If you’ve been dying to own a Ferrari but have no financial means of getting one, we may have found just the car for you. While the Fiat Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari isn’t exactly a prancing horse in disguise, the car, which is a limited-edition Fiat 500 in real life, does pay tribute to its supercar brethren.

As we’ve said, the car isn’t brimming with horsepower underneath its hood but the Abarth 695 Tributo does pack quite a mean punch, relative to its size, of course. It’s 1.4-liter turbocharged T-Jet engine is more than what its counterpart the Toyota IQ-inspired Aston Martin Cygnet can boast of. Likewise, Abarth and Ferrari technicians joined forces in making the car and strengthening its suspension and braking system to make it sturdier and as a result of the added power. The car has also been outfitted with performance-enhanced and Ferrari-designed 17-inch alloy wheels. This special-edition vehicle also comes with unique features including carbon fiber door mirrors and Xenon headlights, which, if you’re curious to know, are three times brighter than its halogen counterparts.

The Fiat Punto Evo, the evolution of the Grande Punto, will make its debut at the next Frankfurt Motor Show. It is destined to repeat the success of its predecessor and become the new pacesetter for innovation, safety and style, thanks to its many innovative features.

The epithet “Evo” identifies a level of car design that is capable of satisfying even the most demanding customers in terms of technology, driving pleasure and respect for the environment.

The Punto Evo expresses its technical excellence first and foremost through a wide choice of Euro 5 engines, including a 1.3 second generation Multijet diesel and a 1.4 petrol engine with the revolutionary MultiAir technology developed by Fiat Powertrain Technologies and eventually to be incorporated in all Fiat Group engines. Fiat’s innovative and conventional powerplants are also joined by dual-fuel methane and petrol units to create the most complete and ecological range of engines in the segment. With reduced consumption and emissions in mind, the new Punto Evo also offers Start&Stop, the system that switches off and restarts the engine in stop-and-go traffic. Start&Stop is being introduced as standard on all Euro5 petrol and diesel engines. Another system making its first appearance on the Punto Evo is “Blue&Me–TomTom”, the new portable satellite navigation unit that lets you manage telephone, navigation and information functions on a practical colour touch-screen.

A combination of beauty and functionality, shape and content, exclusive Italian style matched with technological innovation: this is the special edition Bravo MSN Edition, the latest addition to the Fiat medium-sized car family which has proven extremely popular among the public in Italy and marks a further chapter in the collaboration between two industrial leader like Microsoft and Fiat Group Automobiles. Over the last few years, this collaboration has led to the launch of Blue&Me (a device which allows you to listen to music on several types of MP3 players, to phone hands free, to scroll down names in your phonebook and receive text messages, all with Bluetooth without ever taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road) as well as Eco:Drive, which analyses your driving style to improve it and reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. From today – with the contribution of Magneti Marelli, another company that excels in automotive technology – the Bravo MSN Edition is also available with the new on-board Instant Nav which combines a satellite navigator with maps on SD Card, a radio, a CD player and an Mp3 player, integrated with Blue&Me, in a single device (exact and quickly updated) built into the dashboard.

Fiat 500 makes headlines once more, as befits an authentic Made in Italy icon. This time it’s an original Fiat 500 show car dedicated to the most famous fashion doll ever: Barbie®. This exceptional vehicle, created by a partnership between the Fiat Centro Stile and Mattel, will be given officially to Barbie® on 9 March next, at her fiftieth birthday celebrations in Milan.

It’s a fashionista car but quite tongue-in-cheek and with lots of charm: just like Barbie® herself. The gleaming paintwork resembles varnish and definitely makes for a shock effect, achieved with deep lacquered colour using ultra fine aluminium plunged in deep, up-to-the-minute pink. The seating is upholstered in strikingly soft fabrics: silver laminated Alcantara® is not only trendy but plush to the touch and its glimmer bounces as far as the roof panel. Then there are mats enhanced with natural silk yarn and sleek viscose, not to mention lip glosses in brilliant colours stored in the glove compartment, plus a LED-decked vanity mirror to ensure perfect application. And there’s more. The car has more features than a crown has jewels! Crystals sparkle on interior bezels, hubcaps, outer window mouldings and antenna and even outline the doll’s famed silhouette on the pillars. Lastly, this Fiat 500 show car also has its own glossy cover, featuring the distinctive Sixties version of the Fiat 500 and a Barbie® autograph.

Fiat proudly presents the Grande Punto Natural Power, a new dual fuel (petrol/methane) version that confirms the brand’s commitment to the field of environmental protection. This substantial commitment is reflected by Fiat’s indisputable leadership in the field of cars with methane engines as original equipment (OEM): during the period January-August 2008 some 43,000 methane-driven Fiat vehicles were sold in Italy compared with 33,000 during the same period in 2007.

We should not forget that Fiat is the first and only manufacturer to offer, in its “Natural Power” range, a wide array of vehicles with methane-petrol dual fuel systems able to meet the mobility requirement of an extensive category of users: Multipla Natural Power, Punto Natural Power, Panda Panda Natural Power, Panda Panda Climbing Natural Power and Doblò Natural Power. Now comes the turn of the Grande Punto Natural Power, a new dual fuel car that sets standards of absolute excellence in several areas.

On 28 September, Singapore will host the first ever night-time Grand Prix event in the history of Formula 1. As a taster to the exceptional event, a “500 Drive” will take place on 27 September, before the GP qualifying rounds. This will involve 12 Fiat 500 “F1TM Limited Edition” cars being driven round the same track by celebrities.

The drivers on board the special cars will complete a few laps of the brand-new circuit, a 5.067km stretch along the floodlit roads of Singapore.

Lorenzo Sistino, Managing Director of Fiat Automobiles had this to say: «The Fiat 500 is now sold in 57 countries and has won more than 250,000 orders since its launch last year. Not to mention the fact that 50% of its customers chose it without considering other models.

The Paris show hosts the world premiere of the new PUR-O2 line that will be available on the 500, Croma and Bravo from November. This select group of versions is at the cutting edge of the international automotive scenario due to their high-tech content, low fuel consumption and low CO2 emission levels. The result has been achieved by the introduction of special systems and devices such as the innovative Eco Drive, the new ‘Start&Stop’ device developed by Bosch and special Eco Packs that include green tyres, low-viscosity fluids, aerodynamic packages and gearboxes with modified ratios.

The new PUR-O2 line confirms Fiat’s wish to develop more and more new products as part of its quest for innovative solutions to contain polluting emissions and CO2 levels. Fiat is incidentally one of the motoring brands providing the best response to the need to limit the impact of transport on the environment. The company JATO – world leader in automotive research and consulting, set up in 1984 and present in more than 40 countries – recently announced that, out of the ten biggest selling automobile brands in Europe, Fiat Automobiles is the brand that achieved the lowest average CO2 emissions value for the cars it sold in 2007, i.e 134.6 g/km. And more, again in 2007, the CO2 emissions of no fewer than 23% of the cars sold by Fiat were lower than 120 g/km and 67% of Fiat cars achieved a level of less than or equal to 140 g/km.