301kW Pogea Ares is the gold standard for pocket rockets.

If you’ve ever wanted a Fiat 500 with more power than a Porsche Cayman GTS, well, there’s some good news for you. German tuning company Pogea have managed to cram 301kW (no that’s not a joke) under the bonnet of a Fiat 500 Abarth and renamed it the Pogea Ares- ‘the ultimate asphalt warrier’.

It comes with a carbon fibre wide-body it and 0-100kmh time of just 4.7 seconds. ”In order to realize this project, hardly a screw remained untouched over the four years of development” said company founder Eduard Pogea. “I only considered the most competent suppliers and developers. “Without the support of Michelin, Glasurit, and in particular the Italian Abarth engineer Enrico Scaravelli from SCARA73, the Ares would not have been realized.”

Powering the little beast is 1.4L turbocharged engine producing 444 Nm of torque and the aforementioned 301kW, compared to the standard Abarth’s figures of 230 Nm and 120 kW. Ares is good for a whopping 290 km/h  and it looks awesome, sporting a carbon fibre bonnet, mirror caps, bumpers and a roof spoiler. How they managed to squeeze that much power out of a 1.4 is beyond belief, and whether the setup will be reliable, that too, remains to be seen.

Unfortunately, Pogea only plans to make 5 examples of Ares. As far as I’m concerned, every Fiat 500 in existence should be replaced with this. Pogea Ares is going to be marketed at around the R850 000 mark, which is an awful lot of money to spend on a Fiat 500 (even one with 301 kW).