Abarth Experience | Page 2 | FerrariChat

Abarth Experience

Discussion in 'Other Italian' started by lil squid, Aug 27, 2012.

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  1. Canut

    Canut Formula Junior

    Aug 11, 2005
    340
    Long Beach, CA
    Full Name:
    Manuel Canut
    So yesterday I did the Abarth Experience. It was VERY cool. I have WAY more respect for that little car. It is amazing how much it can handle.

    We got to California Speedway at 8:00 am. We got breakfast while everybody got registered. Nice mix of people, young, old, men and women.

    We were 52 people and we got split into two groups based on registration order.

    Our group first headed to the track. We got two laps at a time with an instructor. My instructor was a former Indycar driver Jimmy Kite. We did 3 of these sessions.

    It was the same track I did before in the Formula Renault, but it was certainly useful to have an instructors. You realize that you may have bad habits.

    Then we headed out to the autocross track. We all had 3 tries. The cars for the autocross were the new Abarth automatic. It was good because rowing your own gears in that little track would had been difficult.

    After lunch we went to the track again for 4 more sessions. In the morning we were told to stay in 3 gear. After lunch we were free to shift to whatever we wanted. In reality 3rd gear was right for the entire track. Shifting into 4th did not gain much. I was hitting the rev limiter 50 m before the end of the main straight, which is just right.

    The max speed at the end of the straight was 92 MPH. In the Formula car was about 104 MPH. The slowest speed was about 35 MPH. So it was pretty impressive that the cars were able to pull from 35 all the way to 92 MPH in 3rd gear.

    Then we went to the "head-to-head" competition. Where two cars started on opposite sides of another autocross track, raced one track, then come to a complete stop, and then get off to the second track. You get penalties for rolling the stop or hitting cones. We had 3 races. Each victory would give you points.

    The very last event was another lap on the track, but this time with the instructor droving. While they were driving, it was obvious that we were instructed to break way earlier than they were doing it. They were hitting the curves and sliding the cars quite aggressively.

    It is amazing that you can do that with a street car 100 % stock. The brakes never faded, and they were more than enough for the track.

    I do not think that there are many cars out there that can take this much abuse without falling apart.

    They do not have the drag competition anymore. We kept the ESC on all the time, but we were in Sport mode for all the events.

    They have similar for the SRT cars. They were unloading the cars for the Thursday and Friday events. I believe that they do the head to head drag race. But they only do "follow the leader" on the track.
     
  2. NürScud

    NürScud F1 Veteran

    Nov 3, 2012
    7,273
    Today i will have a test drive with the 500 Abarth. It is the first time that i will drive the car. I'm considering to order one until the end of the year with the kit Esseesse installed.
    It looks very beautiful and great as a daily car.
     
  3. Ira Schwartz

    Ira Schwartz Formula 3
    Silver Subscribed

    May 20, 2003
    1,961
    Brooklandville, MD
    Full Name:
    Ira Schwartz
    I did the Abarth Experience at Daytona in May, and had a lot of fun.
    Sounds as though your group was bigger than mine- we had 36 total, divided into 2 sections of 18.
    My big claim to fame was winning the bizarre Head-to-Head challenge, the prize for which was an Abarth hat- ironic, since I've been bald for well over 30 years and have LOTS of hats already!
     
  4. prototypefan

    prototypefan Formula Junior

    Dec 23, 2005
    396
    ab, canada
    I went with a friend when he picked up one of these new....the exhaust note is intoxicating!

    Finally got one a couple of months ago, what a blast. The little Ford Fiesta ST seems to be like a great little car too. I must take one for a test drive.
     
  5. TeamF1Jr

    TeamF1Jr Formula 3
    Silver Subscribed

    Nov 8, 2003
    2,381
    It's so cool this manufacturer even offers this type of event on a factory level. Most of the time it's up to your local club.
     

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