Features

There's no reason why this lump shouldn't fit straight under the stumpy bonnet of the smaller, lighter 500 too.

In fact, we know for certain that the 1.4-litre FIRE engine from the Panda 100HP is due to be bolted in there, helped by the fact that the 500 (and the closely related, all-new Ford Ka) is set to be based on a mildly modified Panda platform.

Turbo versions of that same engine are just entering service in 120bhp and 150bhp (as due for the Grande Punto Abarth) form in the new Bravo, so will be available off the shelf for the 500.

Regular 500s go on sale in the UK in January next year, around about the same time as the Grande Punto Abarth arrives. Alongside the 100bhp 1.4, they'll have 69bhp petrol 1.2 and 75bhp 1.3 Multijet diesel engines.

There's little risk that the Abarth-fettled 500 won't be following on soon after, even if it doesn't look quite so wild as the car that we've conjured up on these pages - here's hoping that it will though.

The original hot Abarth Fiats of the Sixties set a great template for what's likely to come now: pumped-up wheelarches to cope with widened wheels the size of yo-yos, near-solid suspension and uprated brakes including - unusually for the time - optional front discs, combining to create Italy's favourite cross-town tearabout.

'Big' bore kits enlarged the 500's weeny twin-cylinder air-cooled engine to your choice of 594cc (in the 595SS) or 690cc (in the 695SS). Power output? A 'huge' 32bhp or 38bhp, respectively.

If it hadn't been for the existence of the faster Mini Cooper at the time, perhaps swinging London would have taken either Abarth to its heart instead. As it is, the ball is back in the new Abarth 500's court.

The Mini has had it all its own way for long enough.