Yeah, I've seen that video. Insane power for a car that light. That's the older Miata though, the NC I think. The Abarth is based on the later ND model (like Sid's). I won't be going for an engine swap in mine though. On our roads it sounds like a recipe for a colossal accident.

Although it only has 1400cc engine, with the addition of the turbo and a slight tune, the car's developing about 180bhp so it's sufficiently quick for something weighing just over a (metric) ton (2.300lbs) and of course the noise is EPIC.

11 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

What was 'the incident'? 

 I dropped a limestone paver on my right hand a few weeks ago resulting in two broken fingers and 'significant' tendon/ligament damage - everything is attached, just, but I've got next to no movement in my index and middle fingers. Hoping that it'll heal without surgery as I really don't want to go into hospital even just overnight, but we'll see.

10 hours ago, Mayhem said:

A Fiata? How interesting, I've never seen one before. Over here we have something called a Miata by Mazda which bears some striking resemblance. Any relation between the two that you know of?

Yep, assuming you're not making a joke, the Miata and the Fiat 124 Spider are essentially the same car, even built on the same tracks by Mazda in Japan, although this is the Abarth variant which is significantly warmed up - Garret turbo, Bilstein shocks all round, Brembo brakes, limited slip-diff etc etc. This is one of the first 1000 Abarth 124s produced as well so this was actually put together in Turin by Abarth - probably explains the questionable build quality in certain areas...

There's only a handful of them Stateside although they're still being built for NAPAC (production of both the Fiat and Abarth 124 ended for Europe in late 2018)