2012 Fiat 500 Stinger by Mopar to Debut at Chicago Auto Show

While its primary business is offering replacement parts and fluids for Chrysler products, Mopar is of course best known among enthusiasts for peddling performance add-ons for brands such as Plymouth, Dodge, Jeep—and now, Fiat. This Mopar-fettled Fiat 500 Stinger, which showcases parts and mods available in the brand's catalog, debuts at next week's Chicago auto show. The mods made to the Cinquecento are pretty standard fare when considered against Mopar cars of late. Like the Dodge Challenger 392 and Charger Super Bee with Stinger Yellow paint, this 500 is also yellow. Somewhat nonsensically, though, the paint on the Fiat 500 Stinger is simply called Giallo—that's "yellow" in Italian. (They couldn't have at least gone with Spina Giallo?) Other cosmetic changes from a standard 500 include black chrome around the headlights, 17-inch Abarth Hyper Black wheels, and tinted headlamp and taillight lenses. Inside, the 500 Stinger is spruced up with a black and yellow interior scheme, as well as faux suede seat inserts, a slice of carbon fiber on the dash, and a Mopar shift knob. We figured the "Stage 2″ version of the Fiat 500 Stinger would amp up the performance. On paper, however, things aren't promising. The only changes to the standard 500 are the addition of a cold-air intake and a freer-flowing cat-back exhaust for the 1.4-liter four; Fiat promises these mods will "deliver even more power and torque" than the standard 101 hp and 98 lb-ft. We're thinking the increases are likely in the low-single-digit range. Considering Fiat already has its own in-house tuning division in Abarth, this 500 is a little perplexing, although the fact that all of the parts are available via Mopar is kind of cool, we guess. That said, we think we'd just wait for the real hotted-up Fiat 500, the 160-hp Abarth. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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