With just over a month to go to its official international media launch in Rome on 29th January, the new Fiat Bravo is busy undergoing rigorous testing in different climatic conditions, from the heat and dust of South Africa to the frozen wastes of the extreme north of Europe.

These photos capture the Bravo as it takes part in testing in South Africa which has got underway this week and is set to continue until well into January. Performance, endurance and heat tests are going on in and around Johannesburg, Upington and along the coast at Western Cape,including around Cape Town. A technical delegation from Italy is conducting the trials in conjunction with a team from South Africa.

The new Bravo model also boasts a new record in its shortened development time with the whole project having been carried out by computer simulation, and the first prototypes which are now being tested in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere have actually rolled off the final production line which will spring into full activity early next year. This project is a major step forward for Fiat, and a pointer to all future model developments, and they are now anxious to test the Bravo in all conditions as rigorously as possible.
 

Developed by the Fiat Style Centre in Turin, the exterior design of the new Bravo model is unmistakably ‘Italian’, another step forward in the development of the brand’s new stylistic identity.  The new Bravo seeks to combine a compact five-door body with an extraordinary amount of interior roominess: it is 434 centimetres long, 179 cm wide, and 149 cm high, with a wheelbase of 2.6 metres, and a loading capacity of 400 litres that tops its class. The Bravo aims to be a car of ‘substance’, thanks to an array of technological features and quality standards worthy of a higher class where safety, comfort and driving enjoyment are concerned. It is set to be an agile car that is entertaining to drive in every situation, thanks in part to the wide choice of engines, which include Fiat's popular turbodiesel 1.9 Multijet units (120 bhp and 150 bhp), and the 90 bhp 1.4 16V petrol. These will be complemented by a new family of T-JET petrol engines (120 and 150 bhp 1.4 turbos) that now make their debut, combining low consumption and outstanding performance.