A special Grande Punto Abarth “SuperSport” is making the scene at Geneva, garbed in Airfield Gray paintwork – the same colour sported by the Scorpion’s historic race cars and, as the story has it, taken from the planes based next to the brand’s original headquarters – enlivened by a racing-inspired livery.
Equipped with a 16-valve 1.4 litre engine pumped up to deliver 180 horsepower, with a wrenching 270 Nm peak torque at speeds as low as 3000 revs, the Grande Punto Abarth “SuperSport” racing version hits a top speed of 215 km/h and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in only 7.5 seconds. In addition, a variable back-pressure dual-mode exhaust system enhances engine sound, producing a distinctive throaty roar over 4000 rpm. With performance features like these, there can be no doubt that this is a car whose whole heart and soul is in racing.
Performance also benefits from a number of changes that the “esseesse” kit makes in ride height and trim attitude, giving the car a more solid stance with firmer, shorter springs, 215/40 R18 tires and specially designed 7.5 J X 18 alloy wheels. The kit puts the car into a real sprinter’s crouch, dropping its roll center by 20 mm. Just as important, the brake system features cross-drilled discs all round, together with high-performance front brake pads.
On the inside, the show car boasts Sabelt Abarth Racing leather-upholstered seats – lightweight and track-approved, as befits the car’s sporting spirit – and the Abarth Blue&MeTM MAP satellite navigator with telemetry capabilities developed with Magneti Marelli. This innovative device provides four different functions. The first – Monitoring – displays the main in-car parameters (engine rpm, vehicle speed, engaged gear) acquired and transferred by the Blue&Me system to the PND Portable Navigation Device via Bluetooth. The Track function, accessible if the driver is on one of the circuits stored on the device’s SD memory card, displays a set of additional information such as the car’s location on the track (provided by GPS) and lap times. The third function – Configuration – makes it possible to store telemetric data for a route and associate them with a personalized session identified by the driver’s name, circuit and date. Stored information can be easily retrieved and analyzed later with the fourth, Analysis, function.
Rampant price speculation on my part: in Germany, the SuperSport is priced at €24,030, versus €18,100 for a stock GPA. In Italy, it's €25,795 for an esseesse + Sabelts + a few options, vs. €24,295 for a SuperSport of the same spec. By my reckoning then, the SuperSport in the UK should be around £19,000. Whether it will be is another matter.
