- Well what in tarnation is up, fellas and female fellas?
It me, it's May, it means it's time
for all of us to pretend we know how to fertilize our lawn
and stare at our garage while contemplating
whether our initial energy
to clean the garage is actually worth doing,
or if I'm just gonna go back inside
and play video games while your girlfriend
catches fish in Animal Crossing.
I mean it's, what a time to be alive, all right.
Nowadays with people finding themselves
with more time than ever before,
they're looking to new things to try out, okay.
New video games, new food, even new alcohol, I'm guilty.
All right, but people are also trying something
a little new, okay, car builds.
I'm Alex, Alex.FI on Instagram and today we're
gonna be talking about a car that has been there
for a hot minute, but only recently gained in popularity
because well, we're bored.
A car that was named after someone's astrological sign.
I just, anyway, we're talking about a car
that has the most unknown starts in the automotive industry
and ain't too bad in the old scoot scoot department
once you kick it a nickel with a little motor help.
Today ladies and gentleman, we're talking about you wanting
to own a Fiat 500 Abarth.
(rhythmic music)
And if you're just jumping into this video, konnichiwa
that's hello in Japanese.
If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe
so we can keep making banging videos like this.
It is actually quite nice and this,
the sofa is quite comfortable, all right.
And if you've been here since the beginning
of Fitment Industries, thank you for your support.
Seriously, if you're looking for aftermarket wheels,
tires or suspension be sure to hit us up
over at fitmentindustries.com.
All right, it's pretty fun, we also have a gallery.
And you can check that out, there's a bunch
of cars out there, you can see
what other people are running.
So if you have an aftermarket car, add it to our gallery,
it'd mean a lot, it's pretty cool actually.
The Abarth lineage was (speaks in foreign language),
that's birthed in Japan, all right, I'm trying my best,
in 1949 by a man named Carlo Abarth.
Carlo was a man that loved to race,
scooter, motorcycles, pretty much anything with wheels,
anything he possibly could.
I mean this dude built his entire empire on his love
for racing and competition.
He raced a train with a sidecar
over 810 miles in 1934, and won, all right.
Something interesting about Abarth was
that Carlo gained many of his resources,
many of his love and networks, through his early years
of racing and friendships.
And 1934 was the year that he married the secretary
of Anton Piech, Ferdinand Porsche's son-in-law.
Further down the road he worked with Ferry Porsche
to create his first Cisitalia,
which was like this weird Porsche car,
it didn't really do very good.
But hey, what can you do?
Carlo, initially a sporting director for Cisitalia,
ultimately got his jump-start through their downfall.
When Carlo took over Cisitalia, he had about 205,
204 sports cars, two of them were completed,
three of them were unfinished, a few motors.
And Carlo pretty much just took that
and turned it into Abarth.
Now the company became synonymous with racing success
and aftermarket parts in the '50s and '60s,
mostly because Abarth was so good
at their chosen classes of racing.
Abarth, on top of that, was making vehicles
that could take on just about anything else out there,
with also, punching out exhaust pipes and tuning kits,
and partnering with other brands, with other companies
to pretty much help them with their motor sport lines.
They were making a good chunk of change
and they're doing a pretty good job.
Abarth would help the likes of Porsche, Lancia,
and pretty much everyone else during the early years.
And Carlo Abarth really just never stopped pushing
and the dude was an absolute legend in the '50s
when it came to the racing community.
This man ate nothing but apples to lose 30 kilograms
so he could set an acceleration record
because the cockpit was too small for him.
Just straight up ate apples, that's all.
Like what an absolute madman.
In the '70s, Carlo would sell the Abarth
to Fiat to become Fiat's racing arm.
It was during this time that you could see things
like the 124 Abarth, the 131 and more
pop up into production.
The purchase wasn't necessarily a surprise,
since Carlo knew Fiat since the '50s
and over time, Carlo had, well, he got hit
with the old age stick, you know.
And he just saw the opportunity to see the brand survive.
And so he made the difficult decision to do that
because he really wanted to see that lineage continue.
Abarth was Alti Ford in 1981.
Got the good old Ctrl-Alt-Delete buttoned.
The name would be used for the performance marks
in the Fiat nomenclature but not
as its own brand for over 36 years.
That's three and a half decades there bud,
that was a long time.
Put it on the shelf, left that be, like a fine wine,
little bit of a fine Jack Daniel's if you could.
But there is an underdog story,
because in 2007 Abarth was re (speaks in foreign language),
that's not Japanese, that's just me
not knowing the word anymore,
right before the USA found out it had no money.
Abarth was reestablished as an independent unit
under the Fiat name, focusing on the passenger cars
and light commercial vehicles with Fiat's massive backing
of resources, the new Abarth got underway.
And in that relaunch, the Fiat Abarth 500 was born.
