Abarth has announced the dates for the inaugural Trofeo Abarth 500 Rally 'grassroots' championship which will comprise of six rounds, four of which will be part of the Italian Rally Championship, kicking off with the Rally Mille Miglia on 23/24 April 2010.

Abarth has announced the dates for the inaugural Trofeo Abarth 500 Rally 'grassroots' championship which will comprise of six rounds, four of which will be part of the Italian Rally Championship, kicking off with the Rally Mille Miglia on 23/24 April 2010.

The idea is to create a compelling new one-make trophy, that comes with full respect to Abarth's traditions, that represents an ideal compromise between the cost and the performance of the rally cars used so as to favour in particular young people beginning their racing career.

For the Scorpion brand the Trofeo Abarth 500 Rally marks a welcome return to specialist promotional trophies as just over thirty years ago, in 1977, Abarth organised the first edition of the championship dedicated to the much-loved Autobianchi A112 Abarth. In recent decades the Fiat name has held sway over a swathe of grassroots championships as the Italian manufacturer has demonstrated its commitment to helping drivers onto the first rung of the rallying ladder, although the then-defunct Abarth brand's name was used to denote some of these specialist rally cars. There have been successive trophies for the Fiat Uno, Uno Turbo, Cinquecento, Seicento, Punto Super 1600 and Kit, Stilo and Panda Kit and Punto JTD, and so today the baton passes onto the capable Abarth 500 R3T equipped with the road car's turbocharged 1.4 engine tuned to give out 180 bhp and approved in Group R3T.

Presented to the press and fans during the 51st edition of the Sanremo Rally at the end of September, the new rally car offers a 6-speed sequential gearbox, limited slip differential, dual disc clutch, racing suspension and height adjustable dampers with new springs, camber adjustment, brakes with discs all-round, ventilated at the front, brake bias, and OZ 7x17 inch wheels fitted with 19/62-17 tyres. In addition, the Abarth 500 R3T has all-FIA approved safety measures, beginning with a roll bar welded and built specifically for the body and including 6-point racing harnesses.

In this configuration the car is being sold through a dedicated network dubbed "AbarthRacing": Auto Alberta by Uboldi Corse (Como), Campana Onorio (Modena), Forza Service (Turin), Romeo Ferraris (Milano), Trico Motorsport (Alessandria) and Zatti Top Class (Parma) ready to race and road registered at 48,000 euros plus VAT.

The first edition of the Trofeo 500 Abarth Rally will consist of six races that are all on asphalt, with four valid for the Italian Rally Championship (23-24 April, Rally Mille Miglia, 18-19 June, Rally del Salento, 3-4 September Rally Alpi Orientali and 24-25 September, Rally Sanremo) and two that count towards the Trofeo Rally Asfalto (28-29 May, Rally Marca Trevigiana and 16-17 July, Rally San Martino di Castrozza).

Total prize money for the new series will be 150,000 euros, with the payouts being slanted towards under 23-year-old drivers. The winner of the inaugural Trofeo 500 Abarth Rally will get to drive an official Abarth Grande Punto S2000 on the Rally di Como next year while the winner of the Under-23 category will get behind the wheel one of the S2000 machines on the Rally di Monza.