Fiat Bravo Italian style and performance

With the current Fiat Bravo offering great looks form its “has to be Italian styling” and performance from its petrol or diesel engines it easy to forget that there had been a high performance Bravo in the past. The first Fiat Bravo and its sister car the Brava where available from 1995-2001, before being effectively replaced by the Fiat Stilo. Although the SX and HLX versions offer decent performance from their 1.2, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 engines it’s the range topping 2.0i HGT that interest’s performance car fans the most. The HGT offered class leading performance with a certain style and a high level of standard specification. But side skirts and alloy wheels don’t necessarily mean a great car. What the Bravo HGT has under the bonnet does not disappoint though with a 132mph top speed and a 0-60 in around 8 seconds. To increase performance further big bore low restriction exhaust systems are available for all engine sizes. These combined with Bravo performance air filters increase engine power by increasing engine breathing. Power needs control and the HGT has a 4 channel 4 sensor ABS braking system as standard. The handling department was another Bravo high point. The Fiat Bravo has McPherson front struts with offset coil springs, forged steel wishbones and anti roll bars. The rear is taken care of by tie rods connected directly to the body via a rigid frame, with coil springs, anti roll bar and telescopic dampers all to provide excellent handling. Suspension can be improved with the fitting of lowering springs or ideally a full suspension kit which includes four shock absorbers and four lowered ride height coil springs. The Bravo came in lots of body colour options including black, white and enamel red but a HGT in Broom Yellow with grey leather would be my choice.