Supermini Shootout: Abarth Punto EVO

When the scorpion comes calling, you never back down. I am not, young lads, referring to The People's Wrestler also known as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson who acted in the film sharing the same Arachnida's name. No, instead I am speaking of the feeling incurred when laying eyes on one of the most revered badges in the automotive world. Abarth, of course!

Continuing with our Supermini Shootout mini-series, I managed to land some track time with the Punto Evo successor - now known as the Abarth Punto Evo - at a very sunny SMMT Test Day. Whilst it's not strictly a supermini, I managed to bend my own editorial rules by reasoning that the car has 3 doors and is rather super. So there. Having also had a brief spurt in its baby brother Abarth 500 at SMMT last year, I was keen to get my hands on this £18,000 pound piece of metal (fully optioned up mind) to put it through its paces on the Hill Circuit.

Boy was this thing a hoot. Under the bonnet lies a 1.4-litre Garrett turbocharged engine which has been uprated from 130bhp to 163bhp with a sizeable 250Nm of torque ready to give you that "pinned back in the seat" kind of speed burst. Upon entering the Hill Circuit and noticing a clear stretch of road ahead of me (believe me, that was unusual given the number of journalists and cars in attendance) all that was required to deliver said pinning was a quick flick of the toggle to engage Sport mode with tightened throttle response and steering weight, and whoosh!

Power is fairly predictable given the scale of the turbo blower attached by Abarth's Oompa-Loompas and one of the most impressive aspects is the complete lack of torque steer most commonly found on "hot hatches" packing heat of over 150bhp of which the Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart I found to be one of the worst culprits. That can mostly be attributed to the electronic diff which the Abarth upgrade makes to the front axle.

Whilst there isn't too much feel in the old steering wheel, with the added weight that sport mode brings, there is a level of accuracy that lairy drivers will find calmly reassuring. Oh, and the burbling inline 4 cylinder engine let's off a nice low grumble upon ignition and even shows off with whistles on the over-runs. Bellissimo!

Where it starts to get a little pear-shaped though for this Abarth Punto EVO is with hard driving and interior quality. You see, it is a little rough around the edges. For a car costing close to twenty big ones you would expect more luxury, but instead coloured stitching, coloured gauges and a frankly dull centre console score it no extra bonus points. A noticeable driving issue rears its head under heavy braking too where the EBD (that's electronic brake distribution for us mere mortals) seems to not be well-calibrated inducing frightening front wheel lock-ups. Having heard stories of spun cars at this year's SMMT, this didn't inspired much confidence in your author!

To conclude, this is a very fun car complete with super aggressive looks (yes those are 17 inch alloys), a super exhaust note and MultiAir engine with remarkably good economy at 47.1mpg combined and a super engaging accelerator. However there are niggles and issues and the elephant-in-the-room regarding high price point make the overall package, well... not so super. And when you're competing against the Renaultsport Clio 200, life just became that little bit harder for the Scorpion Kings.

Car Throttle Cool Factor: 6 / 10