I’d like to tell you a tale of miles and motorsports, as it relates to my experiences with my 2015 Fiat 500 Abarth. What do I use it for? A good amount of everything, really. It has been my daily driver since September 2015, I’ve taken it on long road trips, taken it on a few different proper race tracks, and done a huge amount of autocross with it. It has taken track sessions on a 90+ degree day and the daily grind to work on a day starting out at nearly -30 degrees. It certainly hasn’t been completely faultless, but it has been a ton of fun and I hope some of the details I share here with you will help inform folks who are or expect to be long-term owners of Fiat 500 Abarths.
I bought the car in September 2015 primarily to just have a fun daily driver car, with the thought maybe at times I might like to do a track day or something. Since my car came with the OEM 17” wheels with Pirelli P Zero summer tires, before the first winter in Iowa (where I lived at the time) I made sure to get another set of wheels with winter tires. Quite fortunately, I found a half-used set of Bridgestone Blizzak WS60s on Competizione Sport Tuning Enzo 17×7.5” wheels for a reasonable price, so that was my first setup.
Early 2016 I did not drive too much because I was recovering from a surgery, but everything got back to normal in March. I took an epic road trip with the car in April 2016, which took me from Iowa to California and back. This trip was planned to align with going to the Abarth Experience at Fontana Speedway, one of the last of the original-format Abarth Experience events where they traveled to racetracks across the country. It was quite fun to beat on somebody else’s 500 Abarth on a track! On my way back, during one of the days I took a long and very empty road through “Mexico” and was able to find the car’s maximum speed when completely stock at an indicated 128 mph.
Just before the big April road trip I did my first autocross event of any sort, and instantly became hooked and this has stayed a regular activity for me ever since. Already after the first event I was researching my next steps, and landed on yet another set of wheels, this time the Competizione Sport Tuning Corsa 17×7” wheels, with Dunlop Direzza ZII “Star Spec” tires. It wasn’t the most competitive wheel/tire setup of all, but it was good for the time while I was still learning the sport. Later in 2016 I also installed a Neu-F rear torsion bar and Koni Sport rear shocks, since both are very easy modifications and are allowed in the SCCA autocross class I was in.
In 2017 the level of activity went up. I went to Fiat on the Dragon for the first time in the spring of 2017, and met all sorts of awesome folks that I still know today. Installed an MPx exhaust axle-back that I bought at a nice price at FOTD. I also went to Fiat Freakout for the first time in summer 2017, where it was hosted in Milwaukee, which was quite a lot of fun. I became even more serious with autocross, eventually getting a set of properly competitive tires and yet another set of wheels, this time Team Dynamics ProRace 1.2 16×7” wheels with BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S 1.5 tires, and with this I went to SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska for the first time and became hooked on the big-time (for autocross) competition.
The first unplanned maintenance happened in 2017, which included a replacement antenna base (leaking gasket) and replacement driver’s side outer door handle (well-known weak point). Going into winter of 2017-2018, I sold the Enzo wheels and switched to the Corsas for my winter tires. In the spring of 2018, I went to Fiat on the Dragon a second time, and shortly afterward the car passed 50,000 miles. There was a bit more unplanned maintenance in 2018, with the passenger side outer door handle and the left rear wheel bearing needing replacement. I switched from the MPx dual-exit axle back, and installed a Neu-F single-exit cat-back exhaust. The suspension modifications to date were finished in 2018, with Koni Sport front struts being installed before another run at SCCA Solo Nationals.
In 2019 I needed to deal with a failed shift cable, right rear wheel bearing, and downstream O2 sensor. Also, 2019 saw the last major change to the autocross setup, with a major “investment” to a set of ultralight forged Volk Racing ZE40s by Rays Engineering. And yes, they are true 4×98 bolt pattern! I took a number of trips to more distant autocross events during 2019, apart from SCCA Solo Nationals, including SCCA events in central Indiana and Bristol, Tennessee. The Bridgestone Blizzak WS60 tires I ran during the previous two winters had finally gotten used up, and the roads of Iowa claimed one of my Corsa wheels, so a set of nearly new Blizzak WS80 tires were fitted to my OEM 17” wheels for winter use.
Not too much happened during much of the first part of 2020 due to the very early pandemic chaos, but I took care of some preventative maintenance with replacing both upper engine mounts and the upstream O2 sensor as the car was now approaching 90,000 miles. I took a driving trip with friends out to the Badlands in South Dakota around Memorial Day, and as clubs were able to sort out how to host outdoor motorsports events under the new conditions, autocross picked back up in June and kept going steady through the year, although with a reduced schedule.
Later in the 2019 I needed to get the right rear wheel bearing replaced again, and then not long afterwards, what seemed like a true disabling failure happened at an autocross event in Chicago. After all was said and done, it turned out that just the center bolt on the left-hand engine mount had failed, which allowed the transmission to droop down to sit on the subframe. From discussion at the time online, it did not seem like this particular bolt was a common failure point, but another person named Julian Sherman who did report having it happen is also somebody I know did a good amount of autocross with their car. My thought is the bolt is vulnerable to repeated hard launches, so for any folks who are doing or thinking of doing a lot of autocross with their 500 Abarth, make sure to keep a spare engine mount bolt (Mopar p/n 6510736AA) on-hand. They are actually quite easy to replace as they are underneath the battery tray, and replacement parts aren’t that expensive.
Going into the winter of 2020-2021, I was fed up with the roads getting in such bad shape in Iowa and driving too much on 17” wheels with thin sidewalls, so I switched my winter setup to a set of OEM 500 Sport 16×6.5” wheels with Continental VikingContact 7 tires. Also, during winter of 2020-2021, the car passed the big 100,000-mile mark. During the summer of 2021, the left-hand engine mount bolt needed replacement again, along with the drivers’ side outside door handle, the downstream O2 sensor again, and the right-hand outer CV shaft assembly. I took some preventative maintenance as well, with replacing the air-oil separator and PCV valve, diverter valve, and sway bar endlinks. In the early fall of 2021, I took another epic road trip, this time with multiple friends out to western Colorado and eastern Utah, seeing some awesome fall scenery and awesome roads. For this trip, I brought my OEM 17” wheels back into service, with a set of Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 tires, which was an absolutely perfect setup for such a trip!
In 2022 and 2023 the trend has definitely been towards maintenance of more expensive and critical items, which is not so surprising considering the age and mileage on the car. At the end of April 2022, the car crossed 120,000 miles, and during the spring and summer I had the left-hand outer CV shaft assembly replaced, along with the torque arm for the transmission. The 130,000-mile mark was crossed by the end of 2022, and 2023 saw a change of scenery for me as my job moved from Iowa to Pennsylvania. Summer and early fall of 2023 saw the biggest list (and value!) of big-ticket maintenance items, most importantly including both the left-hand and right-hand intermediate axle shafts, lower control arms, clutch, flywheel, throwout bearing, rear main seal, and front wheel bearings and hubs. 2023 also saw my sixth entry to SCCA Solo Nationals, and my best finish to date with a 10th place in H Street!
As I write this in January 2024, the car is approaching 150,000 miles, and I am already planning out some of the other preventative maintenance items which need taking care of, but the miles will keep rolling and motorsports events will keep coming, because after more than 8 years I still love driving this car!!!
Great article!