To me, the above car looks pretty ugly, but there must be a market for it as Fiat has recently announced that they will be launching a special edition 500 Abarth Competizione.

Despite it’s small size, don’t expect the price tag to be small as it will cost around $35,000, a $4,000 premium over that of the regular model. Reports say that this special-edition will feature a black roof, 17-inch alloy rims painted black, Abarth decals and interior bucket seats. Under the hood you’re going to find a 135HP turbocharged 4 cylinder engine.

No word on a release window yet but we’ll keep you posted. Although, only 10 of them will be made available exclusively to the automarket in Holland so it probably doesn’t matter now does it.

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How many times have you fantasized about driving a tank across your neighbor lawn? That might just be possible if you owned a Fiat Cinque Tank. Sure you’d end up in a police cell but years later you’ll have a great story for your friends.

The Fiat Cinque Tank in the picture above was conceived by an ironsmith, Mr. Kogoro Kurata. He managed to mount that famous Fiat 500 on top of some caterpillar tracks. The Tank works but you’ll probably get bored driving at only 3km/h. It’s still a cool do-it-yourself project which will look pretty cool parked in your back yard.

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Fiat 500

Many Americans have been hoping the popular Fiat 500 minicar would come to the US but a lack of interest in small cars has largely held it back. Now, with Fiat’s alliance with Chrysler, the Italian auto maker has a gateway to the profitable U.S. market and the first model to arrive will be the 500, although it’s launch is 18 months away.

The Fiat 500 will be sold in Chrysler dealerships, and according to Richard Gadeselli, Fiat’s vice-president of communications, it will be the only Fiat-badged model in the U.S. Marketplace. Fiat is hoping to enjoy similar success with its 500 as BMW did several years ago with Mini.

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Fiat is planning to bring an AWD version of its acclaimed 500 minicar to market in an attempt to compete with the batch of recently launched and approaching models from Mini. The Italian carmaker will release a car next year with a decided wagon-like appearance. Part of the reason for launching a bigger version of the 500 is because of the release of Mini’s Clubman, which the 500 Giardinetta hopes to take sales away from.

The new AWD variation, based on the Giardinetta, will go up against Mini’s own upcoming crossover. This AWD Fiat 500 will use the same 4WD system applied in the Panda 4×4 hatch, with which the 500 already shares its platform. This ought to help keep development costs down, and this in turn will mean a better deal for customers when it appears in showrooms later next year.

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