italiaspeed.com

The Fiat 500 is set to thrill the hordes of spectators on the FIA European Rally Championship-counting 35th Croatia Delta Rally later this month when a special rally-prepared version runs as ‘course car’ ahead of the field. And while the Fiat Group will be well represented at the sharp end of the rally action by the title-winning Super2000 Grande Punto Abarth crews, the new small Fiat will also assume an important starring role.

The diminutive car will be in the hands of Sebastijan Bertol who last year impressed fans on the rally when he ran an Alfa GT in the same role. Despite being playing course opening duties and having not rallied competitively for nearly a decade, he set a string of highly impressive times through the fast asphalt stages in the virtually-standard Italian sports car.

During the 35th Croatia Delta Rally (22-24 May), which also counts towards the Croatian and Slovenian Rally Championships, Sebastijan will be reunited with co-driver Goran Jasenko; and with the Fiat 500, in 1.4-litre engine 'Sport' guise, he expects to make a splash once more, and promote the Car of the Year award winner as it arrives on the Croatian market where it is already attracting a lot of interest.

“Last year went very well,” says Sebastijan, “the Alfa GT performed really well and I had a fantastic feeling from it. We ran 300 km of special stages, all very hard, and the car was superb, I think we proved the quality of today’s cars from the Fiat Group.” The Alfa GT was run in almost standard specification, just a few modifications incorporated to give it 194 bhp and 408 Nm of torque. “That car is still running perfectly today,” he adds.

For this year’s edition of the rally the Fiat 500 will also be in relatively standard guise, with just some simple modifications to “make it more interesting” – in Sebastijan’s own words – and to provide the required levels of safety necessary to tackle these demanding stages. The Bertol Automobili-prepared car features a new performance air filter and induction system, a completely new Supersprint exhaust, and its ECU has been remapped in cooperation with Italian tuning house Dimensione Sport. This adds up to give the engine an addition 15 bhp. Thrown into this cocktail a Novitec suspension package, upgraded brakes and 16-in OZ wheels, and the Fiat 500 is ready to catch the spectators’ eyes.

“The additional 15 hp makes quite a difference, it feels much better to drive, and of course the car sounds superb,” says Sebastijan, who has tested the potent little car out in recent days. “The Novitec sports suspension kit has helped increase stability in the curves while the much lighter OZ wheels help acceleration. We have also improved the brakes for better safety as the rally has very long stages which would be too much for the standard ones. Last year we had problems with the tyres because we are running standard roads ones, and this will affect us again this year; in our first tests with the car we are losing grip after about 15 kilometres.”

Sebastijan’s company Bertol Automobili is an official service point for Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia in Croatia and he is a long time enthusiastic proponent of demonstrating the robust quality of Italian cars on the toughest rally tracks. This year he is also being supported by Autocomerce, the official Croatian importer. “I’m delighted that Autocomerce is helping us out,” he adds, “and I think we can repay them by making a really good showing."

The Croatia Delta Rally is the most important motorsports' event in the country, which saw its first motoring club founded over a century ago in 1906. And there is always a huge turn out of passionate fans on the rally every year. “We are a motorsport crazy country,” notes Sebastijan, “And the Croatia Rally is quite simply the biggest event. There has been a lot of interest in the project already from rally fans who are eager to see the 500 tackling the stages-and we certainly won’t be taking it easy-we will be pushing all the way.”

by Edd Ellison