A cool surface, or deeply Adlerian?

It’s hard to decide if Pogea’s revisioned Fiat 500 looks like it has a chip on its shoulder, or like it’s been transformed à la a kid on the Charles Atlas plan. Either way, it’s got a new element of drama about it, and—after four years of development—deserves to be taken very seriously. So Pogea called the tuned Abarth Ares. In Greek mythos, Ares was the angry son of Zeus. Very angry, really. The god of war, in fact.

The horsepower boost to 404 provides much of its credibility. Stock, the Fiat churns out only 160HP. That’s a really remarkable increase. Torque is increased from 170 lb-ft to 328. The team at Pogea used their racing experience as it went through the engine components and redesigned the turbocharger, turning the 1.4L 4-cylinder engine into a proper little monster. Truth be told, there aren’t many original components left.

All examples will be outfitted with a five-speed manual gearbox and hair trigger clutch, which is well and good; this is a car to be interacted with as it makes the leap to 60 in a hair over four seconds. Although reaching the top speed—according to Pogea, nearly 180MPH—should provide quite an adrenaline-pumping adventure, even for the danger-junkies out there.

There’s a lot of carbon fiber involved: the fascia, hood, fenders, bumpers, roof spoilers and even mirror caps, and that’s just for starters. The car has been widened, and airflow has been dramatically improved as well; front air curtains and side vents help channel and stabilize.

Pogea will produce only five examples of their radically tuned upstart. The cost to drive one home is about $64K, and possibly a speeding ticket.