The Trophy Abarth 500 race series, which launches in 2009, will be divided into three championships: the 500 Abarth Trophy Europe, the Trophy Abarth 500 and the 500 Abarth Trophy Italy.

The Trophy Abarth 500 follows the Ferrari Challenge Trophy Pirelli, and is divided into six meetings of two races each.  It begins on March 29 in Monza, with races on May 3 at Mugello, May 17 at Imola, July 5 in Le Castellet (France), September 27 at Valencia (Spain), and October 11 at Vallelunga.

The 500 Abarth Trophy Europe features six meetings of two races each, combined with the European WTCC (World Touring Car Championship). It begins on May 31 in Valencia (Spain), followed by June 21 in Brno (Czech Republic), July 5 at Porto (Portugal), July 19 at Brands Hatch (Great Britain), September 6 at Oschersleben ( Germany) and September 20 in Imola (Italy).

The 500 Abarth Trophy Italy will begin on April 5 with a race yet to be designated in Italy, then on May 3 at Mugello in conjunction with the Ferrari Challenge Trophy Pirelli, June 7 at Magione (Aci-League CSAI), August 2 at Varano de 'Melegari (Aci-CSAI), 27 at Mugello (Aci-CSAI) and 11 October in Vallelunga, with the Ferrari Challenge Trophy Pirelli.

If you've got the money, you can participate in the series by ordering a 500 Abarth Assetto Corse and race support package, which includes full service and transportation.  Cars will be delivered to customers at the end of February 2009.

I've had to pull this info from an Italian press release, so my apologies if it's not 100% accurate.

That's an 86% discount!
Pity they can't carry this over to the standard Abarth 500 price - I might have two!

John Original price is absolutely crazy, who the hell would pay that much for it. Certainly would have made the car very very rare, but what!?

ALex is quite right, there are only 49 of these cars ever to made. They have a different start to the chassis number. An ordinary Fiat 500 or Abarth 500 will start ZFA1500000 etc with the last numbers being sequencial. The Assetto Corsa starts with ZFA1510000 so it can be told apart from the others.
Chunky and I saw the very first one being built in Turin when we were there and it had been pre-sold to an american collector. It had the chassis number ZFA1510000000000. Being number zero in the 49, the collector had paid 1,000,000 Euro for the car to make sure he owned the very first one!!!
This car is something very special. It is completely stripped of all the refinements and is left with a roll cage and power steering, thats it!!
It produces 200 BHP out of the same 1.4 turbo engine thats fitted to all of the 500 Abarths.

If it's going to have a race series, I'm going anyway! 

I did wonder when that subject might eventually crop up......