For decades now Italian tuning house Abarth has been making go-faster versions of the Fiat 500 city car, but with the 695 Biposto it’s taken a slightly different approach.

Abarth has gone to great lengths to prove that this isn’t just another fast 500. Instead, the Biposto is essentially designed as a road-legal version of the 695 Assetto Corse track car: the full cage-and-carbon job rather than just a neat paint scheme and some extra badging.

There’s carbon fibre bits dotted around the car and a big angry bodykit, and just in case you still need evidence that Abarth is taking this seriously it’s got one significant trick left up its sleeve: a dog ring gearbox.

The same kind of gearbox found in bona fide race cars, dog ring transmissions use a set of heavy duty straight-cut gears instead of the helical gears found in road cars, which allows the driver to quickly force their way up and down the gears without using the clutch for faster shifts.

Still unconvinced the 695 means business? Read on…

Performance

Take a look at the spec sheet and you’ll find that the 695 Biposto is practically bursting at the seams with track-bred kit, with standard features including a large carbon fibre front splitter and rear diffuser, 18-inch OZ wheels lurking inside puffed out arches to accommodate the wider track and custom Goodyear tyres.

Power comes from Fiat’s turbocharged 1.4-litre T-Jet petrol engine, the same one that features in various other Fiat Chrysler group cars, albeit uprated to wring out a maximum output of 187bhp.

Compared with the engines of other performance cars it’s a little bit old school, with no trick camshaft timing or twin-spark ignition systems. Instead, the engine gets more power via a bigger turbo, larger intake and exhaust ports and a bigger radiator to cool the whole thing down.

That’s the nerd jargon out of the way anyhow, but Abarth says that the 695 Biposto is all about the emotion of driving, so what’s this scorpion-badged city car like once you actually put your foot down?

In a word: ballistic. Due to the fact that the car weighs in at only 997kg it can really make the most of its power. It takes the turbo a while to spool up to full boost, but once it does the Biposto rockets off into the distance at a rate that would worry many more powerful cars.

Pin the throttle and it jets off in a straight line like an angry bee and it sounds a bit like one too with a downright rude exhaust note for a car its size. The large Akraprovic exhaust is probably one of the best things about it, making the dinky 695 a bit like a Chihuahua that roars like a lion.

Officially, 0-62mph takes 5.9 seconds but it feels a good bit faster than that given its compact size and light weight. It’s a properly quick little monster, scurrying around B-roads and race tracks alike while constantly blowing raspberries out the tailpipe along the way.

It’s special alright, but is the same dedication to making it as much like an authentic racing car as possible also its downfall?

Ride and Handling

The suspension keeps it almost perfectly flat through corners and it boasts suitably impressive body control

The first thing you should know about driving the Abarth 695 is that it’s a firm little beastie. That should be expected from a car that markets itself as a pint-sized track weapon and that comes with racing suspension made by Extreme Shox. But reading about it doesn’t prepare you for the first time you make the mistake of accidentally ploughing the 695 into a speed bump. WHOMP! goes the car, CRACK! goes your spine and if you listen closely you’ll swear you can hear a faint KER-CHING! from your local chiropractor’s clinic. On a bumpy road it undulates and tosses around a bit, and if you’re hoping to use the 695 as a daily driver you’d be better off going for one of the less intense Abarth models. Find the right stretch of tarmac or a smooth track, however, and it really comes alive. The suspension keeps it almost perfectly flat through corners and it boasts suitably impressive body control, while the steering is direct and accurate even if it does suffer from the same numbness as a lot of Fiat’s standard cars. Along with the option of the exposed metal dog ring gearbox, it also comes with the standard five-speed manual from the 595. It’s less accurate and shifts take a bit longer than the dog ring, but it’s a lot easier to use day to day and more accessible for the majority of drivers. The dog ring, by comparison, is a nice touch and an undeniably cool thing to have, but is the car any better for it? Unless you’re legitimately racing the Biposto often, probably not.

Interior and Equipment

Rather than being an upgraded version of the standard Abarth 500, the 695 is instead derived directly from the Trofeo Abarth racing cars.

Given that the 695 Biposto’s main aim is to be a track car, the interior is fairly basic to use the most extreme of understatements. There’s no air conditioning, no radio and no rear seats (Biposto is Italian for ‘two seater’). Abarth’s attention to stripping every unnecessary component out means there’s not even door handles, instead just a pair of nylon straps to close yourself in with. What you do get is a ‘Sport’ button on the centre console to weight the steering and crank the volume up on the exhaust, along with a turbo boost gauge in the instrument binnacle, carbon-backed shell seats and a tubular titanium roll cage in place of the rear bench. Props to Abarth for going the whole nine yards with the 695 as it does feel like a proper little racer, but unfortunately it means that the car isn’t particularly comfortable to be in. It also suffers from the same seating position as the standard 500, which feels too high and awfully upright. In the regular Fiat and Abarth 500 it can appeal to a lot of people because it means you’re able to peer right down the nose of the car to aid parking, but in something designed as a performance car it’s less welcome. Instead of sitting low down to aid the car’s centre of gravity, instead you feel like you’re sitting on a perch rather than being at one with it, while the steering wheel feels a bit unwieldy at times and doesn’t adjust for reach either.

Cost

For what it is, the 695 Biposto is a fantastic little car, but perhaps its biggest caveat is that it’s extremely expensive

For what it is, the 695 Biposto is a fantastic little car, but perhaps its biggest caveat is that it’s extremely expensive not just compared to other 500 variants but to other, much more powerful, performance cars. The 695 starts from £33,055, but for extra carbon fibre goodies you’ll need to pay £3,700. A telemetry system on the dash will set you back another £3,700, and you’ll have to cough up £8,500 for the party-piece dog ring gearbox alone. As standard, the 695 is £2,000 more expensive than the 354bhp, four-wheel drive Ford Focus RS. Add on a couple of options packages and the trick gearbox and it gets dangerously close to Porsche Cayman territory. Granted, Abarth says you can get up to 49.5mpg with just 145g/km of CO2 and so the running costs are nowhere near as high as other performance cars, but if you have £33k to spend on what’s essentially a track day car you’d be better off visiting a Caterham dealer.

Our Verdict

Judged on its own merits the Abarth 695 Biposto is an absolutely fantastic little car with a bona fide race car feel in an era when manufacturers are leaning more towards comfort and practicality than lap times. It’s striking to look at, it’s brilliantly straightforward and it would leave the owners of many bigger and more powerful cars scratching their heads down your local track day. Unfortunately, ‘the world’s smallest supercar’ suffers from many of the drawbacks of its bigger counterparts. The ride is harsh, it’s certainly not meant for everyday use and it’s jaw-droppingly expensive for what it is. The “racing car for the road” cliché is an oft-used one and hats off to Abarth for making a car which genuinely lives up to the billing, but we can’t help feel we’d have just as much fun in a Fiesta ST for half the price.