Engine + Turbo = Fun Fun Fun

After ten years of doom and gloom the 1.4 T-jet engine has put the Fun back in FIAT. The Bravo is to Fiat what the Focus is to Ford; an all round family car. Its wonderfully curvaceous rear adds elegance to your everyday traffic. Fiat have really worked hard making the diesel and small petrol engines in their range really environmentally friendly, which is nice but the thing everyone secretly craves is power. The best model is obviously the fastest and most powerful - the 1.4 T-Jet 150 sport. The science behind it shows that emissions can be cut by using smaller turbocharged instead of big heavy petrol drinking V6 engines.

The only downside is the engine name "T-Jet", the T stands for Turbocharged, which I feel Fiat are ashamed of. Iconic turbos include the Porsche 911, the Renault 5 Turbo, the Bentley Turbo and various Saab Turbo models. In the eighties and nineties car companies fitted turbochargers to all sorts of vehicles, it gave them huge amounts of power and made them go like feces off a shovel. At the time the word turbo turned into a household brand which subsequently lead to the overuse of the term; things like turbo whisks, and turbo irons and turbo blenders started to appear in every house. Alas, nowadays it is no longer acceptable to associate cars with their gas guzzling sports turbocharged ancestors. The car industry has prevented any association with the word turbo by disguising it as a T, but don't tell a soul - it might cause a drop in car sales.

Back to the Bravo, if you look very carefully you notice the subtle sporty features which include 17" alloys as standard (unlike like Roman's BMW 3 series), twin exhaust pipes and beautiful black leather with red stitched sport seats (a must have extra). Inside it has bluetooth handsfree, and a USB port for data communication between your stereo and your digital media device. The main bad point is the lack of leg room in the back; I suffer from the well known Italian shortness syndrome, but I didn't realise Fiat's target market are passengers who no longer require the usage of their legs (which can be easily removed if you move the front seats far back enough whilst the passengers sit in the rear). 

All of that aside, the best thing about the Bravo 1.4 T-jet is is the SPORT button: its the closed thing you'll get to maximum warp on the school run. You simply touch the throttle and after the short calm before the storm*, the steering becomes harder and you are propelled into what seems another dimension. Maybe that was a touch on the enthusiastic side but it does make a boring car journey to the shops seem really fun. If you don't have a family or just don't like the look of the Fiat bravo, more powerful, suped up versions of the 1.4 T-jet are available in the Abarth 500 SS and Alfa Romeo Mi.To.

Stars: 6

*The geeks among you will understand that this momentary pause is called turbo lag, which isn't supposed to be a good thing but its not a Nissan GTR so who cares.

Franco