Michael Schumacher was undoubtedly the most succesful Formula One driver ever and to celebrate this, Fiat (who own a large chunk of Ferrari) decided a commerative model would be launched.
Schumacher had a major part to play in the development of the Ferrari F430, so you would have thought this might have been a good choice to say thank you to their best employee.
No, Fiat decided that they would use a Fiat Stilo. Hmm, odd choice, not exactly the car that springs to mind when deciding which car should bear the great man's signature.
The basic idea was to take a humble Fiat Stilo paint it with actual Ferrari paint and change a few specs on the car and sell a limited number of them. Fair enough, but different countries chose different models to base their 'special edition' on. Some even chose the five door version. Luckily for us, Fiat UK used the Fiat Stilo Abarth for the donor car.
The UK car had the 2.4ltr 5 cylinder engine which produces 170 bhp. They put a Zender bodykit on the car, changed the interior slightly and painted the car Ferrari red, it is the same colour as the F430.
It is by no means a quick car, 0-62mph is around 8 secs and a top speed of about 135mph. But what this car is, is a decent GT car. Very comfortable to cruise along on long journeys with plenty of grunt for overtaking when the need arises.
On long journeys the fuel consumption reaches around 32mpg, but if your pottering around town you'll be lucky to see the good side of 23mpg. the car uses a lot of oil, 1ltr per 1000 miles, so you need to keep a check on that, although the car does have a lot of engine monitors which will let you know early enough if you forget to top up.
The car is a head turner, people stare as you drive by and when parked up you see them trying to look for the badge to see what it is.
For me though, I think Fiat missed a great PR opportunity when they decided to launch this variation of the Stilo. With their Ferrari colleagues, I would have thought that they would have made an engine fitting of the Schumacher name, The Abarth engine is a good one, but a Stilo with a Ferrari designed/tuned engine along with a better interior would have been a more fitting tribute to the seven times World Champion.
Fiat Uk recognised this and for £1000 added to the list price, you could have the car with lowered suspension, 18" wheels and a twin DTM style rear exhaust silencer. For me that isn't really worth it. On British roads and especially in town the standard car is better suited to life with multi story car parks and traffic calming.
Summary
A very good car for very little money, looks just as good as it's twice as expensive rivals and has more features.
Schumacher had a major part to play in the development of the Ferrari F430, so you would have thought this might have been a good choice to say thank you to their best employee.
No, Fiat decided that they would use a Fiat Stilo. Hmm, odd choice, not exactly the car that springs to mind when deciding which car should bear the great man's signature.
The basic idea was to take a humble Fiat Stilo paint it with actual Ferrari paint and change a few specs on the car and sell a limited number of them. Fair enough, but different countries chose different models to base their 'special edition' on. Some even chose the five door version. Luckily for us, Fiat UK used the Fiat Stilo Abarth for the donor car.
The UK car had the 2.4ltr 5 cylinder engine which produces 170 bhp. They put a Zender bodykit on the car, changed the interior slightly and painted the car Ferrari red, it is the same colour as the F430.
It is by no means a quick car, 0-62mph is around 8 secs and a top speed of about 135mph. But what this car is, is a decent GT car. Very comfortable to cruise along on long journeys with plenty of grunt for overtaking when the need arises.
On long journeys the fuel consumption reaches around 32mpg, but if your pottering around town you'll be lucky to see the good side of 23mpg. the car uses a lot of oil, 1ltr per 1000 miles, so you need to keep a check on that, although the car does have a lot of engine monitors which will let you know early enough if you forget to top up.
The car is a head turner, people stare as you drive by and when parked up you see them trying to look for the badge to see what it is.
For me though, I think Fiat missed a great PR opportunity when they decided to launch this variation of the Stilo. With their Ferrari colleagues, I would have thought that they would have made an engine fitting of the Schumacher name, The Abarth engine is a good one, but a Stilo with a Ferrari designed/tuned engine along with a better interior would have been a more fitting tribute to the seven times World Champion.
Fiat Uk recognised this and for £1000 added to the list price, you could have the car with lowered suspension, 18" wheels and a twin DTM style rear exhaust silencer. For me that isn't really worth it. On British roads and especially in town the standard car is better suited to life with multi story car parks and traffic calming.
Summary
A very good car for very little money, looks just as good as it's twice as expensive rivals and has more features.
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