Abarth Performance Specialist

05/05/2026

A small update as far as current conditions, health is finally improving and the return to work is looking promising 🤞🏻 been a very long recovery but thankful to say I'm on the mend 👍🏻

Thank you for all the kind messages 🫶🏻

Looking forward to getting back into it and resuming normal routines 👍🏻

13/04/2026

Unfortunately been offline due to falling ill, I'll get back to people and messages when I'm back on my feet 👍🏻👍🏻

25/03/2026

So, let's talk about the new Garrett Powermax Hybrid Gt1446 turbo 🤔

Finally managed to get my hands on one thanks to ASBO Performance helping out 👌🏻

As far as the test car, all the way from Guernsey 😂 Paul Steer, so not exactly a 5 minute drive, more like a 4 hour drive with a lot of water between us 😅

Paul was having a difficult time over on Guernsey trying to find a shop that would supply and install modifications, let alone remap his car to what he wanted.

Well after a couple of weeks talking, we worked a plan for Paul to come over with his family, drop the car with me so I could unleash a huge amount of upgrades and tune the car in the space of 5 days 😁

A full rundown of the modifications:

➡️ Garrett Powermax Gt1446 hybrid
➡️ A.P.S 3" intake
➡️ A.P.S 3" downpipe
➡️ A.P.S intercooler kit
➡️ DV+
➡️ 390cc injectors
➡️ Full 2.5 Ragazzon exhaust system

As soon as the car was dropped with me, onto the health check, being only 50k miles I had a feeling she'd be in good health, when I say this car was amazing condition, I legitimately don't think I've seen a cleaner natural chassis

Every nut, bolt and screw came out with no issues, engine health was brilliant, no head gasket issues 🤣

Only issue I came across was a knock off thermostat fitted by his garage back home.... Shock horror, less then 1000 miles old and stuck open at 70c....

So fitting all the goodies, initial ramp test and when I say this turbo sounds like a ball bearing unit, it whistles and makes all the sexy stu stu noises we dream of at night 😂😂

Onto the tuning side, straight out the gate this car wanted to eat!! Serious responce with stock boost request, already flowing over 100kg of air more, same boost, different turbo, stock ignition

Putting more boost into the turbo, peak of 1.65 falling to 1.55 at 6000rpm and sweet jesus it's a right laugh, nearly 250bhp and 270ftlb 😁

If the head gasket was uprated then I would of been happy to push more boost but you can't exactly do more then 200 yards of foot to the floor driving on Guernsey 😂 so let's keep it sensible.

As far as a bolt on oem spec turbo, seriously impressed with the Powermax, the responce from the start of tuning was posative, not to mention hilarious with the turbo noises 😄

I grabbed Paul on Thursday night just to make sure he was happy with the car, to say he was more then happy with the cars transformation 😊 smiles all around!!

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Results 🏁

⚠️ 242 BHP @ 6117rpm - 1.65 BAR
⚠️ 360 Nm (265Ftlb) @ 4544rpm
⚠️ EGT 965c @ 6100rpm
⚠️ Ignition timing: 9.8 degrees at 6000rpm
⚠️ AFR: 11.4

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It's great to see Garrett are happy to release a new plug and play turbo for the Abarth scene, especially with how many people keep trying to reinvent the wheel and make old turbos seem new 😂 I mean come on, if you're taking a turbo and it's not water cooled... What are you doing, the car came stock with both oil and coolant cooled so let's try not to go backwards 😂

I look forward to using these more in the future, quality parts as well as amusing noises all around.

Paul used less then half the fuel to get home in comparison to the quantity used driving up to me, just goes to show how rich these cars run stock!!

Abarth Performance Specialist GFB UK Abarth Autotech Tuning

25/03/2026

Annual service and inspection for Ethan and his abarth punto evo 🤌🏻

Additional work included replacing the front speakers due to them being old and broken 😅 nice upgrades installed and rebuilt

Thankfully nothing to report on the health check 😊

20/03/2026

The phrase "you're one broken bolt away from a bad day"... 😅

Simple job, Abarth grande punto in for a cambelt and Waterpump, easy work, usual steps, all went well... Check the ecu for any anomalies, map sensor is reading a lot higher then boost sensor?

