61 BULBS, TURBOS AND AI...

I had a productive day yesterday. I got home to find that a headlight bulb had gone, instantly sending me into a spiral. I worried that the car had a broader electrical issue, which is why the last owner got shut off it. After a trip to Halfords and a set of 200% brighter bulbs, it was clear that the filament had just gone. Phew.

I then visited the outlaws and caught up with my unofficial website technical adviser, Tommy, who helped me optimise this little site for Google: many thanks, mate. I can sleep better now that those last couple of reds are green! 

He also introduced me to Midjourney, a mad A.I. image creation site. Enter your parameters, press go, and it creates unique images. We asked it to knock up a Martini Racing Abarth 500 hurtling through the Swiss Alps, and it dutifully created an image. It wasn’t close to what we wanted, but it sent us down a rabbit hole until we had the picture in this post, which is frankly boss, I reckon.

Finally, we went out for a little blast in Abbie. Tommy asked whether the SPORT button was there for show. I pressed it, and we hurtled towards the horizon. He then knew it was for real!!!  

He mentioned something that I hadn’t thought of about the turbo. He has driven turbo diesels in the past and commented how quickly they run out of boost, but the Abarth just kept pulling. It is true. The turbo works right up to the red line instead of in a narrow band like on the diesels. Keep the revs up, and the car keeps going.

He also mentioned how bouncy the ride was.  This has always been a bit of an Achilles Heel for the Fiat 500 and the Abarth.  Because the wheelbase is so short, even little bumps sometimes make the car feel like it is on a trampoline.  It is one of the quirks of the vehicle that I love.