Abarth 500 Esseesse
Discussion
Hello everyone
After purchasing a house a few years ago and having to drive in around a diesel Audi A3 I am now back in a position where I've saved up a bit of money and can afford something I want.
Another factor is that my drive to work is only 15 minutes through a town centre and my A3 wasn't even getting up to temperature.
I was looking at various hot hatches. The typical Fiesta ST's, Clio Sports etc. They were not really doing anything for me and there was one little hot hatch that I couldn't stay away from.
The Abarth 500. I knew absolutely nothing about these other than they looked pretty funky and it would probably be impractical. I didn't care.
In typical fashion I went and bought the first one I looked at. I did want the red leather so that was a bonus. I was also unaware of the special edition Esseesse they did until I saw this one.
I was laughing on the inside from the moment I took the car out for a spin. Its bumpy, loud and my girlfriend hates it (which makes me love it even more)
I've had it for about a month now and really gelled with it. Its a car I look forwards to driving rather than seeing it as a utility vehicle.
Being an Esseesse it has stiffer suspension than the already quite stiff standard Abarth. I cant deny it isn't a bit bumpy on uneven roads but on smooth roads its perfectly acceptable.
This has a few mods done by previous owners. It has had a remap and now makes 179bhp and 278nm. Its a fair amount for such a little car and does go when you put your foot down. It's still returning 35mpg on mainly town driving. It also has a straight through exhaust system which is surprisingly quiet when driving normally. Its loud and rorty when driving hard and every now and again does hilarious pops. I am too old for that now though
I replaced the black dash with a red one I've also added an android headunit which also does carplay. It really helps to modernise the interior seeing as its now 13 years old!
I have grown quite attached to the little thing. Future plans are to get a set of 16" wheels for the winter. I love the look of the white wheels but they're already proving a nightmare to keep clean. I also plan to swap out the standard boost guage for a mechanical one. The standard ones run from the ecu and the readings get messed up on a mapped car.
I'm also going to do a cambelt, waterpump change and full service including spark plugs. I phoned an Abarth specialist and they wanted £650 to do this work so I will do it myself!
Thank you for reading
After purchasing a house a few years ago and having to drive in around a diesel Audi A3 I am now back in a position where I've saved up a bit of money and can afford something I want.
Another factor is that my drive to work is only 15 minutes through a town centre and my A3 wasn't even getting up to temperature.
I was looking at various hot hatches. The typical Fiesta ST's, Clio Sports etc. They were not really doing anything for me and there was one little hot hatch that I couldn't stay away from.
The Abarth 500. I knew absolutely nothing about these other than they looked pretty funky and it would probably be impractical. I didn't care.
In typical fashion I went and bought the first one I looked at. I did want the red leather so that was a bonus. I was also unaware of the special edition Esseesse they did until I saw this one.
I was laughing on the inside from the moment I took the car out for a spin. Its bumpy, loud and my girlfriend hates it (which makes me love it even more)
I've had it for about a month now and really gelled with it. Its a car I look forwards to driving rather than seeing it as a utility vehicle.
Being an Esseesse it has stiffer suspension than the already quite stiff standard Abarth. I cant deny it isn't a bit bumpy on uneven roads but on smooth roads its perfectly acceptable.
This has a few mods done by previous owners. It has had a remap and now makes 179bhp and 278nm. Its a fair amount for such a little car and does go when you put your foot down. It's still returning 35mpg on mainly town driving. It also has a straight through exhaust system which is surprisingly quiet when driving normally. Its loud and rorty when driving hard and every now and again does hilarious pops. I am too old for that now though
I replaced the black dash with a red one I've also added an android headunit which also does carplay. It really helps to modernise the interior seeing as its now 13 years old!
I have grown quite attached to the little thing. Future plans are to get a set of 16" wheels for the winter. I love the look of the white wheels but they're already proving a nightmare to keep clean. I also plan to swap out the standard boost guage for a mechanical one. The standard ones run from the ecu and the readings get messed up on a mapped car.
I'm also going to do a cambelt, waterpump change and full service including spark plugs. I phoned an Abarth specialist and they wanted £650 to do this work so I will do it myself!