Okay swap it out, out comes the old map sensor to realise it's turned to dust on the end, no plastic cage, just the sensor probe saying hello...

Bore scope out, all pieces are in the intake manifold 😅 let's play go fish 😭 throttle body off, interesting list of tools to grab what I could, only to find cylinder 1 and cylinder 3 have large chunks of plastic sat on top of the valves... 💀

Coil packs out, plugs out and rotate the engine by hand until said plastic pieces drop into the cylinders, another game of go fish 😂 and we are all good 😅

3 hours of my life I'll never get back, but did I recover all of the pieces? Yes 👌🏻 could I have just sent it and let the plastic get cleared by combustion? No...

Some days I love my job a little less then others, but the passion to make sure it's done right is always rewarding 😂

06/03/2026

Another Abarth punto in for suspension work as well as resolving other people's mistakes 🙄

Luca Langridge and his pink abarth punto evo 😉

Had a previous garage local to him install Vmaxx coilovers with adjustable dampening... Very poor install... Reused top mounts that were noisy, damaged threads as well as incorrectly installed drop links... 😢

A simple couple of hours work for me, tuned into over half a days work just to get the car correctly disassembled and built back up, I don't often rant about others but when you put the washer for the top mount under the top mount and nut on top... Seriously??

Luca wanted to use me for tracking as I have a very decent local garage that won't mess about, I have a setup for fast road / track that I give them as a template for camber and toe for Vmaxx coilovers and they have nailed it every time without fail.

Gotta love these cars after monkeys have worked on them 😂 simple jobs becoming hard and repairing new parts due to idiots sending nuts when they go on cross threaded...

Finished the day with an enjoyable test drive home from Luca, many laughs as the setup provided really does transform the car 😂

27/02/2026

Finishing February with a restoration project 👌🏻 Luca Genco and his 2014 Abarth punto evo supersport.

We tuned this back in 2022 and Luca was using it as a daily for a while until getting another car... The punto sat for a while and once he started using it again, small niggles started happening.

Cylinder missfires, boost cut as well as hesitation from the engine 😞 having another car, Luca decided to put the punto to the side until both we had time to work on it as well as diagnose all of the issues.

Fast forward to 2026 😂 the car was transported over to me from London as a non runner... Dead battery, car looking a tad green 😭 ecu showing every code known to man and not wanting to play ball...

Fresh battery and some A.P.S magic, got the car back to life 😅 but not with some issues to fix... Multiair solanoid codes, breach between cylinder 2 and 3 on the head gasket, corroded suspension, cracked boots and rubbers... A long list that unfortunately due to the car sitting, was all fun to change 😅

Brake discs heavily rusted, handbrake cables seriously lacking in the cable part 😂 rear calipers not working very well... On and on we go 😅

Coil packs corroded... Meaning the engine had seen water at some point, I've never seen the top part of the coil pack corroded... So wherever this car had been sat, it wasn't pretty 😞

Solid week of work and one MOT later, she has a ticket and is absolutely mint 🤌🏻 (not mentioning the issues of a 200 cell sports cat that wouldn't pass for love or money)

So a note to all... Don't let your punto sit! Suspension will suffer, things will rust and generally cause more pain on the wallet at the end.

I'm glad to have recovered this car as back in 2022 it was absolutely gorgeous, I'm sure Luca will give it a seriously deep clean and we shall see it at shows this year 🤌🏻

31/01/2026

24/01/2026

Catching up on some social posts as not done many recently

Red AGP in for a new radiator and thermostat, happily dropping coolant when driven and not getting upto optimal running temperature unfortunately

New oem Denso radiator as well as oem thermostat for the 155 IHI, don't cheap out on either of these parts as they will fail far sooner then oem.

As well as installation of some shiny red coolant pipes 🫶🏻 the stock coolant pipes were okay but no harm in giving the engine bay a better look, also being made from silicone, they last a lot longer.

15/01/2026

Rolling into January with a radiator change on an abarth punto evo.

Slow drop in coolant and no obvious signs, found to be the fan shroud rubbing on the front of the radiator, replaced a fair few now due to this unfortunately.

New genuine radiator installed and happily back up and running 👌🏻 very clean campervolo grey evo with pan roof and minimal modifications 🫶🏻