What have you done to your car today?

OcUK Staff
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im loveing the Abarth

not really been a fan, but never seen one in yellow, let alone a yellow one with black wheels, i actually like it :o:D

Its a fun car, outclassed by many other hot hatches in the handling stakes, Fiesta ST springs to mind or Renault Clio but it absolutely dishes out character and soul in handfuls. It is pretty rapid too but it has got 200HP and I think they weigh 1070kg, but what I will say the ones I drove with the electronic diff (brakes a wheel) felt very odd at the limit, whereas the Performance Pack car, has a mechanical LSD and just revels to be driven beyond its limits and thus makes it a lot of fun and the engine is old school, lag lag lag, BOOOOOOST! Brakes are great but do not invite confidence as under heavy braking the back-end goes extremely light so braking from high speeds don't feel great.

End of the day the Abarth is based on a Fiat 500, a city car, Abarth did I feel best they could, the Comp is a fun car, but if you want handling, balance and lap times, look elsewhere, but if that don't interest you and you want fun, giggles and something that looks smart and comes from Abarth spot on pretty much look for a Competizione with Performance Pack or alternatively buy a base 145/160, fit an LSD and map it to 170-200HP depending on what turbo comes with car.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Apr 2006
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North West
Its a fun car, outclassed by many other hot hatches in the handling stakes, Fiesta ST springs to mind or Renault Clio but it absolutely dishes out character and soul in handfuls. It is pretty rapid too but it has got 200HP and I think they weigh 1070kg, but what I will say the ones I drove with the electronic diff (brakes a wheel) felt very odd at the limit, whereas the Performance Pack car, has a mechanical LSD and just revels to be driven beyond its limits and thus makes it a lot of fun and the engine is old school, lag lag lag, BOOOOOOST! Brakes are great but do not invite confidence as under heavy braking the back-end goes extremely light so braking from high speeds don't feel great.

End of the day the Abarth is based on a Fiat 500, a city car, Abarth did I feel best they could, the Comp is a fun car, but if you want handling, balance and lap times, look elsewhere, but if that don't interest you and you want fun, giggles and something that looks smart and comes from Abarth spot on pretty much look for a Competizione with Performance Pack or alternatively buy a base 145/160, fit an LSD and map it to 170-200HP depending on what turbo comes with car.

Does the Abarth have the same pedal positions as a Fiat 500? I tried to drive my missus' 500 once and my ankles killed after 5 minutes due to the crazy high angle you have to have your feet to use the pedals.
 

mjt

mjt

Soldato
Joined
31 Aug 2007
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19,994
Guy in front was driving rather fast so I thought I'd follow suit. Such poor driving it didn't even register as 0.5 stars on the BMW app. A new record for me :D

eArtE7c.jpg
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Nov 2005
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Redditch
Whipped the wheels off the wife's Fabia & gave them a good cleaning.
Cleaned off the brakes & underside whilst at it.

Swapped the fronts to the rear & vice versa as the rear tyres are like new whilst the fronts a a good 2/3 worn.
Should be ok until we PX the car towards the end of the year.
 
OcUK Staff
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Full engine bay decrease and then clean up, also new vtec filter and air filter:

0DECBF78-8871-4415-859C-0E37AC8BBCD5.jpeg


Now got the seats out of car and giving them a good clean and leather conditioning, tomorrow I can properly clean the interior whilst seats are out. :)


B2C54E13-E3B6-45DE-8E3E-A2A74E5FA795.jpeg
 
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Soldato
Joined
12 Mar 2008
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West sussex
Finally finished and put the splits back on the crown. This took a few weeks and many hours but I've never done split rims before.. centres were professionally power coated the rest was a lot of sanding and polishing.

Many pics..

Not to everyone's tastes but I love them!











 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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The Land of Roundabouts
Nice job with the rims, i feel the pain :), i wasn't brave enough to split mine and just did the rims. there gonna get done professionally next time!..

Swapped my alternator out and installed a safc ready for some bigger injectors now, snapped many a bolts on the under-tray&splash guards, the joys of working on a post teenage car :D zip ties will have to do for now as the extractor tool i bought was no better than scrap metal :mad:
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Mar 2008
Posts
22,862
Location
West sussex
Nice job with the rims, i feel the pain :), i wasn't brave enough to split mine and just did the rims. there gonna get done professionally next time!..

Swapped my alternator out and installed a safc ready for some bigger injectors now, snapped many a bolts on the under-tray&splash guards, the joys of working on a post teenage car :D zip ties will have to do for now as the extractor tool i bought was no better than scrap metal :mad:

It was a bit of a learning experience that.. didn't know what I was getting into :D

Thanks,I genuinely do like how they look.
 
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