PUNTO WELL MADE

A stock Abarth Punto makes 145 bhp. This car's owner thought that was chump change, and he did something about it

- Pablo Chaterji

I can't say with certainty whether the driver of the BMW 3 Series tailgating me on the highway was from Delhi or not (a lot of the loutish driving behaviour on display in Goa these days is by DL and HR cars - sorry not sorry); I wasn't really focussing on the car's number plate, and was more concerned about the fact that he appeared to want to drive the Beemer into my rear seat. What I can virtually guarantee is that when I decided I'd had enough of him and floored it, his pea-sized brain would not have had the time (or ability) to comprehend what happened next, which was me disappearing into the horizon with a ferocity usually reserved for litre-class superbikes, accompanied by a hornets-nest soundtrack. I must confess that I laughed out loud, and then for good measure streamed some Delhi-style epithets at the dumbfounded half-wit who was now roughly 2 km behind me, tailgating thin air.

Now, 3 Series owners usually don't expect to lose roll-on acceleration runs, but part of the reason the fellow would have been in deluxe shock was the sight of a 7-year-old Fiat Punto caning his posterior so comprehensively. This car is no ordinary 7-year-old Fiat Punto, however. The scorpion badge on the gate that he was trying to tail should have been his first clue that he had picked the wrong fight. This is an Abarth Punto, which in stock form put out 145 bhp and 21.5 kgm of torque via its 1.4-litre turbo-petrol, back in the day, and which would have been enough to give him a proper scare. In keeping with the 'no ordinary' theme, it's no plain-vanilla Abarth either, due to the fact that its innards have been massaged to produce 240 bhp at the crank, alongside 33.6 kgm, in a car that weighs just over a tonne. With that kind of power-to-weight ratio, it's no wonder the Beemer got... well, ratio'd.