Taking Abarth promises to be much fun
After months of talking about it, Fiat has finally re-launched its Abarth brand. The Grande Punto Abarth has gone on sale in Italy this month, and good progress is being made on a completely new factory within the confines of Fiat’s Mirafiori plant.
The man charged with putting the sting back in the scorpion’s tail is Fiat’s ex-brand boss, Luca De Meo, who plans to create a stand-alone, design-led and very desirable business.
De Meo’s strategy is to give Abarth a world of its own, by splitting it into two, each with its own dedicated area in the new workshops.
On one side will be the motorsport programme, where Abarth will build cars for a one-make rallying series based on the Punto S2000 with the possibility of expanding this should the opportunity arise.
On the other, Abarth-branded performance kits will be pumped out for application on future Fiat models. Expect kits along the lines of the “esseesse” concept at Frankfurt, which was essentially the Abarth Grande Punto with an ECU tune up and bodykit. De Meo also reckons that Ferrari-style Abarth-branded merchandise will help to build the brand’s reputation.
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