Abarth 124 Spider Puts the Rumble in the Roadster

By Tony Markovich - March 2, 2016

abarth-124-spider

What’s a Miata? The name sounds familiar, but nothing is coming to mind. Doesn’t really matter when there’s a Abarth 124 Spider staring at you with its big beautiful googly eyes.

This red, white, and black beauty was expected, but that doesn’t curb the enthusiasm about it one bit. It looks better than the Fiat 124 Spider it’s based on, its engine has been tuned to produce more power, and it has a new exhaust that’ll hopefully sound as good as Abarth spicy little Cheez-It, the 500.

Under the hood is still the 1.4-liter MultiAir turbo engine. Torque is the same at 184 lb-ft ,but its power has been boosted from 160 to 170 horsepower. That’s transferred through a 6-speed manual or automatic transmission. The total package is 2.337 pounds and has a 50/50 weight distribution. The rear wheels propel the car to 62 in 6.8 seconds, which isn’t particularly quick, but it will surely feel much quicker like its seed, the Mazda Miata.

Additional upgrades include Bilstein dampers, Brembo brakes, a sports mechanical limited-slip differential, and a Record Monza exhaust. It also has an aero kit, bigger intakes, 17-inch alloy wheels, a shorter shifter, and a smaller steering wheel.

And then there’s the 124 Rally prototype, which was built to FIA R-GT spec. Fixed roof. Three hundred horsepower. Full cage. Rear-biased weight. What a tease.