The Fiat 500 has, in my opinion, gone full circle. Very recently Fiat officially revealed the new 500 and 500c (cabriolet) with the 'Twin Air' 900cc turbocharged 2 cylinder lawnmower engine. The little Fiat is set to hit showrooms in Europe in September of this year and was basically made to work within the European CO2 emissions tax system that is used over there for cars. The new 2 cylinder engine has the same amount of cylinders like the 'original' 500 Nuova launched in 1957. Those days the 500 had a 479cc 2 cylinder engine pumping out an incredible 14bhp. Nowadays, the 500 has to make do with a slightly better figure of 84bhp.

This 500 TwinAir uses a 2 cylinder turbocharged engine with is 23% shorter and 10% lighter than a 4cylinder engine that has similar performance figures. It is also very economical as it would only consume 4.0-4.1ltrs/100km while emitting only 92g/km of carbon when matched with the Dualogic robotized gearbox and 95g/km of carbon for the manual version. This figure is about 30% less CO2 emissions that a 4cylinder engine of similar performance.

It makes 84bhp and has a maximum of 145Nm of torque when used in 'Normal' mode and 100Nm in 'ECO' mode. This two modes have different engine maping as well as different steering feel. The class leading emissions is due to the small displacement (900cc), good low end torque (imagine 450cc per cylinder instead of, say 300cc for a 3 cylinder engine