Abarth at the 2011 Bologna Motor Show

Image by BastiaanImages via Flickr

Abarth is showing up at the Bologna Motor Show with an original, spectacular stand where four world previews are being presented to once again lay emphasis on the brand's uniqueness on the world motoring stage.
At the heart of the presentation is a concept very dear to Karl Abarth: "Sunday on the track, Monday at the office", which the brand conveys by placing road vehicles designed for everyday use side-by-side with racing cars on an imaginary "road to performance". After all, it is precisely from the world of racing that the brand draws technologies and values to then transfer them to the production of road vehicles.
The brand new Abarth 595 is at the starting line. Offered in the two "turismo" and "competizione" versions, it conceptually draws inspiration from the historic 595 model that Karl Abarth presented in 1963 as an offshoot of the Fiat 500. The Abarth 595 symbolises the return to the customisation concept that enhances the performance of a "standard" car offering the power upgrade to 160 HP as standard. The new Abarth 595 expands the Abarth 500 product range, and is offered in two customisations: "turismo" and "competizione". The first is dedicated to those attentive to fashion trends, who love a type of sportiness "without going to an extreme". The latter is designed for true customisation fans, who love to experience the thrill of sporty driving every day.
The two cars on display "race" along a platform coated with a special resin that evokes the atmosphere of a road... the ideal road of those who enjoy facing up to challenges in their everyday lives in a constant search for "everyday performance". Starting from the road cars, the culmination is represented by the most complete expression of the Abarth brand's sportiness. The new 695 "Assetto Corse", the new small super-sports car designed for racing on the track, is being presented to the Bologna public. This year it will debut in the single-make trophies. The new car will pair up with the 500 "Assetto Corse", the highly successful star of the track over the past three years.
The fourth car being presented at the Bologna Motor Show is a new Limited Edition, the Abarth Punto Scorpione, dedicated to everyone who loves to pit themselves against any kind of challenge in a never-ending search for speed and performance both on the track and facing a downhill road. Abarth is in fact presenting the "Abarth Nitro" winter kit to go along with the new Limited Edition. Among other things, the kit contains the "Nitro Powered by Abarth" snowboard.
The four new cars being presented therefore contribute to the already well-known successes the brand has enjoyed. More than 9,000 cars have been sold during 2011. The contribution of the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari has also been significant. Between its launch in July 2008 and today approximately 1500 cars have been delivered. These figures contribute to confirming the good results the brand has recorded since its relaunch. Suffice it to say that since 2008 the brand has grown non-stop, as about 38,000 Abarth Punto and Abarth 500 cars sold, plus more than 9,500 performance kits for the two models, demonstrate.
These sales successes have been partly made possible by the extraordinary network of dealers and official tuning shops, an organisation that is unique in its field and has further extended to other international markets such as Finland, Hong Kong and South Africa in 2011.
The brand is looking forward to this kind of success in other fields of business as well, with the launch of its Abarth official merchandising e-commerce website and the introduction of customer services as part of the "Abarth24h mobile" Iphone application.
Focus will also be placed on "Make it your race", the project with which Abarth gave young people aged 18 to 35 the chance to make their lifelong dream come true: race against professional drivers on the track.
The Bologna Motor Show is the perfect stage for presenting the 2012 Abarth sporting programme. The formula adopted in conceiving the trophies this year as well makes the cost of entering the trophy extremely accessible to everyone, a concrete example of "democratizing" races in the true Scorpion spirit.
This practical approach confirms Abarth's racing spirit and applies the same philosophy that has identified Abarth for fifty years: the transfer of racing experience to road cars in order to facilitate access to the world of racing.