On the face of it, the Abarth 500 75° Anniversario is a celebration of 75 years of Abarth, but in reality, it is little bit more than that. You see, the number of units that will be produced of this limited-edition special hides a clue – 1,368 in total. This refers to the engine capacity in cc of the famous 1.4-litre T-Jet turbocharged in-line four-cylinder, whose origins can be traced back to 1985.
In this application, the T-Jet sports a Garrett GT 1446 turbocharger, delivering 180 hp and 250 Nm. It has the usual touches as required for a special edition car, including a gigantic gold scorpion on the roof – just in case you were unsure of its Abarth origins. Apart from the scorpion on the roof (which would be an alarming thing to hear if you were in Australia) there are exclusive gold-coloured alloy wheels and commemorative badges everywhere.
Performance is brisk, with a top speed of 225 km/h, and 0 to 100 km/h acceleration in just 6.7 seconds. Admittedly there are faster and more practical options out there, but there’s a timeless charm to the tiny little ‘nuova’ 500, despite coming out in 2007. Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” was the best-performing single of the year – just for reference.
An important thing to note is that the Abarth 500 75° Anniversario gets the Record Monza exhaust with an active valve system which makes this small car sound like a hellhound! Koni FSD shocks all around ensure that this hellhound puppy doesn’t bite your face off.
As this car is a celebration of the 1.4-litre T-Jet, we must mention that us Indians were lucky enough to receive it for quite a long duration, in three different cars! The Fiat Linea, Abarth Punto and Abarth Avventura all came equipped with this engine in various states of tune. Between you and me, it is a quite simple process to liberate more power from this engine, just in case you were going to go look at the classifieds.
