Fiat's performance-oriented Abarth division has announced that it will launch a production variant of the Fiat 500 -based 695 Tributo Maserati that made its debut as a concept at the Geneva Motor Show last March.
In its transition from a show car to a production car the pint-sized Abarth has changed its name to Edizione Maserati. A thorough knowledge of Italian is not needed to decipher that the name means Maserati Edition.
The 695 Edizione Maserati was developed by following the same recipe that created the 695 Tributo Ferrari three years ago but this time prepared with Maserati ingredients.
"Sportiness with elegance" was the guideline given to the brand's engineers as they were designing this car. It is based on the Abarth 500C and is only offered in a shade of red called Pontevecchio Bordeaux, a color borrowed directly from the Maserati catalog.
The car sits on model-specific 17" rims mounted on performance tires. The rims feature what the brand calls a Neptune design that was inspired by Maserati rims and the center caps are adorned with Abarth's famed scorpion logo.
The seats are upholstered in Poltrona Frau leather with "695" stitched into the headrests. A commemorative plaque on the dash lets the passengers know that they are not sitting in a standard Abarth 500C.
The Maserati Edizone treatment is not merely aesthetic: the car's 1.4-liter turbocharged T-Jet four-cylinder engine has been pushed to 180 horsepower and 184 foot-pounds of torque, a noticeable increase of 40 horsepower and 33 foot-pounds over the standard Abarth 500C.
The four-banger is linked to an electronically-operated manual gearbox designed by Abarth's racing department. Shift paddles mounted behind the steering wheel come standard.
Thanks to the uprated engine the Edizione Maserati sprints from zero to 62 miles per hour in less than 7.5 seconds and goes on to a top speed of 140 miles per hour.
Abarth has fitted the car with a Record Monza exhaust that emits a deep growl above 3,000 rpms. The exhaust pipes are hexagonal, a design inspired by the exhaust pipes typically found on Maseratis.
Only 499 examples of the Edizione Maserati will be available throughout Europe.
Pricing information was not released.
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