Performance
Start the car and you get a lovely bark from those exhausts, and a definite sense of extra power over the 500, but it’s not until you push the sport mode that the 595C Turismo really comes into its own. Suddenly everything tenses up, the feel through the wheel becomes slightly electrified as it weights up and the front tyres begin to scrabble for grip, not producing oodles of nervous torque steer, but instead that gentle tug that signals this car has power, but is just at the right level to keep it under control. Under the bonnet its 1.4-litre four-cylinder motor will help you dispatch 60mph in a little over seven seconds, before motirng on to a top speed of 136mph. On the open road the Abarth feels fun and nimble, that insistent engine not barking at you at each gearchange as if ordering you to push that little further. Steering feel in normal mode leaves much to be desired, but pop it into Sport and that is rectified, along with any sluggishness under the right foot. Perhaps the only thing that could be improved is a slightly wooly gearchange, carried over from the standard car, but at a smidge over £18,500 for a hot hatch we can probably just about forgive them.