Performance Parts & Engineering

Team Fiat Abarth Motorsport achieved the goal it set out to achieve at the Bathurst 12 Hour — get to the finish. But it was the PPE-prepared Abarth 695 Assetto Corse’s pace that perhaps surprised more.

After a tumultuous week which saw the three team cars qualify for the endurance epic, Paul Stokell in Abarth 95 and Luke Youlden in number 96 took the dawn rolling start in 35^th and 36^th positions respectively, the third team car 59 starting 40^th in the hands of Matt Campbell. Stokell and Youlden qualified in the low 2min31sec bracket, besting a BMW 335i, Subaru Impreza WRX STi and even a Seat Leon Supercopa.

After parking the 59 car (it returned to the circuit for the finish) early it was Stokell and Youlden in the limelight double-stinting their Abarths in unison with a consistent race pace in the 2min32sec bracket before the heat took over. As if demonstrating how easy both cars and drivers were doing it, both dipped into the 2min31sec range to close out their stints.

From that point, the driver/journalists took over, Toby Hagon in 95, Paul Gover in 96, the tyres on both cars looking little worn.

As the afternoon wore on and the remaining drivers cycled through (Josh Dowling and Clyde Campbell in 95, Greg Hede and Mike Sinclair in 96) the little PPE Abarth pocket rockets continued to storm around, needing only routine maintenance and one set of brakes each throughout the enduro.

By the ninth hour the mood had slowly eased in the pits, the 96 car now 19^th outright, 95 in 22^nd place. It was time for the home stretch.

PPE boss Alan Heaphy even had time for a quick quote:  “Both 95 and 96 have run without major issue since the start, and they’ve importantly kept their noses clean. Both cars have had brake changes as well as routine tyre servicing, but the rest has been simple: Check the fluids and go.

“Unfortunately a safety car put the 95 car back. It was second on the road for a restart, so I decided to pull the car through pitlane to avoid any potential incidents on the restart.”

The Bosch Collision Avoidance System was also playing its part, revealing what was going on behind the Abarths as the quicker cars came through. Put simply, it’s the future of motorsport safety.

For the finale, Car 59 was able to rejoin the circuit to take the chequered flag, to make a three-wide formation finish for the Abarth team.

As dusk approached at the end of another hot day, in and out of the cars, the final results came up: Car 96 completed 243 laps, or over 1500kms, in the 12 Hours to finish 18^th outright and first in Class F. Car 95 finished 236 laps for 22^nd outright and second in class.

The PPE-prepared Fiats had run basically without fault, and were quicker than even Heaphy expected.

Running comparable lap times to the Class D Subaru Impreza STi and BMW 335i in both qualifying and race trims proved that the feisty Abarths could cut it on the mightiest Mountain of all.