Small Italian cars were once legendary for their smooth-spinning, fizzing enthusiasm and rorty exhausts, a quality largely lost since cars like the Fiat 127 and the Alfasud.
So it’s pleasing to discover that this Abarth has a peppy engine that revs smoothly to its 6500rpm limit, issues an enthusiastic beat and some exhaust rort to go with it.
But it’s not so loud that you tire of it. If you’re unaware of what the Sport button does before you drive off, you could easily be in for disappointment.
Before the switch is pressed the T-Jet seems almost stutteringly constricted, demanding long throttle movements to extract some action and generally feeling unsporting.
This, in fact, is deliberate; Abarth has used a different engine management map intended to make the car easier to drive smoothly in traffic and be more economical as a result. Fiat hot hatches, Abarth-badged or not, have a poor track record here.
The crude stiffenings of suspensions underdone in standard form did for the promising Uno Turbo two decades ago, and the various succeeding half-baked Punto Sportings have barely been any better. So while there’s hope for this apparently more considered fettling, scepticism must remain high.
Which makes this Abarth Punto’s prowess all the more unexpected. It’s not without flaws, and the highly polished Clio Cup and outgoing Ford Fiesta ST shade it with relative ease, but it demonstrates enough flair to satisfy, aided by its trick ESP.
Electronics cannot hide a chassis’ shortcomings, though. Luckily in this case they don’t have to, for the Abarth offers plenty of in-corner grip, decent handling balance and some scope for adjusting its line with the throttle.
Turn off the traction control and you discover that the turbo’s torque has little trouble getting the front wheels spinning, but its interventions are well enough judged that the Punto is usually quicker with it on.