OVERSTEER ROAD TEST: Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari
The first thing everybody notices are the Ferrari badges. Then they ask what the hell it is… We attempt to explain the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari.
It would be easy to write the rather awkwardly named Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari off as a cheap and nasty attempt by Fiat to cash in on the Ferrari name by slapping a few badges on an Abarth 500 Esseesse and turning the wick up a bit.
Except for three things; firstly, they never actually intended to build the thing. The 695 Tributo began life as a run of a few models to act as loan cars at Ferrari dealerships. But once people drove them they started asking if they could buy them. And Fiat is smart enough to know that you don’t say the phrase “we can’t sell you one” to people with enough money to buy a Ferrari.
Secondly, the 695 Tributo is far, far more than just a 500 Esseesse with the wick turned up, as it gains a a whole load of stuff including a set of massive carbon fibre racing seats that completely obliterate any rear seat leg room that ever existed in the donor Fiat 500, a single clutch automated manual transmission that only cares about going fast and not silly things like refinement and shift quality, an absolutely mental 132kW of power and 250Nm of torque and a ride that makes the 500 Esseesse feel like a Rolls Royce in comparison, but gives the 695 Tributo the kind of tenacious grip that makes a barnacle look like it isn’t really trying too hard.
Oh, and the third thing is: at $80,000 the 695 Tributo Ferrari is anything but cheap…
Outside
Now, a Fiat 500 is not the most masculine starting point for a performance car, but Abarth did an incredible job making the Esseesse look angry, and they have done an even more impressive job here.
The small, bubble shape of the donor car means that the 695 Tributo still can’t help but look cute, but it is a kind of “don’t fuck with me” cute that makes pedestrians do a double take when they see it.
Aggressive bumpers with gaping intakes, a body kit complete with rear wing, a lowered ride height with massive alloys wheels that completely fill the wheel arches and wild stripes running over the top of the car all add up to one angry little car, with a kind of visual violence to it that suggests that, if it were a dog, it would be the kind of dog that you would say to people “Of course you can pat it. Just don’t expect to keep your hand…”
Inside
The interior of the 695 Tributo is as wonderfully mental as the exterior, with carbon fibre everywhere, a riot of various colours glowing from the different readouts and instruments and the utterly over-the-top steering wheel with its flat bottom, red stitching and inserts and the brilliant little red, white and green bit to remind you that a) where the top of the steering wheel is and b) it is Italian. Not that you can ever really forget that last bit.
The interior is dominated by a pair of massive carbon fibre racing buckets that look spectacular, hang on to you like a rabid dog hangs on to a cat and are impossible to get into anything resembling a normal driving position unless you are an orangutan. Yes, the Italian Ape driving position is alive and well here.
Still, this just adds to the wonderful lunacy that is the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari and everything inside the car just screams that at you – from the silly gear selector buttons that sit in the round bit of carbon fibre where the gear lever would sit in a normal car to the boost gauge that perches on the top of the dash and flashes wildly at you when you approach maximum insanity in any given gear.
It is all mental. And all fantastic.
Under The Bonnet
There is a snarling, angry beast that lurks behind the bright red nose of the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari. It is a 132kW/250Nm 1.4-litre four-cylinder petrol beast that is hooked up to Fiat’s single clutch automated manual transmission.
The transmission does away with the clutch pedal and, with it, any refinement that may have come from a conventional automatic or dual clutch set up. What it does do, however, is bollocking fast and aggressive shifts when hammering the 695 Tributo hard. Which is what it is all about really.
Fuel consumption? To be honest, I have no idea. Apparently 6.5L/100km according to the press release that came with it, but this seems like abject nonsense and anyway, I really didn’t pay any attention to such meaningless concerns when driving the 695 Tributo. It was too much fun to care.
On The Road
The performance of the 695 Tributo is every bit as mental as the rest of it is. Firing it up for the first time provokes a surprised chuckle as the tiny car erupts into life with an angry blare from the exhausts and settles into a grumpy, threatening idle that seems utterly out of sorts with its cute, humpy little shape, regardless of how many scoops, vents and wings it may have.
Nail it off the line and it is eye-wideningly aggressive as the engine snarls and bellows, while the front wheels struggle desperately for grip, aided in their quest by the wildly flashing traction control light.
Grab another gear with the paddles on the back of the steering wheel and the exhaust crackles and bangs, while the whole angry process of acceleration continues unabated.
The relentless assault on the senses of the acceleration process is only made more wild by the rock hard ride’s effect on the car as it skips and shuffles all over the road. All of this comes straight back to you through the steering wheel and seat giving you the distinct impression that you are only barely in control of a wild animal.
But play a bit longer and you soon become aware that this is just all for show, that the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari is actually a very controllable beast. The twitching and skipping through corners never actually threatens to unseat the car and the wild torque-steer acceleration never actually steps over the line from hilarious into unpleasant. The sheer anger and aggression never actually adversely affects your ability to drive the car very quickly indeed and most of the time you feel comfortably on the right side of control.
Nothing about the wild, aggressive nature of the 695 Tributo takes anything away from the fact that its prime objective in life is to be massive fun to thrash on the open road.
Which is good, because around town it is awful.
The hard ride wears you down quickly and the single clutch automated manual transmission is slow and clunky, especially in automatic mode. Fortunately treating it like a manual and lifting off the throttle is the only way to make it vaguely civilised, and this quickly becomes a natural thing to do.
But despite its origins as a loan car for Ferrari dealerships, being stuck around town is simply not what the 695 Tributo was made for. It’s a second car, a weekend car that needs to be thrashed like a red-headed stepchild every single time it gets let out of its cage…
Verdict
What can you say about a car that is so utterly mental that it can be so aggressively flawed, so harsh, uncomfortable and impractical, and yet you love it so much that none of that matters?
There is no rational argument for the existence of the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari and, to be honest, none is needed. It is a car that defies explanation, it simply needed to exist. That is all. It is a car that is so much fun, so hilariously aggressive, that digging up a reasonable explanation for building it would have been pointless, even for Fiat.
That is why it could only ever have been built by Italians. They are the masters of building cars that don’t have a point – not always good ones, admittedly, but they have managed that here.
No reasonable excuse can be given for paying $80,000 for a tiny Italian car, other than “I wanted to”.
And that is enough.
Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari Specifications:
Price: $79,990
Body type: 3-door hatch
Drive: Front-wheel drive
Engine Type: 4-cylinder turbo
Engine Capacity: 1368cc
Max power: 132kW @ 5500rpm
Max torque: 250Nm @ 3000rpm
Fuel Consumption: 6.5L/100km
C02 emission: 151g/km
0 to 100kph: “Under seven” seconds
Front suspension: MacPherson strut
Rear suspension: Torsion beam
ABS Brakes: Yes
Air Bags: 6
ESP: Yes
Air Conditioning: Climate
Lap/diagonal belts: 4
Satellite Navigation: No
Electric seats: No
Burglar Alarm: Yes
Wheel type: 17-inch alloy
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