Da Autocar
Abarth is set to complete its revival as a stand-alone brand within the Fiat Group by launching a sports roadster in 2012 — and it won’t need to buy in a chassis from Lotus or KTM to bring the car to market.
The new model is the latest step in an Abarth revival programme begun three years ago with the Punto Abarth, and continued with the arrival of an Abarth 500 plus a comprehensive range of ‘Esseesse’ performance upgrades for small Fiat models.
The planned roadster’s shape will be all-new. Its proportions and transverse, mid-engined layout will be roughly similar to that of the Lotus Elise. Its cockpit is also believed to use the same layout as the Elise: a fixed rear window with a simple, lift-out roof panel.
However, speculation on the internet that the car will use the Lotus’s chassis, or even the ultra-expensive platform from the KTM X-Bow, are “wide of the mark”, according to Italian sources close to the project.
The styling will come from Abarth’s own in-house department, led by the recently appointed head of design at the firm, Rubén Wainberg. The move is intended to recall Abarth’s 1960s heyday, when a series of specially designed Abarth sports cars were built and raced, using mostly Fiat components.
Abarth is working on its own tubular spaceframe for the car, which will follow tradition by making good use of proven Fiat/Alfa modular suspension components, as well as advanced and lightweight engines such as the recently launched turbocharged 1.4-litre MultiAir, available with outputs as high as 170bhp. Fiat/Alfa is also on the point of launching its own six-speed, dual-clutch gearbox, and admits seven-speed versions are a possibility for the future.
The entry price for the Abarth roadster is tipped to be “affordable” at around £25,000. This also clearly negates any relationship with the X-Bow, which uses an all-carbonfibre chassis and an Audi engine and costs £50,000 to £80,000.
Though engineering and design are at an advanced stage, the Abarth project’s business case is still under review and awaiting sign-off from group supremo Sergio Marchionne. Despite the success of the Fiat 500, which draws much from Fiat history, Marchionne is famously unsentimental about projects he suspects will not generate healthy returns.
One sticking point may be the size of the investment required for a car that will command worldwide sales of no more than 5000 units. Lotus’s current Elise/Exige volume is half that.
One point in the new car’s favour is that Fiat will soon have an ideal plant ready for its manufacture, just outside Turin. The group recently acquired the Grugliasco manufacturing plant of the struggling Bertone coachbuilding firm (the design side has been retained by the Bertone family) and is currently rebuilding it for the manufacture of various low-volume models and variants.
Work is due to be completed next year; that would be perfect timing for a new Abarth sports car that would appear a further 12 months down the line.
Resumindo e consolidando os rumores de que o projecto será todo "in-house"
Teremos então uma máquina dentro dos mesmos moldes que o Lotus Elise actual, mid-engine e tranversal, possivelmente com o 1.4 Multiair de 170cv associado a uma caixa de dupla embraiagem. A fábrica para o produzir seria a unidade industrial comprada à Bertone.
2012 parece ser a data de lançamento, mas o projecto ainda tem de ser aprovado pelo Marchionne, que sendo o pragma´tico que é, se a coisa não rende os lucros necessários, põe os projectos na gaveta.
Bem esperemos que seja aprovado.
Mas como já tinha dito, o futuro parece prometedor para estes brinquedos.
Mais uma vez, a Autocar faz uma previsão sobre os possiveis concorrentes futuros deste Abarth, que de uma forma ou outra já estão previstos serem lançados durante a primeira metade desta década.
Fiat's new £20,000 Abarth roadster will face tough competition with rivals from VW, Porsche, Toyota and Renault. Here, Autocar looks at four of the budget sports cars the car will have to beat.
Porsche ‘baby Boxster’
Created to allow the Boxster to move up in size and to make the VW BlueSport programme more cost-effective. It remains on schedule for a launch in 2012.
New Porsche boss Matthias Mueller is an expert product-planning strategist who has been a supporter of the BlueSport plan, which includes models from VW, Porsche and Audi based on a single mid-engined platform, and around 100,000 vehicles per year.
Baby Boxster could sneak under £30,000, as long as the firm is happy for one of its cars to have a turbocharged four-cylinder powerplant.
Toyota ‘MR2’
Toyota’s new brief is to make cars that people want — and a successor to the mid-engined MR2 is at the heart of the new ‘emotional’ product plan. The car was scheduled to use a V6, but the success of Honda’s CR-Z has persuaded Toyota to use a hybrid system based on a 1.5-litre petrol engine.
Toyota’s sports car efforts won’t end with the MR2, though. In tribute to its chief tester, Hiromu Naruse, who died in a road accident earlier this year, the firm is also turning a hot hatch concept into an ultra-cheap, front-engined, rear-drive coupé.
Renault Alpine
Renault’s new design chief, Laurens van den Acker, has reignited plans to build a rear-drive Alpine coupé. “Any car maker with a broad product range should have room for an affordable sports car,” he told us. Insiders say the model under consideration is close to the Alpine A110 ‘Berlinette’ in spirit, and it could be on sale within three years.
A potential assembly site for the Alpine could be the Renaultsport factory in Dieppe. Its manufacturing commitments have eased following a decision to put the hot Mégane down the regular line in Spain.
Volkswagen BlueSport
Volkswagen is on track to provide one of the Abarth sports car’s key rivals in the shape of the BlueSport, due in 2013. The BlueSport’s engines will be from the VW Group’s latest EA888 line-up, a range that serves the Golf and Scirocco.
The VW version is likely to get a new turbocharged 1.6 FSI motor that can offer up to 220bhp when fitted with an Audi variable valve lift system. Transmissions will be standard six-speed manual or seven-speed DSG units, codenamed DQ500.
Dos 4 apontados, o Alpine parece-me algo inverosimel, dado que, pelo menos na Renault já existem planos para o ressuscitar da marca desde o séc. passado. Não sei se será desta.
O Porsche e VW deverão ser garantidos, já que a Porsche neste momento está a tratar da "engenharia" da coisa para as várias marcas que farão uso desta plataforma Mid-engine RWD.
O Toyota também é um rumor muito recente, pelo que ainda não existem muitos dados para saber se é mesmo para ir para a frente, se é apenas um plano de intenções.
Não nos esqueçamos que a Toyota está para lançar em conjunto com a Subaru um coupé RWD acessivel, e já vimos o concept FT-86, mas as specs e preço já variaram tanto, e o projecto já foi adiado, e não se sabe muito bem quando é que o carro verá a luz do dia.
E agora já querem lançar um novo Mr2. hum...
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