Fiat Grande Punto Abarth

Road test

Can't help feeling a tad sorry for the Grande Punto Abarth. Launched at the sharp end of the revitalisation of the Abarth brand, it was well-received by Europe's press, then promptly forgotten when the new Fiat 500 and the 500 Abarth arrived, all cute and curvy and retro and Panda-based. Hmmmm.

EsseEsse means 'SS', short for Super Sport, and it's difficult to avoid mentioning that an EsseEsse version of the 500 Abarth will be arriving soon. See how everything at Fiat seems to gravitate toward the 500? It's not fair, because the fastest and most powerful version of the Grande Punto deserves a decent hearing.

The car you see here is great. For styling, character and overall ability, it's a match for the little 500: for useability and practicality, it wipes the floor with its smaller brother. It's a much more substantial car.

The standard Grande Punto Abarth develops 155bhp from its turbocharged 1.4-litre four. The EsseEsse kit, which Abarth fits to every car in its Turin factory, ups the ante to 180bhp, thanks to a twist of extra boost - torque is also given a healthy raise from 152 to 201lb ft. That means the car is properly quick, hitting 60mph from rest in 7.5secs.

The hefty £4k price hike over the standard Abarth also gets you a more dramatic body kit, which includes deeper front and rear bumpers, side skirts and a rear spoiler, plus a set of superb 17in alloy wheels, twin exhausts and uprated brakes. The track is 6mm wider, the suspension is uprated and there are some nice extra bits inside, too - but at £17k, it makes this one expensive little Fiat, right up there in Mini Cooper S territory.

But it fights its competition hard, even at that price. This is a sorted, solid little car, which feels refined and well-engineered as soon as you hop in and move away. The engine doesn't have the crisp throttle response of a normally aspirated engine of the kind Renault excels in, but it's still an absolute cracker - linear power, fast revving and torquey everywhere.

Other than a throttle pedal that's mounted too far off the floor, it's difficult to criticise this car. More people should buy it. But they won't. They'll buy the 500 Abarth. Shame.