500 Abarth Assetto Corse.

Abarth at the 2008 Bologna Motor Show

The Grande Punto Abarth and 500 Abarth Esseesse models will both be present, and on 11 December, the Grande Punto Abarth S2000 will also make an appearance.

In addition, there’s the usual host of Abarth accessories and merchandise, large-screen configurators for the road-going models, and even a pair of Abarth Powerplay Extreme desktop PCs and the Yamaha FZ1 Abarth Assetto Corse Concept Bike.

Abarth at the 2008 Bologna Motor Show

Thankfully, for Top Gear’s review of the Fiat 500 Abarth, they didn’t give the car to Captain Slow, James May. Instead, Jezza did it. And he quite liked it.

Disappointing that Fiat UK appeared to supply a car with the roof-mounted aerial missing, but impressive to see the 500 Abarth’s lap-time (1:35.5) being posted above the Lotus Elise and Alfa 8C.

A nice little teaser video for the 500 Abarth Esseesse kit appeared on the Abarth YouTube channel yesterday. It shows a 500 Abarth being fitted with the new air filter, brake discs and wheels, although it all happens pretty quickly.

Still, it’s 1min 33 seconds of entertainment for those with a 500 Abarth on order.

Abarth Italy is celebrating the “Month of Scorpio” during which the company will offer a calendar of events dedicated to Carlo Abarth, the legendary founder born a century ago under this astrological sign (15 November 1908).

The celebration runs from 23rd October to 22nd November, and will involve the Italian Abarth dealer network of 49 outlets.

The event will allow the public to test-drive the Abarth range, discover the history behind the brand, and admire the collection of clothing and accessories.

There’ll be a chance to drive the Grande Punto Abarth with both the popular “Assetto” and “esseesse” kits fitted – to date, more than 600 kits have been sold already.

Grande Punto Abarth esseesse

Other events will follow in the next few weeks. For example, an exhibition will be held in Turin titled “from 0 to 100″ that illustrates the life of Carlo Abarth and his legendary adventures through cars, objects and photographs.  The exhibition takes place at Torino Esposizioni, Turin, and opens on 16th November.

There will also be a special event on the weekend of 15th – 16th November devoted to the brand new “esseesse” kit for the Abarth 500.

Fiat 500 Abarth Esseesse

Abarth dealers are finally beginning to issue finalised prices for the Grande Punto Abarth’s Assetto and Esseesse tuning kits.

GPA Assetto kit: £2,195 fitted
GPA Esseesse kit: £3,995 fitted

These prices include fitting and VAT.

For a reminder of what each kit contains, read this.