If you’re not into specialist Italian racing and performance road cars, there’s a fair chance you won’t know what an Abarth is, but the stylised scorpion on the car maker’s badge provides a clue as to what these cars are all about.

Abarth started life in Italy in the late 1940s as a race team but by the early 1950s had formed a relationship with Italian car maker Fiat which by the 1960s had morphed into it building sports exhausts and other enhancements to add a bit of pep to the brand’s road cars.

Fiat liked what it saw and purchased the Abarth brand outright in 1971, using the name for its racing department with some notable success until the late 1970s, when the racing department was renamed and the Abarth brand fell into disuse.

Over the ensuing decades Fiat occasionally rolled out the Abarth brand on limited edition models and the like, before re-establishing it in 2007 as a dedicated road car performance brand, which is where things were at in 2015 when Fiat was incorporated into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA).

Since then, FCA has in turn been rebranded Stellantis in a 50:50 merger between FCA and the French PSA Group, who manufacture Peugeot and Citroen, but Abarth’s focus remains on turning out hot, rebranded road going Fiat’s, such as the Fiat 500-based 595 Competizione we see here.

The Abarth 595 itself and its high performance Competizione derivative trace their origins back to 2016, but have been the beneficiary of several technical and styling updates along the way, so appears today in what’s known as ‘series five’ garb.

From the start of 2022, the 595 Competizione is the sole surviving standard bearer for Abarth in Australia, with other 595 variants and Abarth models including the Mazda MX-5 based 124 Spider consigned to the pages of history.

The decision means that this niche brand, that pays homage to motorsport champion and vehicle designer Carlo Abarth, will continue to be something of a curiosity on our roads.
Abarth offers two body styles, either a three-door hatch (595 Competizione) or a convertible with retractable soft-top roof (595C Competizione). Pricing is competitive with the few offerings in the light car hot-hatch marketplace such as Hyundai’s i20N, VW’s Polo GTi, Suzuki’s Swift Sport, and Ford’s recently discontinued Fiesta ST Turbo.

Opting for the rag-top 595C Competizione comes with a $4,000 premium over the hatch, while selecting the Dualogic self-shifting gearbox in either body style adds $2,000 to the bottom line.
Over and above this, the manufacturer offers four option packs and 10 paint colours including two special premium finishes, as well as striping options, which means owners can and often do go to town with customising. These options can soon add up, however, and our heavily kitted test vehicle stepped out wearing a cool $9,400 worth of extras.

Running through the available options, the Premium pack comprising Xenon headlights, sunroof, and antenna with aluminium roof cap will set you back $2,500. The Sport pack also costs $2,500 and includes 17-inch Supersport matte black alloy wheels, Alcantara dashboard and Sabelt GT black leather seats. Even choosing black or yellow finish over the standard red on the standard twin-piston Brembo brake calipers adds $350.

Nevertheless, our test car looked every millimetre the angry ant, dressed as it was in the $2,450 Competizione body kit and sporting special Rally Blue matte paintwork ($1,600), liberally embellished with Abarth’s distinctive scorpion badging.

The looks perfectly match the drive experience, inevitably accompanied by a distinctive burble from the quad exhaust outlets, ensuring the rowdy little rig draws plenty of looks from unwitting observers, and vigorous thumbs-ups from the Abarth and Fiat cognoscenti.

The generous standard equipment list includes guise seven airbags, auto climate control, dusk sensing headlights, rain sensing wipers, digital radio, sat nav, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android auto, LED DRLs, tyre pressure monitoring, leather wrapped steering wheel, aluminium sports pedals, Abarth leather seats, Monza dual-mode sports exhaust, 17-inch alloy wheels, and Koni frequency-selective damping front and rear.

While that all looks mighty impressive, there’s no ANCAP or Euro NCAP safety rating available and the lack of advanced driver assistance systems means a five-star rating under the stricter current test protocols is questionable. An earlier generation Fiat 500 rated five stars in a less stringent 2008 ANCAP test, while Euro NCAP awarded the electric Fiat 500e four stars in 2021.
With steering tilt but no reach adjustment, I found it impossible to achieve an ideal seating position relative to the wheel and pedals. The cramped driving position had my left knee bumping into the gear-lever pod, compounded by a tight footwell with a lump above the footrest that my foot banged into every time I went to use the clutch. There’s no height adjustment for the driver’s seat either, so prospective buyers should check that the fixed seat height suits them.

