New Widebody Abarth 595 Is A $150,000 Pocket Rocket With 250 HP

Giannini Automobili has been tuning and building cars, mostly Fiats, since the dawn of the mass-produced automobile in the early 20th century. The outfit closed its doors in 1961 after its founding brothers could not agree on the direction to take, but that’s a story for another day. What matters now is that the name is back with an Abarth 595-based creation called the Spettacolo. Unlike the Fiat 500e that is now available in America, the Abarth 595 is powered by a 1.4-liter turbocharged T-Jet four-cylinder engine, and Giannini has modified this to produce 247 hp and 265 lb-ft of torque, making the Spettacolo more powerful than any roadgoing Abarth 595 or 695.

Ridiculous Styling

The Spettacolo has a custom widebody kit with extended fenders, larger side skirts, a vented aluminum hood, and a large rear diffuser. This sits below a pair of central-exit exhaust tips, each of which appears to be considerably larger than the engine’s own cylinders. There’s also a large roof-mounted spoiler, and the wheels are embellished with carbon-fiber aero covers. Befitting of its supercar pricing (which we’ll get to momentarily), the hot hatch has scissor doors that open upwards.

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Peer through those door openings, and you’ll find lightweight carbon seats in place of the rear bench, leather-bound buckets in the front, and loads of quilting and contrast stitching, along with an Alcantara steering wheel and aluminum pedals. Strakes on headlight covers and other areas create a wild look, which can be made even more extreme with the color palette, of which there are 15 options on the Spettacolo configurator:

• White
• Old White
• Pearly White
• Matte Blue
• Metallic Blue
• Riva Blue
• Yellow Light Grey
• Dark Grey
• Metallic Grey
• Metallic Black
• Red
• Green
• Lime Green
• Zero Entertainment (chrome red)

Pricing And Availability

Just 200 examples are scheduled for production of this package, which reportedly took 150 days to develop. Pricing starts at €133,000 (roughly $144,600), but for that money, you get the ability to do 0-62 mph in five seconds flat and a top speed of 174 mph. The Spettacolo should be more exciting to drive, too, as its weight is just 2,172 lbs. However, if this tickles your fancy, you’ll have to be patient, as each example is hand-built over a period of five months. Then again, if you have six figures to spend on a hot hatch, you probably have other options available. Hopefully, Giannini will offer cosmetic kits for Fiat’s electric offerings; we’d love to see a wildly styled pocket rocket like this on American soil.

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