New Hyundai Azera and Fiat 500 Abarth At LA Show

Ah Twitter; the land of 140-characters where you can follow anyone without creeping them out has lately turned into something like a news board for automakers.

Instead of releasing an announcement on their respective websites, Fiat and Hyundai chose the social network to broadcast their 2011 LA Show debuts, which include the 2012 Azera and the 500 Abarth.
Starting from Hyundai, the South Korean automaker that could, will bring to LA the North American market version of its next generation Azera sedan, which has already been launched in its home market as the Grandeur.
The front-wheel drive Azera slots between the Sonata and the Genesis sedan and will most likely be offered with a 270-horsepower V6 engine.
Fiat's LA Show debut is the sport version of 500 mini called the Abarth. It features an aggressive bodykit along with a tuned chassis and a 1.4-liter turbocharged engine capable of delivering between 140HP and 180HP, depending on the model.

2012 HYUNDAI GRANDEUR

FIAT 500 ABARTH EU

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Alfa Romeo 4C: Spawn Maserati, Abarth Variants

If Alfa Romeo wanted t? get pe?ple talking with the debut ?f its 4C concept in Geneva, they succeeded. The Internet is abuzz with rum?rs ?f its production p?tential. There have already been rep?rts that the Alfa will spearhead the marque's full-fledged return t? North America, t? be followed by b?th Spider and Abarth versions. N?w, w?rd is that Maserati c?uld get a derivative, either.

If the reports pr?ve accurate and the spinoffs c?me t? fruition, that w?uld mean three brands within the Fiat group will get their ?wn versions ?f the lightweight, mid-engined, f?ur-cylinder sports car.

And that's bef?re any ?f the Chrysler brands get a crack at it, because a Dodge version t? pick up where the Circuit concept left ?ff could be m?st tempting. The Maserati version w?uld naturally be positioned and app?inted differently fr?m the Alfa ?r Abarth models. The questi?n is whether the market can bear m?re than ?ne Elise rival from Fiat/Chrysler, let al?ne multiples.

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IED's Abarth SCORP-ION Coupe Concept

If the rumors are true, Fiat's Abarth division may soon get its own version of the Alfa Romeo 4C mid-engined coupe, but for now, fans will have to make do with the SCORP-ION sports coupe study that was unwrapped at this week's Geneva Motor Show.
The SCORP-ION is a conceptual proposal for an environment-friendly sports car designed by the students of the Master of Arts in Transportation Design at the Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin (IED) and constructed in cooperation with Abarth. The strictly two-seater study measures 4.01 meters long and is powered by four electric motors, one on each wheel. Check out the video from the Geneva Show presentation after the break.


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Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition

This here is the actual, factual Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition special in the flesh, photographed at the Autopolis Fiat dealership in Luxembourg. We say this because yesterday, we reported on the limited run special and Fiat's photoshoped picture that made the internet rounds. While our friends from Auto55 and Autofans verified the story with the official press release, we were left wondering what the Italian mini with the classic racing-livery would look like in real life. 

Today, our pondering came to an end as the Marketing and Communications director of Autopolis Luxembourg dropped the first real life shots of the car in our mailbox. We believe Fiat should have released these photos instead of the 'chop from the beginning, but we'll give them props for keeping a close eye on the web-o-sphere and swiftly reacting to our post. 
 

As for the car itself, it was created by the Italian brand's official importer for Luxembourg, Autopolis, in association with Gulf Petroleum, to celebrate the latter's 10th anniversary in the country.
Only ten examples of the Fiat Abarth 500 Gulf Limited Edition will be built, each priced at �25,000 (not including VAT) a piece, which is about US$34,000. Aside from the iconic Gulf Racing livery, the special edition 500s also get the 'esseesse' performance kit that pushes the 1.4-liter turbo engine's output to 160-ponies, a Monza sport exhaust and Corse-Sabelt racing buckets with the seatbacks finished in Gulf-blue. 

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Fiat's Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari

The Fiat 500-based, Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari, is possibly the closest we'll ever get to a baby model from the company with the Prancing Horse logo. And now, almost a year after its world premiere at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show in Germany, Fiat has confirmed UK availability.

Only 152 examples of the Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari will be available in right hand drive form in Britain, each carrying a steep price tag of �29,600, which comes to around �35,500 or US$46,900 at today's exchange rates. That's roughly what you'd pay for a BMW 135i Coupe M Sport (�30,675) in the UK.
Those select few buyers get what Fiat describes as a Ferrari inspired design with a unique Scuderia Red finish complemented by racing stripes, carbon fiber mirror caps, 17-inch Corsa Grey wheels, additional air inlets / outelts and quad tail pipes.

The hot hatch's interior has also been upgraded with carbon fiber bucket sport seats from Sabelt that weight 10 kg or 22 lbs a piece less than the standard seats, a flat-bottomed black leather steering wheel with red leather inserts, carbon trim and a new instruments specially made by Jaeger
Under the skin, the Prancing Horse-branded mini sports a pumped up version of standard Abarth 500's 1.4-liter turbocharged four-banger with 180-horsepower at 5,500rpm and 250Nm of torque at 3,000rpm, hooked up to a five-speed automated manual gearbox.
Fiat says its can accelerate from 0-62mph (100lkm/h) in seven seconds and has a top speed of 140mph (225km/h), while returning 43.3mpg UK (36.1 mpg US) on the combined cycle.
Completing the mechanical upgrades are the four-pot Brembo discs and recalibrated dampers.
Those interested can place their order through Abarth's 17-strong UK dealer network. 
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Paris Show: Abarth 500C Esseesse

If you feel the regular Abarth 500C could benefit from a few more ponies under the hood, Fiat's performance division has the answer in the form of the Esseesse edition. The tuning package bumps output of the standard 1.4-liter turbocharged engine from 140HP and 206Nm to 160HP and 230Nm, respectively.
As a result, the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) drops 0.6 seconds to 7.5 seconds, while top speed increases from 205km/h to 209km/h (130mph).
The scorpion-branded version of Fiat's 500 rag-top convertible that was shown in Paris featured a two-tone paint job with a white chromatic line separating the two colors, and came fitted with a Record Monza exhaust silencer and unique 17-inch alloys with 5 diamond shaped spokes.

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