Abarth 500

It’s small, it’s fast and it’s a hot tip to be a huge sales hit. Fiat’s tuning arm, Abarth, has turned the 500 supermini from a cute runabout into a mean machine.

The Italian looks super-quick before you even start it up. A redesigned front bumper juts forward and provides extra cooling air to the uprated front brakes. Crucially, though, it shrouds an intercooler for the 135bhp 1.4 turbocharged powerplant. It might not sound like much, but that's enough power to rocket the 500 from 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds.

We first drove the ultra-desirable model back in July last year - and it's the handling that really impresses. Stiff suspension, wide tyres and an electronic differential system combine to make the Abarth extremely satisfying at speed.

The diminuitive Abarth is already on sale, with prices starting from £13,600 – so Fiat should have no problem selling its annual allocation of 1,500 cars. But if its even more performance that you're after, an extreme 160bhp esseesse (SS) kit can be fitted at the dealership, for an additional £2,500.