My own Cinquecento Sporting started life as a Starter Red U.K. spec car at the Fiat factory at Tychy in Poland sometime during 1997 and was first road registered in the U.K. on Thursday 28th of August of that year by Lloyds Bowmaker Contract Hire in Harrogate which was probably the worst start in life any car could have as it seems to have been generally mistreated and heavily abused by its former keeper/s during the first 16 month period of its life. I acquired the car at the start of January 1999 from a dealer called Trade Sales in Slough Berks (who specialise in high volume low profit re-sales) for a mere four thousand pounds, some two thousand five hundred pounds or more below its original purchase price when new, unfortunately this was reflected in the general condition of the car, but with a great deal of attention to detail I have been able to return the car to almost new condition, the seats have been de-stained, the windows have been cleaned (possibly for the first time in their life !), the carpets de-smegged, and the engine serviced as it did'nt look as if this had been done either (the oil was extremely carbonised), the only thing which has not been possible to rectify have been the wheels as the front ones have been curbed so hard (and often) that a great deal of the aluminium lip is missing and is bent on one of them !

Since owning the car I have started a program of modifications to extract a little more from this already fun car. Firstly I found that compared to many previous cars I'd owned, this one exhibited a handling trait I thought was dead and buried in modern cars namely understeer, this has been minimised by fitting a Sparco strut brace and a set of Pi -40mm sports springs (which have actually dropped the car 48mm ?) which have lowered the car far too much and has compromised the usefulness factor as areas with speed humps are to be approached with extreme care (as of 13/8/99 the Pi springs have been removed, the car now sits miles off the ground again but is totally usable once more, if anyone trys to sell you any spring that lowers your car more than 25mm be very wary !). Secondly as I was servicing the car I have changed the oil for Mobil1 (I had lots left from my Tipo 16v), the spark plugs were changed and replaced with Bosch Platinum, and the air filter was replaced with an ITG free flow item. These mods have certainly improved the general running of the car and judging by the oil that came out the car had never been serviced, whether it is any faster than a standard model for adding these mods is somewhat questionable however it does provide exactly what I ask of it which is adequate, fun motoring at an extremely affordable price.

Internally I have replaced the gaiter on the gear lever with the Abarth leather and aluminium item (mainly due to the original being torn). The standard radio cassette player has also been junked in favour of a Pioneer KEH8600 with steering wheel remote, the standard dash speakers were uprated with Kenwood 80watt 2way 10cm speakers and Sony 200watt 4way 6X9's in the rear shelf, this endows the interior with a big car feel and provides the most excellent sound quality when turned up.

Whats next ? I thought you'd ask me that.... and to be honest I'm not really sure, maybe a Stainless steel performance exhaust if I can find a quiet enough one ! or some nice alloys of the 14/15 inch variety perhaps or maybe just an ECU chip from BWE who seem to be very on the ball as far as chip changes go for many Italian cars. One product I am really impressed with is the carbon fibre Novitec airbox, I am sure one or more of the above will find its way onto the car soon. Who knows what could happen next ! just keep coming back to check and all will be revealed here.

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