A high five was the only correct course of action possible. I'm not usually one for high fives, considering them the preserve of basketball players and West Indian cricketers, of which I am neither. But I'd just thrapped and hussled and jinked and cajoled a 190bhp Punto Abarth esseesse (Super Sport, pronounced 'essay-essay') through a difficult series of medium speed corners on Fiat's main test track at Balocco, between Milan and Turin, and had marvelled at the lack of understeer and the sheer bloody pointability of the car. It turns in without a trace of plough or push, and then remains neutral and adjustable on the throttle - a lithe, accurate, faithful front-drive hot hatch from the old school. Powering out of the last of these bends and onto the straight, there was a slight tug of torque steer (but not too much) as the full 271Nm were laid to the road, then I grinned and exclaimed more loudly than was completely cool, "This car is great!" Sorry, couldn't help it. Paulo Ollino, the bloke responsible for its technical development, who happened to be sitting next to me, initiated the high-five moment. Smack! He seemed quite pleased, and so he should be. Cars don't get much more fun than this.
And if there's anything quite as charming in motoringdom as a brilliant small, fast Italian car, I can't quite think of it just now. And I can tell you, based on my short blast at Balocco, this new Grande Punto Abarth is up there with the best brilliant small, fast Italian cars ever conceived. The standard Abarth will take the fight straight to warm hatches like the Peugeot 207 GT, VW Polo GTI and Suzuki Swift Sport, and the esseesse version will give the likes of the Renault Clio 197 and Vauxhall Corsa VXR a very hard time - we cant wait to take them all our and thrash them over some challenging roads ...
Punto Abarth marks the return of the famous brand to Fiat's stable - forget the rubbish Fiat Stilo and Seicento Abarths of recent memory, both pretty much standard Fiats with a couple of Abarth scorpion badges stuck to them: this is serious. The new Abarth programme is full-on and completely performance focused, with a good deal of Fiat wedge being poured into the development of a wide range of quick little cars. You can expect a 145bhp Fiat 500 Abarth to appear very soon - what a little cracker that should be - and even one or two bespoke Abarth sports cars based on Fiat's chassis. Building its own cars is what Abarth made its name doing in the past, and it's the future, too.
Let's rewind for a moment and get to grips with this new sporty Punto. First, the standard Punto Abarth, the one you see in these photos. Note there are no Fiat badges to be seen on it. That's the way Abarth wants it. It'll go on sale in the UK sometime early next year and will be priced at around Rs 10.5 lakh. For that, you get a very attractive and quick hot hatch. It is 10mm lower than a standard Punto and runs on handsome 17in alloy wheels as standard. The chassis has been honed by Ollino's wizards, with 20 per cent stiffer springs and a thicker front anti-roll bar.
The interior has had the full Abarth treatment, too, starting with a superb new steering wheel. Few steering wheels are more attractive and delightful to use than this one, trimmed as it is in soft high-grade leather, with a flat bottom and sleek design. There are new Abarth dials, which I like very much - they're typically Italian in their fussy design and font. Then there's a carbon-fibre look coating on the centre console area around the switches, which is less successful- it looks a bit cheap - and that famous Abarth Scorpion badge, of course. New body-hugging sports sears with integrated headrests and badges, Abarth pedals and red stitching finish off the look, along with black headlining it La Golf GTI. And rather than the body-coloured strip of metal across the dash, you can opt for black leather - all very well screwed together with decent materials and fit. It's a comfy, attractive, Italian-style place to be.
The bodywork is much changed from the boggo Fiat, transforming the already-pretty Punto into a very neat, aggressive-looking hatch. The front and rear bumpers are new, more aggressively styled, as are the side skirts and larger wheel arch trims, and this Abarth also wears black surrounds on its headlights and a subtle rear wing on the roof. The underbody has, also been redesigned to help the car's aero performance, with a much flatter plastic section running along the rear section. The red stripes with Abarth name look superb, too, and I'm a fan of the scorpion Abarth badges at door-handle height on the rear flanks. It's not overdone, but it's instantly recognisable as a hotter Punto. For my money, it's the best-looking small hot hatch out there.
