Abarth Roadster

A group of Transportation Design students at the l'Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Torino presented a tribute to the reborn Abarth brand with their interpretation of a small, two-seater sportscar to carry the famous 'scorpion' logo.

Dubbed the "Abarth SS", the project draws upon thinking from IED's earlier Fiat X1/99 concept car, and was undertaken by Matteo Bergantin, Michele Cito, Andrea Corona, Alex Mastinu, Giulio Partisani and Satoshi Shiina.

The students envision a small sportscar of 3.55m length, 1.68m width, and 1.20m height, powered by a normally-aspirated 100hp 1.4-litre engine or the 155bhp turbo unit from the new Abarth models. A price of around £12,000 was originally suggested.

While the Abarth SS is currently only a styling project, rumours have suggested that Abarth has reached an agreement with Lotus to use an Evora-style bonded aluminium chassis, and that the car could arrive in showrooms in 2011.

This is the second Fiat-derived small two seat concept sportscar to be presented; also in Geneva, design house Bertone unveiled a well-received Panda-based 'Barchetta'.

Further coverage is available from Autocar here and here, and AutoExpress here.

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