A series of edited questions sent in by visitors to this site.

Q. Why does the Sporting not qualify for the £100 reduced Road Tax rating in the U.K.
A. Because the engine's cubic capacity is just 8cc's too large ! This should all be sorted out in the Autumn of 2000 as a completely new system is due to come into force which takes into account the cars CO2 emission rating (believe that and you'll believe anything !).
Q. Which manufacturers make tyres for the Sporting and how much do they cost ?
A. Only Pirelli and Goodyear make tyres in the standard size of 165/55x13, they can usually be found for about £50 per tyre.
Q. What is the simplest tuning mod I can carry out and what can I expect to gain from it ?
A. Fitting a panel filter in place of the standard paper filter is the easiest mod that can be carried out for a cost of about £20, a questionable horsepower gain will result but the engine will become more free revving in the midrange.
Q. How many miles per gallon can I expect to get from my Sporting ?
A. Depending of course on your style of driving you can expect to see around 40 miles per gallon as an average, although I have managed nearly 50 mpg by exercising extreme restraint and regularly achieve a figure close to 45 mpg with ease meaning the car has a usable range of up to 350 miles on a tankful of fuel, this does however seem to be dependant on the ambient temperature as my own car uses up to 15% more fuel when the weather is colder (-5/+10 centigrade) somewhat reducing the range on a single tankful and overall efficiency.
Q. Will my car go better on Super Unleaded ?
A. Yes, theoretically it will as the octane rating is higher, it should also be more economical too but when the fuel is so much more expensive this is really a false economy.
Q. I have damaged one of the Alloys on my car and Fiat want an inflated figure for a replacement what options do I have ?
A. Try a vehicle salvage company such as Universal Salvage who may well be able to help you save 50% on the Fiat figure, also if the wheel is not too badly damaged it may be possible to get it refurbished by one of the companies who advertise in magazines such as Max Power.
Q. I have a set of mk2 Uno Turbo alloys, can I fit them to my Sporting ?
A. No, they have a 32mm offset which is wrong, the standard offset is 29mm any deviation from this will alter the ackerman settings of the steering (amongst other things which will have an adverse effect on the handling of the car.
Q. A strange clonking (or tapping) noise comes from my wipers when I operate them, is this normal ?
A. Yes and no, some cars do this and others not, it seems to come from the drivers side internal wiper drive arm brushing the bulkhead (in front of the instument binnacle) at the extreme of its travel possibly caused by wear in the mechanism, but even brand new Seicento's do this so if you bought your car from a Fiat dealer (and its still under warranty) get him to fix it pronto.
Q. I want to upgrade the standard dashboard speakers, which types fit ?
A. Basically any 10cm speaker which has nothing protruding out of the cone of the speaker, all tweeters etc must be flush with the front of the cone otherwise they will foul the grey plastic covers (which have been removed to gain access) preventing them from being refitted, Fiat supply ugly looking replacements to get around this problem instead of supplying the right speakers to start off with so do not buy theirs if you can help it.
Q. My fuel gauge varys dramatically when cornering or accelerating hard is it faulty ?
A. No, they all do this for some reason when the tank is less than three-quarters full, I would guess the reasons are the shape and design of the tank and/or the position of the sender unit. What you are seeing on the gauge is the fuel moving around the tank under heavy loading, and is quite possibly a design fault, this is the first Fiat I have seen this happen in to this extreme.
Q. How do you pronounce the cars name ?
A. Phonetically Cinquecento is pronounced CHIN-KWAY-CHEN-TOE, the word means Five(Cinque) Hundred(Cento) in Italian.

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