Fiat releases mad 695 Biposto

Fresh from ditching the practical, proletarian Punto and Panda to focus on cars that are more “emotional”, like the 500 and its borderline ridiculous Abarth versions, Fiat Chrysler Australia has now released the most emotional car in its whole range, the 695 Biposto.

Fiat itself says developing this race car for the road revolved around one single line “Add a drop of madness”, but you’d have to drink at least a pint of the stuff to consider buying one, with a price that starts at $65,000 and quickly rises to $108,000 with a bit of almost compulsory box ticking.

Fiat’s director of marketing and product strategy, Zac Loo, says the company’s experience with the “more rational” Panda and Punto -- an experience best summed up by the phrase “not selling any” -- has taught it some valuable lessons.

In short, it’s best to leave the “functional” side of motoring to the companies that have already got it nailed, the Japanese and Koreans, who focus on things like “quality” and “the more vanilla elements of the car-buying experience.”

FCA is justifiably excited about the trendy and appealing 500X, for which pricing is yet to be announced. Fiat’s product manager Aitezaz Khan says the 500X will gain a wider audience for what he calls the 500 range’s “la dolce vita”.

The 695 Biposto, which looks like a very angry toy and weighs just 997kg, is powered by a racing-spec 1.4-litre turbocharged engine making 140kW and 250Nm, and has been heavily dipped in marketing jargon.

As well as the defining “drop of madness” line, the Biposto is described as “the world’s smallest supercar” and apparently proves that “performance is a state of mind”.

To be fair, it has to be in your mind when your “supercar” has a top speed of just 230km/h and a zero to 100km/h time of 5.9 seconds. There was a time when that was fast, but if you know how to use a computer to read this, you probably don’t remember it.

Fiat is also very keen to talk up the fact that the 695 is the only road-going car in the world with a proper, and probably quite annoying to use, dog ring gearbox.

Unfortunately this racy transmission is not standard, however, and will set you back a staggering $15,000 on top of the already hefty sticker (you also get some carbon bits thrown in, and a mechanical LSD).

Anyone mad enough to stump up that much money will also no doubt be happy to pay $7000 to have their car’s windows thrown in a skip and replaced with lighter polycarbonate ones with sliding panels, which should make summer an absolute joy.

Another $5000 will no doubt go on the 124 Speciale kit, which is basically a nifty looking bonnet and some aluminium caps for your water, fuel and oil entry points.

Obviously, if you’re going Biposto you’ll want to take it racing occasionally so you’ll also want the $7000 Track Kit, with the data logger and admittedly lovely carbon-fibre seats and four-point racing harnesses.

The final dollars in your wallet will be ripped out to pay for the Carbon Kit, which is basically more bits of carbon. None of which will make your car as fast as anything else over six figures.

Khan was keen to point out that, for all that money, you don’t get air-conditioning, a radio, rear seats, any sound deadening material (which is great, because its exhaust is absolutely wonderful) and you can’t option them back in.

He describes the Biposto -- which apparently isn’t named after a postal worker with mental issues -- as “a wonderfully disruptive product, because of the price of admission”.

Remarkably, he’s not pointing out how expensive it is, he’s suggesting there’s nothing else like it at the $65,000 price point. And that is impossible to argue with.

Unsurprisingly, just 14 examples of the Biposto will be coming to Australia, because only a limited number of buyers are emotionally equipped to buy one, or to live with the inherent trickiness of its dog box shifts.