Stage 3 250bhp Fiat 500 Abarth

In the workshop this week we had this baby blue bad boy Fiat 500 (595) Abarth in for stage 3 tuning. This car had already undergone some extensive upgrades and we were given the task of putting the final pieces of the puzzle together. This 500 was already sporting a larger TD04 turbo found on Subaru Impreza’s capable of 1.7 bar, a Forge Motorsport high flow intake, full 2.5″ exhaust system inc downpipe with the catalyst removed and an Airtec front mount intercooler to keep those charge temps chilly.

The final additions required to make this a true pocket rocket were bigger injectors and 3 bar boost sensors and of course stage 3 calibration to make everything work in harmony. The injectors of choice on this application were a 380cc BOSCH item this is actually an o/e Ferrari unit fitted to the 599 GTO a fire-breathing 6.0 V12, quite funny to think there are Ferrari parts going on this plucky little 500 with a third of the cylinders and a quarter of the capacity. And also 3 bar boost sensors found on the Fiat Punto 180bhp variants with a similar engine.

So now with all the hardware needed installed and ready to go its time for the fun part, the tuning! Unlike a lot of tuning we do especially with VAG range vehicles the MED 17 ECU found on this Fiat had to be removed and the initial tune and flashed on a bench. This had to be done a couple of times to get the tune spot on to where we are happy, we always prefer to do this on the road in real-world conditions and air flow. We do this by looking and logging live data things like boost pressure, ignition timing, long and short term fuel trims to name but a few. So after a couple of revisions, we were happy and was time for the dyno to see what figure it made.

Average 250bhp !! Exactly what we were aiming for and at only 1.5bar of boost probably a little more to be had, but you also have to use common sense this car was still running standard internals and at the size of a roller skate with front wheel drive we found this to be a perfect balance.

For all your tuning inquiries and if indeed you have a Fiat 500 and you are aiming for something similar please get in touch 01772 201597