Abarth 124 Spider Priced from £29,565 in Britain, Listen to It Growl

Priced from £29,565, the hardcore version of the little Italian roadster seem a tad expensive. That's especially true if you look at it purely from a performance point of view.

This model features a re-tuned version of the 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 170 hp, 30 more than the standard model.

Today, we are going to focus a little bit on the aural aspect of the car. Jalopnik got invited to the U.S. launch of the car, which is happening a little sooner, and filmed this clip of the exhaust sound. We think that you will agree the four pipes make a much better orchestra, and you can barely hear the rattle of the injection system.

Performance-wise, the UK-spec Abarth goes from 0 to 62mph in 6.8 seconds and tops out at 143 mph. So what else could you buy for that kind of money? A lot more performance for one thing. There are plenty of powerful hot hatchbacks available, such as the Honda Civic Type R and SEAT Leon Cupra.

And there is also the original Mazda MX-5, which you can buy with a 160 hp 2-liter engine from £21,165. It gets to 62 in 7.3 seconds, so it's a little slower, but the naturally aspirated engine is a bonus.

The extra cash is justified by Abarth through its numerous add-on features. These include a short-shift six-speed manual or the automatic Sequenziale Sportivo gearbox, Record Monza exhaust system, and three-gauge instrument binnacle. The interior is very similar to that of the Mazda, but you do get Italian leather and custom badges.

The Abarth 124 Spider also comes with its own unique design thanks to some paintjobs, including solid “Turini 1975 White” and “Costa Brava 1972 Red”, metallic “Isola d’Elba 1974 Blue”, “Portogallo 1974 Grey” and “San Marino 1972 Black”.