A trip all the way to Reading in the over-congested south-east, merely to drive not a new car but a new engine in a familiar car, is not something guaranteed to excite me.
But having returned from the launch of the Fiat 500 TwinAir, I think I might just have been in on something a little bit historic.
The TwinAir is not merely some marketing-led twist on the Multijet/Multiair call-it-what-you-will names that Fiat plasters on its engines these days.
But having returned from the launch of the Fiat 500 TwinAir, I think I might just have been in on something a little bit historic.
The TwinAir is not merely some marketing-led twist on the Multijet/Multiair call-it-what-you-will names that Fiat plasters on its engines these days.
No, this is a clean-sheet design, a two-cylinder (yes two…) petrol unit weighing in at 85kg, and around 23 per cent smaller than the 1.2 motor that is currently the best–seller in the Fiat 500 lineup.
These attributes make the newcomer a perfect candidate for any future Fiat adventures in hybrid technology.
The best is yet to come, however. The TwinAir offers 85bhp and 107lbft of torque. That’s respectively 23 and getting on for 30 per cent better than the 1.2.
Yet it does this while returning fuel economy and emissions figures 15 per cent better than its bigger brother.
Crucially that TwinAir emissions figure is 95g/km – or 92 if you choose the Duologic version with its ‘robotised’ gearbox instead of the five-speed manual. Both figures are well into free road tax territory.
The secret to this cleanliness is Fiat’s MultiAir technology, a system which finely controls the air entering the engine through the inlet valves, not the throttle valve.
Individual cylinders and ignition cycles are monitored and their airflow adjusted accordingly, eliminating pumping losses and cutting emissions. Adding a turbo boosts the torque and mixes in a useful dose of flexibility.
You might still be thinking, however, that slicing off a cylinder to create such a small engine – and it is tiny – would produce a pretty gutless performance. Well you would be wrong.
Granted, the TwinAir responds best to keen application of revs, and there are times when it demands first gear when other cars would be happy with second.
But you soon adjust accordingly and in return are served up a spirited performance that very much matches the fun factor credentials of the 500.
The TwinAir range can be had in both hatch and coupe-cabriolet variants at prices starting from £10,665 and £13,665 respectively. There’s the same plentiful options list as on other 500s, but some pretty useful standard stuff too, not least the gearshift indicator, stop-start technology and torque-cutting Eco button that further aids fuel economy.
More TwinAirs are on the way. There will soon be a 65bhp normally-aspirated version, and a 105bhp turbo. And I’ll bet they won’t be the end of the story
So why historic? Well Fiat reckons that in the TwinAir it has the cleanest mass-produced petrol engine in the world.
Back in 1997 the Italians made similar claims when launching the common rail into the diesel market. Today just about every diesel on the market uses a development of that common rail technology . . .
By Andrew Charman
These attributes make the newcomer a perfect candidate for any future Fiat adventures in hybrid technology.
The best is yet to come, however. The TwinAir offers 85bhp and 107lbft of torque. That’s respectively 23 and getting on for 30 per cent better than the 1.2.
Yet it does this while returning fuel economy and emissions figures 15 per cent better than its bigger brother.
Crucially that TwinAir emissions figure is 95g/km – or 92 if you choose the Duologic version with its ‘robotised’ gearbox instead of the five-speed manual. Both figures are well into free road tax territory.
The secret to this cleanliness is Fiat’s MultiAir technology, a system which finely controls the air entering the engine through the inlet valves, not the throttle valve.
Individual cylinders and ignition cycles are monitored and their airflow adjusted accordingly, eliminating pumping losses and cutting emissions. Adding a turbo boosts the torque and mixes in a useful dose of flexibility.
You might still be thinking, however, that slicing off a cylinder to create such a small engine – and it is tiny – would produce a pretty gutless performance. Well you would be wrong.
Granted, the TwinAir responds best to keen application of revs, and there are times when it demands first gear when other cars would be happy with second.
But you soon adjust accordingly and in return are served up a spirited performance that very much matches the fun factor credentials of the 500.
The TwinAir range can be had in both hatch and coupe-cabriolet variants at prices starting from £10,665 and £13,665 respectively. There’s the same plentiful options list as on other 500s, but some pretty useful standard stuff too, not least the gearshift indicator, stop-start technology and torque-cutting Eco button that further aids fuel economy.
More TwinAirs are on the way. There will soon be a 65bhp normally-aspirated version, and a 105bhp turbo. And I’ll bet they won’t be the end of the story
So why historic? Well Fiat reckons that in the TwinAir it has the cleanest mass-produced petrol engine in the world.
Back in 1997 the Italians made similar claims when launching the common rail into the diesel market. Today just about every diesel on the market uses a development of that common rail technology . . .
By Andrew Charman
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