Thinking about trading in the CR-Z for a Fiat 500 Abarth, thoughts?

In an unrelated story....RIP Honda CR-Z. I guess when you have a car that isn't a great hybrid for mileage because it's only a "boost" in performance and doesn't run solely on electric power like other hybrids out there and only 117 HP it isn't exactly sporty either, although I enjoyed the car on the Dragon.

Honda offers parts for the car to take it Civic So levels of power but that takes a supercharger and it's about $6K for that alone. Power is about 190-ish and when you spec the CR-Z out with everything you can be right around $36K and I'm sorry but only the most die-hard CR-Z is going to pay that (he's, they are out there)

So a moment of silence for the CR-Z as well as the Dodge Viper, again😋

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Sad but true Monica 💀

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Its been a while since I posted something about wheels but after the red wheel debacle I've been rockin' my stockers since putting them back on about a week after Good Friday. These wheels are awesome, really stand out! They are also VERY expensive but I was given the green light to get them next spring when our income tax check comes in but in the meantime I'm putting some money aside to defer the cost a bit, not to mention any side job money that I get. You can clearly see them on an Abarth but I have questions about them and I need to make sure 100% they work without any issue, just because you see them on a car doesn't always tell you the story.

My other choice is the new 45th anniversary wheel from OZ:
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Even though this is a 5 bolt pattern they do make them for my car. There's 3 colors available, gloss black (no F'n way!!), white and matte graphite. Not sure if this is the matte graphite because on the actual OZ website they show a white Abarth and the color is much lighter than what I showed you guys here, that's not going to work, I wanna go darker for sure. These wheels are cheaper by about $200 a set but because of what I went though with the red wheels and having waited so long. a couple bucks isn't going to get in the way of me being happy. By next spring I will have had the car 3 years. I may or may not be changing the stripes too, maybe a matte graphite but not trying to match this time, maybe a flat black or I may just stand pat.

Oh yeah a 3rd choice is in the mix as well, the black chrome finished stock wheels. I need to see these with my own 2 eyes to see how they really look inperson. If I can see some type of gray in the finish, I will get them and save ALOT of money, money to put towards the black head/turn/tails I've been eyeing for years now. More than likely, if I were to go this route, I would do the flat black stripes to replace my matte red ones. This gives the car an OEM look but different from others out there. I could see people thinking its stock but maybe apart of some package offered through Fiat, like "The Black Scorpian" package for instance. With all the black I could almost see changing the plate, sorry Mr. Paul, to PLAGUE.

Thoughts???


.......oh yeah, maybe the guy in Houston will break down and sell me though Pedal style wheels from the European Abarth:
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............now, thoughts???
 
Out of those three I really like the 45th anniversary OZ wheels. I'm not a fan of the first ones. They make me think grit guard :laughing:
 
FocusSTguy said:
Out of those three I really like the 45th anniversary OZ wheels. I'm not a fan of the first ones. They make me think grit guard :laughing:
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Grit guard, LOL

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Well I like all of them and they offer something special, the "grit guard" wheels have a rally look to them and are VERY funky but so are the OZ's. The GG wheels are $1400 a set whereas the OZ's are a $1000. The OZ's are 7" wide and the GG's are 8". My old red spoke wheels were 7.5" and no issues with rubbing.

Deep down inside I want the pedals first, hopefully the guy down in Houston comes off of them and sells them to me. They may be factory wheels but they are from another country, gives my car a "factory aftermarket" look.

I need to find out if the GG wheels fit without a problem if I were to go that route but that's a chunk of chamgs though!

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I just noticed the stretch, my tires are 10mm's wider, don't think that's going to matter much. An 8" wheel probably needs atleast a 225 mm tire and that's not going to work on my car, LOL! I have plenty of time to get my ducks in a row and pull the trigger. I have $350 bucks set aside towards the wheel kitty, now I need to sell my 3 red spoke wheels and keep saving, good thing I'm not in rush to do this, I'm getting a little slower in my older age I guess :dunno:
 
All backwards E's👈

Look at that temp @ 8:30 a.m.
 
It looks like I've sold my 3 red 5 spoke wheels, now I'm half way there for the next set, wish me luck that I get the "pedals":xyxthumbs:
 
My wheels have been officially sold as of today!

