… Fiat 500 Lounge …
If any sensible folk had seen me on the drive home from the Border Counties Rally they would have wondered what I had been smoking, drinking or injecting. I was chuckling away like the lost Chuckle Brothers triplet.
Fortunately it was dark, late at night and the roads were empty. Having driven down to Jedburgh via the M8, the city by-pass and the A68, a more entertaining route had been chosen for the trip back to Lanarkshire.
That meant picking up the ‘B’ road out of Jed through Ancrum and Midlem to Selkirk, then via Caddonfoot to Innerleithen and Walkerburn, but the best bit was the Lyne Valley thrash from Peebles to Blyth Bridge and across the Biggar Road dropping in to Carnwath. It was an absolute hoot.
The chariot of choice was no supercar, it was a Fiat 500 Lounge. It was also an embarrassing shade of pink (Glam Coral as Fiat would have it), enhanced by its colour scheme highlights inspired by a Val Doonican jumper knitting pattern and additional chrome trim. It had all of 875cc – and a ‘Sport’ button. Don’t laugh, but the ‘Sport’ button made a difference, if only to convert the dash display from virginal white to satanic red and change the ‘Eco Index’ dial into a red rev counter. Even if it didn’t make any difference to the performance, just humour me, because I loved the wee thing.
The trouble with high performance cars is that they can’t be driven flat out on the public road, well they can, but only as long as it takes the flashing blue light to appear in the mirrors. Whereas, with a much more modest power output, the ‘performance’ can be exploited without waking up any dosing polis.
Obviously you don’t get the visceral thrill of the power surge, or experience the cornering g-forces of a proper sports car, or the belt straining braking forces from huge discs, but you get the satisfaction of driving something underpowered and having to make the most of what you’ve got under your right foot,.
And that’s where the Fiat 500’s enjoyment factor kicks in. The plan was to get from Peebles to Carnwath without lifting except for the junctions, and given the nature of the road, dips, turns and corners that is no mean feat. Another limiting factor was the headlamps. They were good for spread but not great for reach. The light output at 60mph limit on the twisty country roads in the dark is just about okay, but 70mph was safe enough on the more open moonlit stretches.
The satisfaction kicks in from keeping the wee motor spinning and not daring to lift. That means using the 6 speed gearbox – a lot. Not a big chore given the lightness of the shift, but another factor in keeping the enjoyment level high. The big surprise was the amount of grip generated. In fact I was so impressed by the grip levels, the first thing I did in daylight on Sunday morning was look at the tyres. They were snow tyres for gawd’s sake – Pirelli Snowcontrol 195/45 on 16 inch alloy rims, but what grip they generated. No matter how tight the corners, the wee thing hung on like a keystone cop to a handrail.
There was another limiting factor. The seats. Given how sharply this wee thing turned in and hung on, it could have done with a couple of Recaros up front. Otherwise the seats were fine for more gentle everyday motoring and that is really where the car excels. Headroom is good, shoulder room adequate and leg room acceptable for a compact four seater. The boot is small, but it’s a small car, so don’t complain. If you want a bigger boot, fold the rear seats down.
Like many other two and three cylinder engines, real life fuel consumption barely matches the Euro inspired lab tests and although Fiat claimed 67.3mpg in the ‘Combined’ test, my average for the week was 41.8. I dare say I could have done better had I been more sensible, but with that addictive twin cylinder gurgle under the bonnet allied to its agility, it was hard to resist treating every drive like a bit of fun.
Neither is it a cheap car, at £14,420, but this model had £2100 worth of extras which included the smart black and silver 16 inch wheels, DAB radio with SatNav and 7 inch screen, auto climate control and an electrochromatic rear view mirror. What it didn’t have was the £610 optional Bi-xenon headlights, and given the standard lamps illumination in a typical Scottish gloaming and it’s spirited driving manners, that might have been a worthwhile addition. Certainly a more worthwhile addition than the 300 quid Glam Coral paint job with its 460 quid ‘Scottie’ highlights, but that’s personal!
And so to the perennial question, would I have one? As an everyday car, no, but as a second car for a bit of enjoyable fun, yes, just not in that colour. What it did do was make the idea of driving the 1400cc Abarth version all the more appealing.