Also on our misdemeanours list were the yester-tech key-locking fuel cap, inadequate oddments storage in the cabin, and the sensitivity adjustment for the rain-sensing wipers being buried annoyingly in the menus of the central touchscreen. The 7.0-inch screen is also on the small side by todays’ standards, but the underlying Uconnect system proved easy enough to use, including phone pairing. Unsurprisingly, given the car’s compact dimensions, there’s no spare wheel and tyre, with an inflator kit the only option if you’re unlucky enough to get a flat.
Naturally, the 595’s compact dimensions make parking a breeze, and its great for ducking and diving around city streets. Rear park-sensors are standard, but there’s no reversing camera; not that one is strictly necessary given the matchbox proportions and reasonable visibility.

The tiny exterior dimensions mean there’s only room for four inside, with limited rear leg and head room for passengers, the latter compounded slightly by the optional sunroof. Boot capacity of 185 litres with the rear seats upright is enough to cope with a modest shopping expedition and can be expanded via the 50:50 split fold rear seat.

Aside from the lack of driver’s seat height adjustment the deeply bolstered and firmly supportive sports seats are exactly right for the car’s hot hatch positioning. So too the smile-inducing 1.4-litre T-jet turbo engine with claimed maximum outputs of 132kW/250Nm. These aren’t huge numbers, but it’s only hauling around 1045kg, leading to a brisk 6.7 second 0-100km/h sprint claim.
The feisty 16-valve four-pot proves eager to respond across the rev range and is equally at home trundling about town or singing for its supper sprinting along some quiet and twisty backroad.
The manual box is slick to row through the ratios and mates nicely to the turbo engine. However, with only five forward ratios it seems a little anachronistic and there were several times we took the billiard-ball diameter polished-aluminium gear knob in hand, looking to shift up another cog.

The T-jet engine’s official combined consumption of the required premium unleaded brew is a frugal 6.0L/100km. On test we managed an average of 7.8L/100km, still quite respectable considering a mix of conditions and in-depth exploration of the little turbo’s performance credentials.

Sports mode, activated by a Scorpion adorned dash switch, delivers some extra sting to the engine response as well as adding weight to the quick and accurate steering.

Dynamically, the 595 is kart-like, feeling light and nimble on its feet and happily carving through corners while remaining nice and flat in its cornering attitude. A Torque Transfer Control switch helps manage torque across the front axle, preventing the inner wheel from losing traction for superior drive out of corners. There’s reassuring stopping power from the twin-piston front Brembo brakes and rear single-piston calipers, clamping drilled brake discs at each corner.

The fun dynamics come with a fairly major compromise, though, and that’s an unyieldingly stiff suspension tune that faithfully relays every small road imperfection through to vehicle occupants. In some ways this adds to the go-kart feel and is entirely fitting in what is a distinctly sporty offering, but it won’t be to all tastes.

After a week of pedalling the angry little 595 Competizione around it had seduced us with its charms, leaving us to believe we could overlook its imperfections for the smile-inducing styling, performance and handling it delivers.

The sting in this little scorpion’s tail may not exactly poison you, but it will quicken the pulse and overrule the head.

Key stats

• MLP: $32,950 ($42,350 as tested)
• ENGINE: 1.4-litre turbo petrol 4 cylinder
• ANCAP CRASH RATING: Not rated.
• POWER CONSUMPTION (combined cycle, litres/100km): 6.0 (139g/km CO₂)
• FOR: Eye-catching styling, riveting performance, grin-inducing dynamics, competitive hot hatch price.
• AGAINST: Space limitations, ergonomic misdemeanours, stiff ride, short 3 year/100,000km warranty, no ANCAP rating, inflator kit in lieu of spare wheel and tyre.