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So I'm sending my piggy back tune back to 500 Madness, why you might ask? Well there's nothing wrong with it, been on the car since spring of 2014 and over 33k miles but I have found out that it can be "updated" to make bit more power since I have access to 93 octane fuel everywhere I travel. It sounds like the gain is about 5-10 hp, not sure if its whp or not but the total, including shipping and insurance on it, is $80.00, sign me up! Its going to interesting to drive the car tomorrow without the tune, since its the brain of everything perf will suffer quite a bit, even with all the other mods, I can't wait to get it back, all new and improved.

As far as the wheels go I'm going to wait it out on the pedals, as long as next spring if I have to and if for some reason the guy will not come up off of them I will get the OZ 45th anniversary wheels, either way, retro or funky, my car will have a new look next year, might even change the stripe color to have an entirely new look, stay "tuned" on that one.

Finally there's an intake called "holy cowl" that has been around a while, made by the same company that made the front mounted intercooler that I have on my car. THis intake actually goes partly into the cowl under the windshield, hence the name. Basically the filter part goes into and through the cowl, a hole has to be made into the plastic cowl. This keep the filter out of the engine bay, not sucking in hotter air and is very safe where its located. From what I've read the intake makes more noise inside the car, no problem there, that's a part of Abarth ownership, noises but good noises!
 
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I think this looks awesome! I like this car in yellow and with the wheels being done in body color just sets it off, I wouldn't have put on the centercaps but that's just me!
 
Klasse Act said:
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I think this looks awesome! I like this car in yellow and with the wheels being done in body color just sets it off, I wouldn't have put on the centercaps but that's just me!
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I like the yellow too... and usually I'm not a yellow on cars fan.
The wheels look killer :xyxthumbs:
 
Its looking more and more like its going to be the above wheel, the OZ 45th anniversary wheel and I'm ok with that. I might make the 90 mile drive down to Tire Rack to see the wheel inperson so I can get a feel for the color. This is important because if they are lighter in color, like the website photo for OZ's website shows, the car will be getting matte silver stripes trimmed in red in the spring, whole new look and if they are darker I'm going to stand by my current look.
 
MadMerc said:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/videos/a30339/fiat-500-big-turbo-swap/
Not sure if you have seen this before.
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Thanks for the heads up on this John. I'm subscribed to The Smoking Tire and saw this yesterday. I'm sure that car is fun but having to run E85 to take full advantage and also the fact that the drivetrain can't handle that power for long, would keep me out, Not to mention the price and driveability issues. 260 whp and that short wheelbase= A HANDFUL😋

I appreciate the heads up, keep them coming. Btw there's a turbo upgrade that gives the car 30-50 HP but I think that's crank but even then, borderline parts breaking!

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So I sent out my piggy-back tune almost 3 weeks ago, well, 3 weeks this Tuesday and it will be going back on the car tomorrow evening. I had it sent to my wife's work but it was delivered this past Friday, a day she had scheduled off already, so I have to wait till Monday evening to re-install it.

This is a refresh for the piggy-back which is their original design. Since then 500 Madness has been working on a new system and you can buy that if you don't have a tune yet or, for $70.00, you can send in your old unit and have it reflashed with the most up to date tune, the MaxPower hardware. I've been told its a 5-10 whp gain which doesn't seem like much but the "butt dyno" would say otherwise and with everything else already on my car, the gain should be closer to the 10 whp gain, so I know I'll feel the difference! At some point I will get the 500 Madness GoPedal which is basically an electronic unit the enhances the throttle quite a bit. From what I've read and heard first hand, it turns my car into a smoke machine, tire smoke machine! I'm sure I'll get it out of my system after a while and even has an ECO mode, eco mode, what's that, LOL! Actually the car is pretty good on gas but this year, with all the heat, the mileage has been down for sure. You can go to Fuelly - Track and Compare your MPG and look under !!
 
So I've put about 800 miles on the re-flashed piggy-back tune and I can say it feels even smoother and pulls strong, enough to make me notice for sure. I'm about to pull the trigger on a used 500Madness GoPedal, basically a throttle enhancer. I wasn't going to buy one of these but EVERYONE says its a must and paying 1/3 of the price of a new one is a no-brainer, so I'm getting it. I will have this in plenty of time for the Dragon, 3 weeks from today I will be on southern ground. I will have enough time to get used to this mod, its supposed to be wild in the race setting, I guess it just smokes the tires, so as much fun as that may sound, its not something I want going on on the Dragon for sure, LOL =============
 
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