Big, imposing, luxurious, powerful and bespoked, there's nothing quite like a coachbuilt custom car to get our loins tingling but sometimes the smaller and more radical builds are the projects to keep an eye on. One such example would be the mid-engined Abarth 500 by tuning house Aznom.
The custom creation will be knighted the Motore Centrale R230 and as the title suggests, will have its 1.4-liter turbocharged four-pot moved amidship to behind the front seats. The move also includes converting it to run the rear wheels, bringing it much closer to the original 500 in terms of drivetrain layout.
The engine itself has been tuned for some added kick, bringing the final power figures to 230hp and 329Nm of torque, making it one extremely tiny terror and conjures up images of some extremely stupid things to do with it.
New suspension components, compromising of Bilstein dampers, will attempt to get as much traction from the Kumho semi-slick tyres to the ground. Of course, upgraded brakes are a given for something so capable such idiocy. Another car that springs to mind would be the Suzuki Hayabusa-powered Smart Fortwo.
There will also be a track version in the works, as soon as work is completed on the road-going version. The tiny track terrorizer will get an extra 50 horses, a full roll-cage, adjustable suspension and weight trimmed to below 910kg.
Aznom will be making a run of 30 of the cars and believe us when we say there shouldn't be any trouble at all finding them loving homes.
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