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Mike Sinclair18 Mar 2015
REVIEW

Abarth 695 Biposto 2015 Review

Abarth claims the 695 Biposto is the world's smallest supercar. If the supercar label means it comes with an eye-watering price-tag they’ve got part of the equation right…

Abarth 695 Biposto
Quick Spin
Balocco, Italy

Based on the 595 Competizione and before that, the humble Fiat 500, Abarth’s 695 Biposto is a limited-edition two-seater hot hatch which the maker claims is the world’s smallest supercar. Performance is impressive (0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds) but with much of the equipment that makes the Biposto really special being optional on top of its $65,000 pricetag, the cost of entry is very, very high. So it's one for dedicated enthusiasts and brand tragics only.

The plan was fraught with danger. Take three tiny cars to one big mountain and expect them to take on 40 faster racers and survive for 12 hours… What could possibly go wrong?

Plenty.

But it didn’t. And in the end all of them were running at the chequered flag for the 2014 Bathurst 12-Hour. One of three Abarth Assetto Corse racers actually finished inside the top 20.

This writer was one of the drivers of that car and the experience will forever endear me to the plucky little turbocharged Fiat 500 racers.

It also requires me to declare my bias when it comes to this car — and, truth be known, probably to most things that appear in the future wearing the red and yellow Abarth scorpion badge.

Does that mean I’d be prepared to shell out the $90,000-plus pricetag for a proper kitted version of the fastest Abarth road car ever? Very unlikely. But equally, I have no trouble picturing a well-heeled pocket-rocket fan do just that.

Fiat Chrysler Australia has announced a $65,000 starting price for the limited-edition Abarth 695 Biposto — a vehicle it claims is the "world's smallest supercar”.

But that $65K sticker is actually misleading. You’ll need to shell out another $15,000 or thereabouts for the icing on the Biposto’s cake — a rally-car style dog-box that allows clutch-less manual changes up and down the gearbox.

And that’s not all you’ll be paying extra for. Three further upgrade kits will be required to take your 695 Biposto to the ‘full welly’ specification of the show car that celebrated the Abarth brand at the 2014 Geneva motor show.

The ‘Special 124 Kit' recalls features of the classic 124 Abarth coupe and adds the double-hump aluminium bonnet that the Biposto has invariably been photographed wearing. This kit also adds titanium hub caps, wheel nuts and water, oil and fuel caps. Pricetag: TBA (EDITED: see below)

Then there’s the 'Carbon Kit' which adds a carbon dashboard fascia, front door panel and rear-view mirror — also yet to be priced. The 'Racing Kit' offers an IAM data logger, polycarbonate side glass, other goodies and even a race suit, shoes, gloves and helmet which can be personalised with your initials. I’m not expecting it to be cheap.

Indeed, the whole exercise points me to the logic that a real fan would be better off buying the full left-hand drive Assetto Corse racer upon which our Bathurst cars were based. At less than 30,000 Euros it’s looking like suspiciously good value…

But of course that wouldn’t allow you to drive a 500 with two pukka Sabelt race buckets, stand-out semi-matt grey paint (only one shade), a 0-100km/h time of 5.9 seconds and an estimated top speed on the high side of 220km/h (Abarth claims 230) on the street.

For that’s where the Biposto is supposed to live — despite the “track on Sunday, road on Monday” label Abarth sticks on it.

Ironically, it was a desire to make the dog-box equipped Biposto a better road car that meant we couldn’t drive it when Fiat Australia introduced the car to motoring.com.au at the FCA group’s Centro Experimentale Balocco in northern Italy last week.

Abarth’s engineers say they are trialling closer ratios for the Bacci Romano gearbox which is matched to a racing clutch and mechanical limited slip differential (from the same manufacturer) to make it easier to drive in traffic. I’m not sure that’s the point, but commend their persistence.

So a quick few laps of the historical Alfa Romeo loop at Balocco in the standard five-speed manual Biposto are all I can report upon (the dog-box details will have to wait on the understanding Fiat Australia will equip a test car with the option).

And the key word IS quick — in the company ofAlfa Romeo 4Cs, the Biposto was anything but disgraced.

Performance from the modified 1.4-litre T-Jet turbocharged petrol four is stronger than its claimed 140kW at 5500rpm and 250Nm from 3000rpm would suggest. With a 997kg dry weight, Abarth says the 695 Biposto has a weight-to-power ratio of just under 7kg/kW – by way of comparison a Golf GTI Performance lugs around over 8kg/kW.

That the ‘big’ throaty Akropovic exhaust, and the obvious turbo and wastegate pops and trills the Biposto regaled us with, are almost straight from the Assetto Corse didn’t do any harm regards my general demeanour to the little Abarth, I admit.

Arguably even more impressive, however, is the Biposto’s braking and cornering potential. Four-piston Brembos matched to oversized 305mm front discs meant braking distances from the 200km/h-plus speed reached on the test track were almost comically short — allowing any distance the 4Cs gained on the straight to be easily erased.

The Biposto remained composed and cornered flat even when pitched hard into the changes of direction and drive from the apex and out of the corner (the bugbear of higher performance front-drivers — especially ones this short) was again good enough to keep the Biposto’s low carbon-splitter equipped nose latched onto the 4C’s rear.

Kudos here too to the sticky Pirelli rubber that comes standard on the car. The P Zeros provide another (if tenuous) link to the mini-supercar claim.

Of course this impression was on the smooth, traffic-free, confines of the Balocco track. How the clearly track-focussed Extreme Shox dampers will cope with our roads may be another story. If there’s one area the 500-based Abarths suffer it's an almost complete lack of rear suspension travel.

And perhaps it’s worth reminding you here that as a Biposto pilota you’ll also have to make do without any audio distractions or air-conditioning. Still want to drive one on Monday?

With just 10 Bipostos earmarked for Australia, I have little doubt FCA will sell out. After all, the similarly priced and half-as-pukka 695 Tributo Ferrari and Editione Maserati were so popular the previous distributor had to increase its allocation..

What I’m less convinced of is that the Biposto is worth two 595 Competiziones — even before the added equipment costs. A chip and aftermarket exhaust and LSD would deliver 95 per cent of the performance of the Biposto at 50 per cent of the cost.

But it wouldn’t be a Biposto, would it? A $65K starting price is a lot of money for a hot hatch, but for the world’s smallest supercar? Maybe it’s a bargain after all.

MS: Fiat Chrysler Australia announced "indicative pricing" for the Biposto kits this morning (March 18).
The 'Special Kit 124' is set at $5000, with the 'Carbon Kit' at $9000. Abarth's 'Track Kit' splits the difference at $7000. That takes the price of your full-spec Biposto to $101,000!!!


2015 Abarth 695 Biposto pricing and specifications:

Price: $65,000 (plus on-road costs, see text)
Engine: 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 140kW/250Nm
Transmission: Five-speed manual (Optional dog-box)
Fuel: 6.5L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 155g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star Euro NCAP (2007)

What we liked: Not so much
>> Closest 500 to Abarth racer yet >> Eye-wateringly expensive
>> Butched up looks >> Does the dog-box work? We haven't driven it
>> Genuine hot-hatch performance >> Brand tragic only need apply...
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Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalistsMeet the team
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