#TunerTuesday -Abarth 500 Ares by Pogea Racing

You may recall an old episode of Top Gear in which Jeremy Clarkson bows down in wonderment at a Mitsubishi Evo for the fact that its 2L turbocharged engine produced 400bhp. Fair dos, his review did progress to him ripping the car to pieces – criticising the usability, fuel consumption, and most of all, the turbo-lag. Those faults however were, in the case of the Evo FQ400, the price you had to pay for getting 400bhp from a 2L engine.

Understandably then, I can’t help but feel somewhat apprehensive towards what German tuners – Pogea Racing – have done to Fiat’s Abarth 500, for they have managed to screw the same 400bhp, not from a 2L engine, but from just 1.4 litres!!

It’s called the Abarth 500 Ares – which since I’m British and slightly lysdexic, means I’m probably going to accidentally call it something else at some point in this blog. But the name is of little significance when you consider the absurd power. In order to squeeze this much oomph out of such a miserably small engine, Pogea Racing have given the 500 new pistons, con-rods, and a massively bigger turbocharger. On top of this, they’ve also modified the air intake in order to feed the new turbo with sufficient quantities of air, uprated the cooling system, and upgraded the fuel system. And their performance claims are rather outrageous…

Pogea Racing claims that the 500 Arse gets from 0-60mph in 4.7 seconds, and thanks to a better transmission – which requires its own cooling system – the top speed is a whopping 179 mph. That’s the same as a Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV in a car with a third of the cylinders and less than a third of the capacity. Not to mention that, just like in the regular Abarth 500, the power is sent hurtling at the front wheels. In a stock Abarth 500, the 1.4L Turbocharged engine sends a mere 140 bhp to the front wheels, which results in a 0-60mph time of just under 8 seconds. However, now those front wheels are in charge of managing nearly 3 times the power. You don’t need to be a doctor of engineering to work out how this might make things a little lairy.

To try and assuage the inherent side effects that come from putting a lot of power through the front wheels of a car, Pogea Racing have given the Arse a limited slip differential, new suspension and brakes, and wider tyres – up 20mm at the front (to 215 section), and 30mm at the rear (to 235 section). But despite these measures, when the front wheels of a car have to deal with the job of steering, and 30 more horsepower than a Porsche 911, there’s only so much you can do to contain that kind of fury. And what Pogea Racing have done is akin to sticking a 5p plastic bag on your head to protect yourself from a nearby nuclear explosion.

On the outside, the Ares is dripping with cosmetic changes. A carbon fibre body kit ensures you could never mistake it for a regular Abarth, and also keeps the weight down. With a kerb-weight of just 2,319lbs (1,052kg), the Ares’s power-to-weight ratio of just 380 bhp-per-tonne is 43 bhp-per-tonne better than an Audi R8 V10!

If the motoring media gets their hands on the Arse, they will probably uncover most of the problems I’ve suggested may plague it. But this car isn’t necessarily for people who want a completely polished driving experience – it’s for unhinged out-and-out horsepower freaks, who don’t care what they have to sacrifice in order to satisfy the lunatic within. Only 5 of these cars will be built, and if you are one of the aforementioned horsepower freaks, you can expect to pay £54,000! If however you’ve already got a standard Abarth 500, Pogea Racing will turn your car into an Arse for £18,000. Bargain performance or what?

Thanks for reading this #blogpost
~Maxwell