The driving position is spot-on: no long-arm, short-leg problem here, just a slight hint that the seat isn't quite low enough. The wheel telescopes out a long way, and, unlike the bigger Bravo, the pedals aren't mounted too far off the floor.
Fire her up, and the engine note is crisp and clean, and it blips easily, with a lovely deep burble from the exhaust back box. The intention is clear right from the start.
This is a superb engine. It's strong for 1.4litres, developing 155bhp at 5,500rpm. But more importantly, it's torquey, making a chunky 206Nm at 5,000rpm. Ah, but there's more. There's a little switch on the centre of the dash marked 'Sport Boost.' That's important, a feature that transforms the way the car goes about its business.
Hitting that Sport Boost switch raises boost from 2.1 to 2.6 bar, which ramps up the torque output from 206 to 231 N m, the peak of which kicks in a lot lower in the rev range, at 3,000rpm. The Abarth engineers have completely re-mapped the engine, and it's a clever move, one that will probably be copied. Drive it in Sport Boost, and you are not lacking shove as you rip through the gears - it does just what normally aspirated hot hatches like the Clio Renault Sport 197 can't - gives you tractable, useful shove at low revs, making the car fast and punchy out of corners. It also firms up the steering, for more feel at higher speed. Ollino talks of 'two cars in one' and he's not exaggerating much.
Turn that mode off and drive it normally, and the Abarth still pulls, but it's milder, the mapping giving a flatter torque curve - fine for everyday stuff, but when you're in the mood, you have a choice.
And what of the esseesse ... or essay-essay? Well, this is the Punto Abarth to go for if you can stretch your budget. Find a way. Do without food one day a week, remortgage the house, sell the cat, do something to grab that extra few quid a month. The esseesse (I'll call it SS from now on) takes things to an altogether new level it is 20mm lower again than the standard Abarth, with retuned suspension and 18in wheels as standard. It uses a larger Garrett turbocharger, new spark plugs and mapping and a retuned exhaust, which unleashes a full 180bhp and 271Nm of torque. The 0-100kph run in the 55 is only 7.7secs, down from the standard car's 8.2secs, which is getting a bit closer to the Clio 197's 6.9secs and the Corsa VXR's 6.8secs.
In the end, the 55 was the car I spent the most time in. Can you blame me? The chassis is more than capable of handling the extra grunt, and things happen just that bit more immediately with the re-profiled suspension. Oh, and the oomph helps the immediacy, too - there is a smidge of torque steer when you're brutal with the throttle out of a corner, but I quite like that. The car makes a touring car burble from its larger exhaust backbox, and the thing screams up the rev range when it hits boost: it's quite a startling amount of urge for a 1.4.
Combined with that slick six-speed change, superb brakes and steering which has plenty of feel for the road, it's not long before you drop into a quick, natural rhythm. I couldn't tell you what the ride is like: the Balocco track is as smooth as glass. Maybe a potholed back road in Yorkshire will show up a few flaws, but you know, I doubt it.
One thing Paulo Ollino is happy to talk about is the fact that the E5P system is locked on - you can turn off most of the stability control with a switch on the dash, but it's not fully off, leaving a safety net, if the car gets too far out of shape.
Die-harders who think they can drift will bemoan the lack of a completely switch-off able system, bur the other 99.9 per cent of us, who enjoy driving quickly but also enjoy the idea of an electronic get-out-of-jail-free card, will like the fact that help is there, if something bad happens. Complaining about 'no off switch' in a car aimed at younger, less-experienced drivers is the son of idiocy we should avoid. The kind of person who can brag 'I managed to get it back' after a lurid slide is the kind of person I never want to meet on the road.
With the system Switched to 'off,' really big lift-off slides are possible, before the electronics smoothly apply a firm hand. I'd much rather have a drifto-plus-ultimate-safety mode, rather than a fully-off mode. That way I can really go for it.
This is another smart move from Abarth, in a car full of smart moves. Bellissimo, Abarth. High five!