How much would you pay for a dinky little Fiat 500? Would you give up the chance to get the keys to a brand-new a BMW Z4, a well-equipped Nissan 370Z, a sublime little Lotus Elise, or even an entry-level SLK? Well that’s exactly what the sales people at Abarth are hoping; as they’ve just announced that the Abarth 695 Maserati Edition is going up for sale at a higher price than every one of those cars. In Europe anyway.
The Abarth 695 Maserati Edition is a limited edition vehicle. Just 499 will be produced, and each one of the suckers customers who stumps up the cash will find themselves behind the wheel of a 180 horsepower hot hatch with a few Maserati-inspired badges and styling details.
The Abarth 695 Maserati Edition is a development of the Fiat Abarth 695 ‘Tributo Ferrari’, a car which made its appearance in 2009, and is undeniably better looking from every angle. The 695 Maserati Edition features the same 180 horsepower 1.4 litre turbocharged engine as its Ferrari-inspired predecessor. In addition it also gets an electrically operated manual Abarth Competizione gearbox, 17-inch Maserati-inspired Neptune design alloy wheels, larger Brembo brakes, Koni shock absorbers, and a two-mode variable back-pressure sports exhaust. Abarth say the 695 Maserati Edition can scoot to 62 mph in under 7 seconds, and carry on to a 140 mph top speed.
The appearance of the Abarth 695 Maserati Edition is enhanced by rather sensible and grown-up looking paintwork – a Maserati color pretentiously called Pontevecchio Bordeaux. On the inside the seats are upholstered in sand beige leather, and display a 695 logo embossed on the headrests. The dashboard and gearbox trim are highlighted by a special matt-finish carbon lining. The black leather steering wheel is treated to some beige leather inserts and a tricolor marking at the 12 o’clock position, while the standard instrument panel has been replaced by a Jaeger designed unit.
All in all its a sharp-looking little hot hatch with performance credentials to surprise the occacional buget-sports-car-driving victim. However for the same sort of money buyers could slip into something which is several classes above, and still have spare change to tick more than a few option boxes.
In the UK the Abarth 695 Maserati Edition will cost £32,000 (40,000 EUR / $55,000). Only fools need apply.
Source: Abarth
Great car for great money!