Thank you for reading
Col 666 said:
They are great fun, I've had 2. The last one being a 595 Competizione running around 210bhp, compromised in so many ways but they just have so much character! Enjoy.
Yes like the crap cup holders that let your bottle fall over if you go round a corner faster than 3mph and the seat tilt handle that I've already broken and had to repair twice Benga101 said:
Car looks great Dms86 - keep looking at these as an upgrade for our 2014 500.
Can I ask where you got the new head unit from? Was it easy to fit?
Very easy to fit. Yours might be a later headunit being 2014?Can I ask where you got the new head unit from? Was it easy to fit?
This is the one.....
https://xtrons.co.uk/fiat-500-android-11-octa-core...
Loved my Esseesse. They really get under your skin.
Had a Novitec system on it which sounded ridiculous for a 1.4. Your tips look similar?
The suspension is very hard though.
If changing the wheels, you could swap the decals and mirrors to red really easily to tie it together with the interior.
Enjoy
Had a Novitec system on it which sounded ridiculous for a 1.4. Your tips look similar?
The suspension is very hard though.
If changing the wheels, you could swap the decals and mirrors to red really easily to tie it together with the interior.
Enjoy
romeodelta said:
Loved my Esseesse. They really get under your skin.
Had a Novitec system on it which sounded ridiculous for a 1.4. Your tips look similar?
The suspension is very hard though.
If changing the wheels, you could swap the decals and mirrors to red really easily to tie it together with the interior.
Enjoy
This has the cheaper Toyosports system on it. It does sound great!Had a Novitec system on it which sounded ridiculous for a 1.4. Your tips look similar?
The suspension is very hard though.
If changing the wheels, you could swap the decals and mirrors to red really easily to tie it together with the interior.
Enjoy
I did think about red theme but I like the white so going to stick with that. I'm wanting to swap the wheels because I am lazy and don't want to ruin them over the winter. You can pick up a set of 16s for a few hundred and a dark colour won't have me wanting to clean off the brake dust after every drive.
These hadn't really been on my radar before, but having bought a cheap Ford Ka and discovered the connection with the 500 I'm hoping to eventually change it for a more sporty version of the 500. I think they look great and I love the red interior and red painted dash on yours...looks so much more upmarket than the plastic one in the Ka. Trouble is I'll start being worried about where I'd park a nice 500, so kind of defeats the object of a 'shed' Ka.
Maybe I need both.
Maybe I need both.
OldSkoolRS said:
These hadn't really been on my radar before, but having bought a cheap Ford Ka and discovered the connection with the 500 I'm hoping to eventually change it for a more sporty version of the 500. I think they look great and I love the red interior and red painted dash on yours...looks so much more upmarket than the plastic one in the Ka. Trouble is I'll start being worried about where I'd park a nice 500, so kind of defeats the object of a 'shed' Ka.
Maybe I need both.
I bought this so cheap that it left me feeling like I'd stole it from the guy. For that reason I don't feel too bad using it daily. I am getting very attached though.Maybe I need both.
Depends how much you want to spend. 5-6k will get you into a decent early ish one.
I also did not realise they share the same platform with the KA. Makes it easier when buying certain parts.
Dms86 said:
I bought this so cheap that it left me feeling like I'd stole it from the guy. For that reason I don't feel too bad using it daily. I am getting very attached though.
Depends how much you want to spend. 5-6k will get you into a decent early ish one.
I also did not realise they share the same platform with the KA. Makes it easier when buying certain parts.
My Ka is a true shed as it was under £2k, but I've done a few jobs on it and sometimes found it cheaper/easier to buy the same part for a 500 (mine is the 1.2 engine). I just wanted something to get around locally that I didn't care about getting scraped, but I quite like driving it and I've tidied it up so it's actually fairly presentable now. I'd probably get most if not all of my money back, so I might sell it on next spring and look for a 500. Maybe not an Abarth, but I just love the looks of the sportier 500s. Probably around 4k mark though, so that will limit what I can get.Depends how much you want to spend. 5-6k will get you into a decent early ish one.
I also did not realise they share the same platform with the KA. Makes it easier when buying certain parts.
In the meantime enjoy yours and you can drive it like you stole it.
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