German based tuner spent four years creating what may be the ultimate tuner Fiat 500 called the Ares 500 with a whopping 404 HP.
If there’s a recipe for tuners to follow that aims straight at the heart of any car enthusiast it’s wringing copious amounts of power from the smallest engines and stuffing that power-plant in as light a chassis as possible. According to Pogea Racing in a press release they dropped earlier yesterday (Mar. 23,2017) they’re ready to start accepting orders for their Ares 500, their fully built tuner car based on the already bonkers quick Abarth 500. Check out a couple of official press release photos they’ve graced us with below.
Take a peak underneath the hood of the Ares 500 and you’ll find the same 1.4 L turbochaged inline-four as the Abarth. Besides the basic foundation, nearly everthing else internal has been changed. Pogea adds a reinforced block and crankshaft, forged pistons, reinforced valve springs, a special headgasket, freshly engineered cams and a huge upgrade of a turbochager amongst other reinforcements and upgrades. To give you an idea how strong they need this block to be in place of normal head studs they’ve swapped those out for high-tensile strength wheel studs.
Keeping things in check around all four corners are special KW Clubsport coilovers with Uniball upper mounts and strut braces on each axle. You’ve also got sway bars and camber adjusters on the rear wheels as well. Braking is taken cared of thanks to six-pot calipers and 322mm discs paired to Pogea’s own 18 inch rims.
Pogea also swaps out the stock bumpers, hood, and sideskirts for carbon fiber pieces not to mention the fenders which now sport 48mm of extra flare.
In the stock turbo, boost is spooled up to 18 psi in order to reach the Abarth’s 160 HP and 171 lb-ft of torque. It’s kwown that the stock turbo size is an adequate 14mm. Tuners will often upgrade to a feasible 17mm turbo for more power. The turbo size in this Ares 500? A whopping 70 mm inlet/outlet (which now explains the final power figures.) 70mm turbos are typically used in larger muscle-car builds so expect lots of boost lag before its full power kicks in.
The Ares 500 makes a gob-smacking 404 HP and 328 lb-ft of torque. Slap on a set of sticky tires and 60 MPH comes in a tick under four seconds. Top speed is a GPS-verified 178 MPH.
If you want one chances are you’re already too late. Only five will be made at a cost of about $64,000. Rest assured they’ve already all been spoken for.
