Thoughts on esseesse kit after 3k, no track usage yet as car is still has dodgy vibration at high speed under load which is going in to get looked at.

Best Bit – handling without doubt, I have been able to run 18s with lower profiles and lower ride height and experienced improved ride, does it go far enough, no, still too much bodyroll but the car is pretty stable overall, when I can be bothered to go to work I have a 100 mile roundtrip, it very smooth and well composed on A/B roads, I would of liked to take the car further but wouldn’t want to put up with it day to day, this will do me, a marked improvement on standard.

Extra power, Meh, my car was performing pretty well prior to the remap (Dyno’d at Stock SS figures before remap ) don’t notice much of a bump after it, the car has changed but its minimal, biggest improvement is the tweak to the normal throttle map, unfortunately SS map hasn’t improved early rev limit in low gears etc. Air Filter has allowed more noise from the turbo, makes it sound more like a rally car, I like this , exhaust has improved the engine note, it’s still very much quiet and usable, just deeper, more purposeful, spending over 3 hours a day in the car this is good for me.

Brakes – find myself stopping short a lot, there is a lot more initial bite which is the cause of the this but has resulted in a lack of feel in the pedal, old setup was very progressive, the amount of pressure I apply translating to appreciable equal amount of retardation in the car, very nice, I was in control, new setup is like sport mode for brakes, everything delivered in first prod of brakes and nothing more with further pressure, not very good in my opinion.

I am hoping the behavior might change when I get some proper heat cycling into them on track, too much personal stuff going on in my life at the mo to play with cars. At the moment its very much a case  of wouldn’t recommend it By product of the brakes better initial bite is that TTC now works more aggressively, might sound like a good thing as its supposed to be a good LSD mimic, TTC unfortunately is arse and you can’t turn it off, now it’s too aggressive, too much speed lost, really need to ditch electronics in next Abarth or make it switchable as I won’t buy another if it’s more of the same. Much prefer how the car and electronics performed on the old brakes which due to the less effective bite let me manage understeer with my right foot and never got in my way.

Summary is esseesse worth it, for me, no! I bought it as I was enjoying the Evo and wanted a bit more from it and feel the car was good enough fun that it was worth spending some dough on it, I do like the wheels and suspension though, add these to an APE and perhaps visit TMC, you’ll do better with your dough, of course excepting possible warranty/reliability implications.