Fiat Auto SA have debuted their seventh entrant in the SA Production Car Championship at Round 9 of the Vodacom Power Tour at East London today.

The first outing for the Fiat Stilo Abarth in Class B brings Fiat Auto SA’s involvement in national racing to three classes of the Production Car Championship.

The Fiat Stilo Abarth is being driven by veteran driver Mike O’Sullivan who has given up his normal seat this year in the Palio Racing Team to drive the new car. The Stilo Abarth is being prepared by his experienced Mosport racing team that have engineered success into the Palio Racing Team in their first season of racing.

Fiat recently launched the 125kW 2.4-litre five-cylinder Fiat Stilo Abarth as the performance model in the successful Stilo range. The car provided the ideal basis for a Class B contender and the company’s strategy of displaying their product’s prowess on SA circuits.

“Abarth is the performance brand of Fiat,” said Michael Burkhart, general manager for marketing at Fiat Auto SA.

“It is a Fiat tradition to be in motorsport and we are broadening our success and support of local motorsport by entering the Stilo Abarth into production cars.”

The Fiat Stilo is a serious contender in SA’s hotly contested C-Segment that accounts for a large portion of sales domestically.

The premium hatch is available in petrol and turbodiesel models in three- and five-door guise. But the Stilo Abarth marks the return of a legendary brand to SA that will now show its sting in its Scorpion tail to the MINIs, Fords and Toyotas in Class B.

“The Stilo offers a comprehensive and competitively priced range that is not only good to look at, but is competitive from a performance point, too, with the arrival of the Stilo Abarth to the range,” continued Burkhart. “Not only will the Stilo continue to show good sales performances, but it will now also prove itself as a product in a racing environment.”

The Fiat Stilo Abarth has undergone hard testing already and driver Mike O’Sullivan is happy with the progress. “After initial problems with engine management because the Abarth runs a five-cylinder engine, we now have the car running well,” said O’Sullivan.

“Naturally there is still a lot of development to do on the car and the remainder of the season will provide us with a test bed to benchmark the Abarth against its strong competitors in Class B.”

Abarth began producing cars and complementary accessories for racecars in 1949 and was bought by Fiat Auto in 1971. Abarth now forms the performance arm of Fiat Auto, engineering exciting road cars for the brand.

The debut of the Fiat Stilo Abarth marks a welcome return of Abarth to SA race tracks, Fiat Abarths having notched up numerous class wins in the legendary 9 Hour and victories on index of performance.

Fiat Auto SA currently competes with three special series Fiat Palios in the Palio Racing Team in Class C, three Alfa Romeo 147GTAs as part of Alfa Romeo Squadra Corse at the cutting edge of Class A, and now with the Fiat Stilo Abarth in Class B of the SA Production Car Championship.