My Cinq Turbo (now gone to a new home)

This is one of my old cars that I sadley sold last year and is now in the tender loving care of a nice you lady in Scotland who is continuing the evlution after finding that this car was actually more fun than her lotus Elise



The car started life as a standard 1108cc Cinquecento Sporting with only 54bhp & 60lb ft, but was originally converted to a Hi Boost Turbo by VAD back in 1999 by a previous owner at a cost of over £3200. Since then though the engine was completely rebuilt about 2 years ago with many custom parts detailed below and is now is a completely different car. The last time the car was on a rolling road it produced 110bhp at the wheels (134BHP at the crank) and 134lb ft! The car has also has done simulated 0-60 times on the RR in the low 6 seconds. So this really is one of the fastest Cinquecento on the planet!

The current specification is:

Garret GT15 turbo on custom manifold; new turbo which was modified to have a flat surface for nuts to sit against, purchased Aug 2006 only covered about 9K since then

VAD custom intercooler, with custom silicone pipework.

Custom plenum chamber fed via a stainless steel solid boost pipe fitted with a Greddy diaphragm dump valve. The Plenum has a "green" Bosch 2nd injector fitted to provide the fuelling “on boost” this is controlled with an Aquamist MF2 3D mappable injector driver.

The intake system including the filter has been moved to inside wheel arch to ensure cold air intake and least restrictive pipe run. This was always a problem on standard VAD set up with filter in engine bay.



The fuel system was changed to include an up-rated Walbro fuel pump from a MK5 Escort RS2000.

SARD fuel pressure regulator and new fuel line plumbing to ensure 2nd injector gets 3bar of fuel pressure.

40mm “Tricker” throttle body.

Mahle custom oversize dished pistons, these give better squelch than VAD machined flat Fiat pistons. The engine was completely rebuilt including new bearings, shells etc when these were fitted the car was also re-bored to +1 at the same time meaning it is now actually ~1130cc.

Exhaust Manifold was modified to remove central partition as this over time deteriorates and can break off sending bits into turbo and destroying it. Currently this is also heat wrapped to keep down under bonnet temperatures and to increase gas speed for minimal turbo lag

Earls 115mm 10row oil cooler with remote oil filter housing with finned filter cooler to keep check of oil temps.

Ported & polished head with matched better flowing Uno inlet manifold, Pnto 75 cam with piper vernier cam pulley

Custom “Zorstec” 304 stainless steel straight through exhaust, 2” internal diameter from the turbo back. The exhaust is fitted with two Lambda bosses and an EGT boss. The exhaust is fully TIG welded and extremely free flowing as is required in a Turbo application.

200mm Stilo flywheel and clutch made by AP which is essential to put down the additional power and transmit the torque.

Alloy oil catch tank connected to the cam cover but also the car has an adapted sump with an additional breather that is also connected into the catch can.

The car currently has a Greddy Profec e-01 electronic boost controller this is one of the best controllers available anywhere, it has numerous features to both control and increase the boost pressure whilst also cutting the boost to protect the engine based on sensor inputs. It displays additional information on the LCD screen mounted in the ashtray that can be hidden away when the car is parked.



Innovate LC-1 wide band lambda controller and sensor fitted so you can keep a close eye on the all important Air fuel ratio’s. These two items together allow the car to safely run up to 1.3bar of boost and it probably will run more if you are brave enough.


Weitec Sports suspension kit, matched shocks and springs which lowers car 40mm and vastly improves the road holding but still has a compliant ride and clears most speed bumps.

Eibach front anti-roll bar, these are no longer available and very hard to find now.

EIbach Front strut brace

Punto GT front brake conversion using the late model ATE spec big pad callipers includes 257mm vented, drilled and grooved, Torox sport Japan disc’s and stainless braided flexible lines

FIAT Uno Turbo rear disc conversion includes 227mm solid rear drilled and grooved Tarox sport Japan discs, with stainless braided flexible lines. The callipers were fully refurbished 2 years ago and have done little mileage since. This also means a hand break that actually works!



Abarth rear spoiler, this has suffered some lacquer peeling, hard to notice once polished.

Abarth style side skirts and kick plates.

Abarth rear bumper

Front bumper is the standard style and has had all the slats individually cut out to ensure the intercooler and oil cooler get a good cold air flow

Door pillars have black vinyl now so gives sleeker more modern look to side profile.

Seicento door mirrors.

OZ racing F1 Evo Cup 14" wheels with 195/45/14 tyres Toyo T1-R on the rear and Uniroyal rain sports on the front.

The car has also a Full Fiat stud conversion as per Seicento Abarth models including 10mm front spacers.

Tim oil temperature, pressure and turbo boost gauges fitted where central air vent was.

MOMO Race steering wheel with D2 snap-on boss so the wheel can be removed from the car for extra security.

Thatcham category 1 alarm immobiliser system with remote central locking

Recaro seats from a Suzuki Ignis Sport custom floor mounts and matching rear yellow "fishnet" headrests.



Sony MP3 CD player with 6 speakers, the rear speakers are powered by a separate Kenwood power amplifier and there are an additional set of speakers mounted in custom rear side pods.

I have receipst for the original turbo conversion that was in excess of £3200. The value of all the receipts in total must be well over £10,000 which gives a good indication that the car has been built and maintained regardless of cost.

Also sold with the car but not fitted was a custom Quaife limited slip “Torsen” differential 1 of only 20 made

There she is! i love this car, it was a great pleasure to do the head gasket on it haha. glad it went to a good home, should soon be seeing over the bhp this was running on mine so it will be interesting to see what it goes like.Im still amazed at how differnt mine and yours were, two totaly differnt cars,,,,id have to take you out in it again since ive been playing so you can see what its like these days

welcome to the forum martin

jason

1250cinqturbo (ADMIN) wrote:should soon be seeing over the bhp this was running on mine so it will be interesting to see what it goes like.Im still amazed at how differnt mine and yours were, two totaly differnt cars,,,,id have to take you out in it again since ive been playing so you can see what its like these days

welcome to the forum martin

jason

Ah but you need more capacity to do it

Look forward to seeing yours again I am missing centodom a bit

Such a shame you've got rid but iv'e seen it in the flesh and it's such a nice example of neat modifying

Cit C2 VTS wrote:Such a shame you've got rid but iv'e seen it in the flesh and it's such a nice example of neat modifying

also ryan we only ever went in it running under half its max boost of 1.3 bar!

jason

Martin the Garrett T15 used on the High boost vanaaken cars......was it the GT1544, 44mm , 56 trim???

jason

I honestly can't remember and I don't have the paperwork for the car any more so can't look.

I do remember that Aaron (J333EVO) posted quite a bit of info including part numbers over on Fiat forum might be worth looking there

Hay up m8. I remember wen i saw the little monster, it was a top car! bet u were sad when u had
sold it! but yet again u had a gr8 car and it looked amazin m8

Fishy