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Last weekend the
Fiat 500 was in competitive track action; and while one
special racing version was pounding its way round the
daunting Nürburgring for 24 hours, another version was
tacking the fast and demanding stages of the 35th INA
Croatia Delta Rally. And both 500s came through their
tough respective tests with flying colours;
demonstrating that the tiny frame of the Car of the
Year 2008 award winner is very robust and this is a
car that can punch well above its weight.
Sebastijan
Bertol was the driver on the high speed asphalt rally stages
in Croatia, and he hatched the ambitious plan to run the new
Fiat 500 as a course opening safety car on what its the
country's most popular sporting event. Last year Bertol ran
an Alfa GT Coupé as a course opening car, another tough
undertaking that went like clockwork, and this year was
reunited for the bold adventure in the 500 with co-driver Goran Jasenko.
"We had a
fantastic event," says Sebastijan, "my co-driver and I
really enjoyed driving over the two days, and the weather was perfect.
The first day was cloudy but without any rain, which was good
for us because last year the rally weather was very hot and we had problems with
the tyres, because
we have to drive on normal road tyres. This time on the second stage after 11 or 12
kilometres I felt that
I was losing some grip and so we slowed the pace down little bit. However for
the third stage
which was 33 kilometres long we put lower pressures in the tyres and after that everything
was perfect."
The Bertol
Automobili-prepared Fiat 500
featured a small number of changes from the standard 100 bhp
1.4-litre model: a new performance air filter and induction system,
a completely new Supersprint exhaust, and the ECU
remapped in cooperation with Italian tuning house Dimensione
Sport. This all added up to give the engine an additional 15 bhp.
The car also featured a Novitec suspension package,
upgraded brakes and robust 16-in OZ wheels. Support for the
project came from Autocomerce, the official Croatian Fiat
importer.
"We were worried
before the rally about how the brakes would stand up," says
Sebastijan, "but they worked very well, right through 280
kilometres of special stages. The suspension was great too,
a little
bit hard for every day use but for this type of ride it was just perfect. On the
first day all three stages had jumps on the road and we
jumped two or three times with all of the car in the air, and
when we touch the road again the car was completely stable just like nothing happened!
"The second day was
a very nice day, sunny and warm. We
started early in the morning and all the stages were a little different than the day
before, much faster and around 50 percent of the road surfaces were very slippery
so we didn’t push the car to limit specially. However on sixth
stage, Samci, which is my
favourite, just like last year we turned in a top 25 time
overall, in a field which had 45 cars. If we remember
that this is only a 1.4-litre car with 100 bhp as standard but with just
few more HP here, and with two of us is almost 1200 kg, and
on normal road tyres, I think that this is a very good time.
"All six stages
that day we drove with passion!" continues Sebatijan. "We
had a few small problems when we went for the second time
over the stages because on the road there were lots of stones which other cars
had put onto the course when they drove through the first
time, and with our normal tyres we couldn't do them the same way because we could
have damaged the wheels or tyres, so we had take care and
slow down, losing about about 1 second for each 1 km compared to the morning's
run. We went a little bit off the road on the Okić
stage because of the conditions but everything
was ok.
"We are very satisfied
with how it all went and we hope that we will do it again.
We got a huge amount of attention from rally fans who have
taken the 500 to their hearts. A lot of people asked if we
would make it and I said 'of course, it's a Fiat!'," adds
Sebastijan. "That was the point of taking part in the rally, and why I
wanted to drive, is that that
I want to prove the quality of today's Fiat Group cars.
"We ran 280 km of special
stages driving very
hard drive all the time, and 700 km of the overall distance, and finished without any problems
at all. The car worked really well, the brakes, suspension and everything
else. Just the power was a little low when we went
up some climbs and the gearbox was a little long, but everything else is great.
And the sound that was coming from this
little engine was incredible, it really sounds like a car from the S1600 class.
"The atmosphere on rally was also
very good, it was a real pleasure to be around drivers like
Fontana, Isik and Solowow, but a really special moment for me came from another
Italian car involved in the rally, the famous Lancia Delta Integrale Gr
A rally winner. This was a 1988 year car, which was also
running as a safety car like we did, and I had the
opportunity to sit in that car
and see everything close up," concludes Sebastijan, whose passion for Italian
cars is as strong as ever. "A lovely and successful machine. I think the 500
proved itself as another great Fiat model, and it won a lot
of new fans."
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