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Exactly one
year after the rebirth of the brand and the company,
Abarth returns to the Geneva Motor Show, an ideal
setting for the public launch of the new 500 Abarth, the
long awaited car that combines the enjoyment of
extremely sporty driving with the best technology at the
service of safety and engineering. |
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Exactly one
year after the rebirth of the brand and the company,
Abarth returns to the Geneva Motor Show, an ideal
setting for the public launch of the new 500 Abarth, the
long awaited car that combines the enjoyment of
extremely sporty driving with the best technology at the
service of safety and engineering.
The Swiss show is also an ideal shop-window for the
latest novelties from the Abarth world, starting with
the 2008 racing season. The Abarth Racing Team will
tackle the 2008 season with the same guts and
determination that brought it its brilliant results in
last year’s rally season, starting with the
Intercontinental Rally Challenge, which will be
contested by two official Grande Punto Abarth S2000s,
driven by Giandomenico Basso and Anton Alén, sponsored
by Selenia and Sabelt. And the Grande Punto Abarth S2000
will also compete in the Italian Rally Championship,
sponsored by Metis and Api-IP, with two cars driven by
Andrea Navarra and Renato Travaglia. Finally, Umberto
Scandola is a pilot from the Abarth Team that will carry
out development tests as well as several prestigious
international competitions.
The brand has also chosen the Swiss show to present its
new network of exclusive dealers on this market, the
first to be inaugurated in Europe after Italy. An
exclusive network also requires a unique manufacturing
structure, and the Scorpion has recently inaugurated its
new premises within the Mirafiori complex in Turin,
drawing the company’s manufacturing, design and
management activities together in one place. Finally, in
line with the Abarth philosophy, the ‘Abarth Driving
School – Sandro Munari’ has also been inaugurated, a
driving school proper which will teach young drivers the
best techniques for maximum safety, under the
supervision of the most famous Italian rally driver of
all time, Sandro Munari.
So Abarth has several novelties to present, but the
undisputed star of the stand is the 500 Abarth, the car
that is destined to revive the glory days of the
well-known saying ‘small but wicked’ that was coined for
Carlo Abarth’s cars. And this concept and the important
racing and marketing past of the car’s forebear, the 595
Abarth, have inspired an original and very striking
stand. It focuses on the Scorpion philosophy and on the
qualities that have always distinguished it, making it
unique and popular all over the world: guts, speed and
an innate predisposition for winning. The graphic motif
of the red and white chequers, so characteristic of
Abarth, becomes the starting point for the construction
of three-dimensional physical volumes, red and white
cubes that define the entire stand and the decorative
elements on it.
The stand ‘opens up’ like an imaginary road that starts
from an amazing past to the present and the future –
with the 500 Abarth – under the Scorpion symbol, which
is evident in the foreground, representing simply the
unique, unequivocal central element.
The idea for the striking stage set is inspired directly
by the concepts of a number of contemporary artists like
Cornelia Parker, Dan Tobin Smith and Damian Ortega.
Each, in his own way and through his own works, wants
‘to suspend in mid-air, for just an instant, elements of
daily life that can tell a story, to stop for a moment
the frenzy that envelops us in order to observe what is
around us every day, which we are often unable to see’.
The progress of the brand new 500 Abarth has been
‘blocked’ on this road for an instant, literally
‘exploding’ the chequered wall of the stand. The large
screen on the rear wall projects films from the past of
the long history of the Fiat 500 Abarth, in a succession
of victories, world titles and great records, but also
plenty of entertainment and passion. Halfway between the
past and the present, the 500 Abarth is introduced to
the general public, surrounded by the red and white
cubes of the chequered flag, which have also exploded
under the impact of its breathtaking entrance. The 500
Abarth stops, immobile but nonetheless dynamic, at the
centre of a diagonal raised area that extends the full
length of the stand. On the side of the platform that is
inclined towards the public, a large Scorpion is etched
in steel that underlines the fact that the car is the
product of a brand that is both historical and
contemporary.
The setting is completed with distinctive colours and
symbols that are absolutely Abarth, identifying the
character of the brand: red, the great passion for
engines, the red and white chequers used to indicate the
finishing line in ‘endurance’ races (the competitions
where Abarth achieved its best results), the red and
yellow shield with black scorpion which identifies the
stinging birth sign of the engineering genius. And the
beautiful polished white floor enhances the dynamism of
these elements while the materials and finish tend
almost to disappear, drawing the attention to the car
and the technology that surrounds the 500 Abarth – the
real star of the stand.
A small, powerful car, that can be used in our ‘everyday
performances’ on the road, or in races, exuding guts and
competitiveness. ‘Everyday performance’ is the basic
concept of this presentation, the possibility of using a
car that embodies a fast, exciting lifestyle, just as
the daily life of someone who ‘is’ Abarth through and
through must be fast and challenging. In other words,
outstanding everyday performance from a small car that
is modern and technological, the natural evolution of a
car that was a legend, whose character it has inherited.
The intermingling of historical and contemporary
elements conveys the extent to which history, tradition,
technology and outstanding performance are part of the
brand’s genes.
Finally, the advanced technology on the stand – the same
technology that comes to life in the 500 Abarth – offers
visitors interactive elements such as: the ‘multi-touch’
table, that takes them on a surprising guided tour of
the Abarth world, and the photographic quality
multimedia ‘product configurator’ which lets visitors
view different versions of the Abarth cars using a
touch-screen system, so that they seem to be able to
touch actual elements employed in engine tuning. And to
respect tradition, photographs of the conversion and
tuning kits developed by Abarth decorate the stand
walls. The unmistakable logo hangs high up, yellow and
red, within a shield sporting the black Scorpion, with a
new look that respects tradition.
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