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Of course the more cynical of you will be asking how the hell do you put 220bhp through the front wheels without producing clouds of rubber smoke as the front tyres simply lose traction, and the answer must be that you can't. At lest not without the help of traction control. In the Coupe this is limited to the ECU selecting lower boost in first and second gear, and a viscous coupling that balances left and right tyres as they scrabble for grip.

And scrabble for grip they do, although the news is not all that bad. Older Italian front drivers, particularly the Alfa 164 would produce huge amounts of torque steer on hard acceleration as the suspension on each side loaded up under tension and then relaxed, making the tyres, and the steering wheel writhe in your hands. If, or more often when the Coupe breaks traction, there's no torque steer at all, the wheel stays straight, and the only reason you're not going anywhere is because your right foot is far too heavy.Once you're moving the engine supplies nothing but huge slugs of thrust, accompanied by a throaty five cylinder soundtrack that cuts neatly between that of an Audi Quatro five cylinder engine and a Subaru WRXs flat four. There is turbo lag, but it's easily avoided by keeping the revs up a little higher by selecting one gear lower than you would normally use. It's no hardship to do this, as the five cylinder engine joins that long line of Italian powerhouses that sound better the faster they are working.

While the standard stereo sounds good, it's an ergonomic disaster, with fiddly buttons and incomprehensible markings. You even have to read the manual to see how to turn the thing off. Azzurra Motor Group, NZ Fiat importers are intending to fit different stereos into Fiat Coupes.

While there's not much room in the rear of the Coupe there's still more than in most other coupes. There's sufficient legroom for anyone under six foot tall, but the slopping rear roofline takes a huge chunk out of potential headroom. If the sloping roofline dictates a cramped interior, it allows for a large boot. It's not all that deep but it is wide and extends forward far enough to swallow a fair chunk of luggage.

 The first Fiat Coupe was a sensation when it was launched, and this new version improves the car by a substantial margin. It's not only that the turbo provides more boost than a room full of Wonderbras, but that the handling can be so sharp and yet the car remain so forgiving that all of the engine's performance is readily accessible. With the recent tariff cuts on imported cars still causing uncertainty, Azzurra Motor Group has declared the car POA only, but the buzz around town is that several dealers have 20valve Coupe Turbos at around the $75,000 mark. That may seem a tad expensive initially, but factor in the looks, exclusivity, performance, and just plain down to earth involvement that the car positively encourages and it may well seem a bargain next to a BMW or Audi coupe.

Specifications