Test Drive: An Interesting Week With the 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth

I don’t conceive a test of the 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth needs much in the way of introduction. We all are well aware as a restyled Miata with a turbocharged Fiat engine–Japanese recreation with an Italian spice profile.

The 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth Experience: Good, but not As I Expected

It’s been ages since I’ve test driven a 124 Spyder, so naturally the first thing I did when my top-of-the-line 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth topic arrived was take it out to my favorite twisty artery in Malibu, California. I was soon surprised to find I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected–it was eager to understeer and not quite as poised as I’d hoped. I remembered an earlier notion that the 124 wasn’t quite as good to drive as Mazda’s hardcore MX-5 Club, though the Club can be a little harder to live with as a daily driver.

But you know where I enjoyed test the 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth? Every-friggin’-where else. Like a lot of us, I’ve been working from home, principally writing historical tales, standing close to my table and bookshelves. With the 124 Spider Abarth outside, I felt like I was 17 again, manipulating my freshly minted driver’s license and looking for any excuse to take a drive. When my partner transmit me to the store, I seriously considered buying the wrong stuff so I could go back out to return it.

I’ll tell you what I love most about the 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth: The spend. Top-of-the-line Abarth mannequins get louder pipings, and each time I fired up the engine it chimed like I was driving a ’70s-era Fiat 124 with the muffler once starting to rust away( with the rest of the exhaust and the rest of the car soon to follow ). I visualized the farty trumpeting would is getting older after a few days, but it never did. I could listen to that audio the working day, every day.

What I desire second-best is, well, pretty much everything else. I’ve ever reviewed the 124 ’s styling was a bit more awkward than the Miata’s, but I’ve grown to like it, if for no other reason than it’s something a little different. Inside, the 124 is unadulterated Mazda, but other than moving the volume knob to the dashboard where it belongs, and maybe adding a tiny digital speedo( the analog one is dicey to read ), I wouldn’t alteration a thing.

2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth: Geeking-Out With Fiat’s MultiAir Engine

The engine is the main difference between the Mazda and the Fiat. While the Miata squanders a 181 -horsepower, 2.0 liter naturally aspirated four, the 124 Spider gets a home-grown turbocharged 1.4 with 160 hp. That figure is increased to 164 in the Abarth; torque is 184 lb-ft, but the Abarth peaks at 3,200 rpm instead of 2,500 rpm like lesser 124 s.

Take a test drive of the 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth, and you will know darn well this is a small-displacement turbo engine the second you make the revs drop below 2,000, as it cakes until the turbo is good and ready. Forget crawling away from a ignite in second gear. Power is moderate even when the engine is on the enhance, and the 6,250 -rpm rev limiter is low and not marked well on the Abarth’s red-faced tach.

And you know what? It’s precisely those characteristics that determine the engine interesting. You have to think when you drive the 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth, be consciously well understood what gear you’re in and how fast your device is turning, and make good use of the rev range. This is driving, my friends!

Part of my pleasure has geeky springs: This engine use Fiat’s MultiAir electrohydraulic variable valve-timing organisation, which efforts such precise see that the engine has no throttle plate–instead, when you step on the accelerator, it’s the intake valves themselves that controller how much breeze does into the engine. That is amazing. That is freaky. That is cool.

Ride and manage? I mentioned that the curvy-road driving wasn’t up there with what I want from a Miata( moderate grip, so I don’t have to go too fast to slip around, and a neat neutral symmetry with gentle oversteer when you want it ). But for all the rest of the driving I did, it was perfect–firm enough to keep me connected and soft enough that I didn’t regret driving it. The guide is glowing and precise and savory; thank you Mazda.

Fiat 124 Spider: Tall Move Need not Apply

At 5-feet, 6-inches tall, I’m in the minority that can appreciate the 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth’s tighten aspects; it’s not often I drive a car that feels as if it were created in order to my sizing. Taller beings might find it more constraining, and with the middle-age pounds I’ve bundled on, coming in and out was, I must admit , not as beautiful an affair as it would have been 20 years ago when I was young and buckling and beautiful. Once inside, though, I was super-comfy.

And could this convertible crown be any better? Tug on the lock, give the roof a good knock uphill, and it’ll fold itself. Then, push down at the centre for human rights to secure it. When you get to where you’re becoming, pull the liberation between the seats, attract the top closed over your shoulder, then snarl the clamp home. Easier even than a power top–so easy that there is no reason, short of a monsoon, to drive the 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth with the roof closed. I did it for precisely three minutes in the best interests of journalistic test-drive integrity, then has been determined that since the sun was out, journalistic unity could go jump in a pool. Anyone who wants to know what the 124 Spider is like with the top up can do their own damn research drive.

What kept echoing in my psyche as I drove( competing with that wonderful exhaust note) was a simple phrase: “This is a car I would buy.” Would I buy a 2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth instead of a Miata? You know, I review I would. Perhaps the Fiat is flawed in some ways, but shortcoming are what make a car interesting. A Mazda MX-5 Miata Club would be a bit more fun in the curves, but I recall the Fiat 124 Spider Abarth would be a lot more recreation everywhere else. And that’s what really matters.

Fiat 124 Spider: What’s New for 2020:

Abarth prototypes now render a “Scorpion Sting” decal packet Powertrain, postponement, person are carryovers from 2019 Framework lineup includes Classica, Lusso, Abarth Small turbo instrument differentiates it from Mazda Miata

2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth Specifications

ON SALE Now PRICE $35,910( base)

ENGINE 1.4L turbocharged DOHC 16 -valve I-4/ 164 hp@ 5,500 rpm, 184 lb-ft@ 3,200 rpm

Transfer 6-speed manual

LAYOUT 2-door, 2-passenger, front-engine, RWD convertible

EPA MILEAGE 26/35 mpg( metropoli/ hwy)

L x W x H 159.6 x 68.5 x 48.5 in

WHEELBASE 90.9 in

WEIGHT 2,477 lb

0-60 MPH 6.3 sec

TOP SPEED 136 mph

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