The Aston is finally being retired as an everyday car. She has done nearly 40,000 miles in the past 4 years. The original plan was to run her for 3 before she became a weekend special. As she is a ‘keeper’ the time has come for me to order a run around.

It was Nick who introduced me to the 500 Abarth, its a terrific bit of kit. One test drive was all it took. I have placed an order and also gone for the optional SS kit which adds lowered suspension, revised ECU (boosting power), better brakes, and cool ‘rally’ style alloys. Also added is a sport exhaust (for abit more noise, pops and bangs) and a sporty red leather interior with matching exterior decals – who wouldn’t. Picture of the chosen colour and spec below. Car arrives in December – will make a lovely Xmas present from Santa!

Also investigating increasing the power output further by either turning up the wick on the SS unsealed ECU, or replacing the cars OE IHI turbocharger with the larger 1.4 bar Garrett unit from the Assetto Corse one make race car version. Either of these options will push output to 200bhp+ which is some serious grunt in a car weighing only 980kg.

So abit of change from a V8 to 1.4 litre turbo power (15mpg to 47mpg! helps the wallet in these harder times), so let the Wacky Races begin!