Abarth Track Experience

Owning two luxury gas guzzling vehicles, Janet and I decided to purchase a more economical car without compromise on the fun factor. With these two requirements the list drastically dwindled, and the Fiat Abarth was the clear winner. Owning an Abarth is being part of a high performance club with heritage reaching back to the 1920’s. in addition, we really enjoy driving it and most of all the harmonic sounds it produces.
When you purchase a brand new Abarth, Fiat provides a track day sponsored by them. The concept is to experience the high performance nature of the Abarth in a professional and safe setting. The events are held throughout the country at various track venues. This particular one was held at the California Speedway in Fontana California. Since you do not drive your own Abarth, any location is feasible.
Upon arrival, I was greeted at the gate and told to follow the Abarth posted signs, that lead me to the Abarth owner’s parking area. Once parked I was amazed at the quantity of Abarths and the variety of love each one of them received. The event included a buffet breakfast, with a choice of eggs, bacon, sausages and cold continental breakfast items. A very nice spread with tables and a stage for the welcoming presentation. The checkin process was well organized, and consisted of signing your life away, typical insurance disclaimer. They provided badges that had flash drives attached to them, which serve as recording devices for the video cameras in each car. I would simply plug it into a hub within each car that I drove. This recorded the car cabin audio and video, as well as, the track while driving the car.
The event started with a video celebrating the astonishing accomplishments by Carl Abarth, who was born and died under the Scorpio zodiac sign. Due to his motorcycle racing injuries, he was forced to forgo racing and started a high performance company with the Abarth name and the scorpion badge. For the last 80 years, they designed, fabricated and sold high performance automobile parts for car manufactures, such as, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Fiat to name a few. In the 60s, he designed the historic Fiat 500 Abarth series, which was an economical car with racing capabilities and sheer fun. After the history lesson, we were previewed to the day’s event: auto cross, head to head challenge, race track experience and a hot lap with a professional driver.
The auto cross event was my favorite, racing around in a parking lot on track designated by white flour and cones. The objective was to drive fast but accurate, as any cones that were nocked down counted as a time penalty. I placed just 0.2 seconds behind the winning time. This event really showed off the Abarth’s cornering ability with a rush of adrenaline. The head to head challenge was similar, but two drivers raced concurrently on an auto cross track. The winners would continue on racing through the winning brackets. I won five consecutive races and ended up losing in the final race, by a split second, and placed second overall out of 60 participants.
After the heart pumping morning events, we were served a BBQ buffet lunch. Again a tasty spread of goodness awaited us. Throughout the day, we admired each others Abarths and discussed upgrades some of the owners installed to increase the performance or looks of their beautiful Abarths. After a relaxed lunch break, we proceed to the final round of activities. The track experience with a Fiat professional driver was very informative, full of great driving tips and education. Unfortunately, presumably due to safety, we were not timed during this track event. I completely understand, as this would have pushed some drivers to take risks beyond their driving capability, and at high speeds driving errors could result in terrible accidents. The final lap was performed by the professional drivers with us in the passenger seat, which definitely showed off the car’s capability and placed a enormous smile on my face.
To keep us focused, there were snacks and drinks on ice throughout the day available at each event location. The adrenaline loaded day ended with a celebration of the top finishes in the respective events. It was time to relax and unwind the adrenaline before speeding away to a guaranteed ticket outside of the speedway.
I would totally recommend this to any motor-​head, especially to Fiat Abarth owners and lovers. If you do purchase a brand new Abarth, do not pass up this opportunity, as it was a great experience and most of all it is included in the price of the Abarth.