Using a 1.4 liter turbocharged motor,
the Fiat Abarth 500 came out looking like a snack,
still looks like a snack,
5-speed transmission, had a low-pro suspension
with electric steering and a bunch of little accent pieces
to make it look, super fast.
And it was set to go, the car went from zero
to 60 in eight seconds and topped off
at 127 miles an hour, not so super fast.
But it was fun, it was taken from the original Fiat 500
of the late '50s, the Abarth was meant
to be light, small and quick on its feet
and it did just that.
The Fiat 500 Abarth took second in the open division
for the Targa Newfoundland which gave plenty
of racers a raised eyebrow to this little bean
that had fun little colors on it,
that was running around with like little red mirror caps,
it was a good time, it was actually almost of an uplift.
But for all intents and purposes,
the Fiat 500 Abarth never really took off in a way
that made most people in the
younger modification community notice,
it was just like a, that's kinda neat.
And that was pretty much it.
But we're not here to talk about the history
of the Fiat 500 Abarth, Abarth, Abarth,
depending on how you say it
and if you have an accent or not.
If you want history, go on over to your TI-87,
look up those stored answer that you put in there
for your test because that's the only place
that you're gonna get it.
We're here to talk about you actually wanting
to own one of these things.
So you want a Fiat 500 Abarth, well,
sit down your astrology book
and grab your favorite minion meme
because we're about to talk about what it's like
to actually own of these little guys.
Just take a look at his little front-end,
look at how cute it is, it got a little,
it's got the little soft headlights
and nice little sweet headlights,
there like innocent headlights.
The Fiat 500 Abarth was a car that you could snag
for under $10,000 right now with little to no mileage on it,
which leaves a lot of us scratching our beards,
except me, because I get said when I say that.
The Fiat 500 Abarth does have some interesting quirks
about it that make it so affordable
for people like you and for people like me.
Mostly, it was built by Fiat which is a company
that's known to not always have the longest lasting parts
in the whole wide world.
Because of cost savings, the paint can
fade relatively easily, door handles have this weird quirk
of sometimes falling off and shocks in these cars
don't last super long because of how stiff they are.
People often talk about replacing these almost
as much as their tires on these cars
and they eat through tires.
They'll leak a little oil all the time
and they can have some electrical issues
every once in a while.
But to be fair, to be fair, to be fair,
it was and is a new $25,000 sports-coupe car
that came with a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine from Fiat.
I mean, none of it should be that much of a surprise.
They are best with a warranty
and are an absolute blast to drive.
Since they don't come with a muffler in some models,
they sound wicked cool stopped.
And even better once you start throwing some intakes
and a little bit of tune action at it.
Not only that, but the burble and tune on these cars
can make it sound almost like mini STs.
A lot of people think that it sounds like...
(revving sound)
a miniature version of an exotic car.
While not everyone loves them for either their failure
on the reliability side or the fact
that they eat brakes like pancakes,
they are cool looking cars,
especially with the right fitment.
You see a lot of people on these cars running OZs
or Konigs or even Enkeis,
BFG's and Michelins are paired with
either BC Racing coilovers or air suspension
and you're pretty much set.
It's like an angry beetle that sounds like
the free to play version of a Maserati
in all of the right ways.
These cars, they just look so, they look so neat though.
Like look at them, they're so small
with these big ass doors and it's a hatch
that just stops, just comes crashing down,
and they embody what it means to be a little Euro hot hatch.
I mean there's no doubt that these are fun cars.
And if you've ever driven one,
you would know what I'm talking about.
Even though they may not be inherently fast, they are fun.
And sure, they have issues, but what budget car doesn't.
One of the toughest things you may need to deal with
is the fact that they have a naturally soft look to them,
and when you've got a bunch of younger male enthusiasts
that have an extremely fragile testosterone state,
trying to constantly have a body measuring contest,
you may catch a little flack for having this car,
since it is a little bit softer.
But they should be giving you a hard time
for having door handles possibly fall off,
not the fact that they got big old headlights,
because those things are neat as hell.
You can do pretty much anything to a Fiat 500 Abarth
and although it's maybe not the most
reliable car in the world, it is a fun one,
just more like heroic.
So what do you think about the Fiat 500 Abarth?
If you want to see some gnarly Fiat 500's,
go check out our gallery
because there's a bunch of them out there.
And I was pretty floored seeing some
of these builds people have done.
And of course, we're looking for wheels, tires, suspension,
be sure to check us out over at fitmentindustries.com.
Fiat 500 Abarth is like the combination
of a Focus ST and a Volkswagen Beetle,
paired with a little bit of unreliability-ness
from an E55 AMG, but then also,
paired with some MINI Cooper funky tack,
like that's what...
What is it? Captain Planet.
It's like when Captain Planet comes together,
except not as wholesome, not as much
of a Saturday cartoon, if you will,
little bit more of a, I really hope my dad
doesn't catch me watching this.
Anyway, I'm Alex from Fitment Industries,
we will see you later, peace.