Abarth 595 145hp - Custom ECU Remap with Dyno Test

The Abarth 595 has long been the pulse of automotive excitement, rumbling its way through the car scene all across the globe. The unmistakable growl has become a kind of beacon, a relentless zest and precision craftsmanship in the realm of small yet mighty sports cars—a fact we at Bluespark HQ can attest to, with plenty of experience in fine-tuning a multitude of these awesome little hot-hatches.

The 595 never fails to add a dose of excitement to our days, and it’s always great watching them transform after a bit of tweaking on the dyno. In this latest tuning and dyno testing, we take this 1.4 T-Jet and custom tune it, adjusting the software with our remapping tools and fine tuning the results with the rolling road dyno testing.

Firstly, we take the 595 at a completely stock level, no level of tune applied. We get it strapped up on to the rollers, and take it for the first set of tests to establish what the factory mapping is producing. No big surprises with this one, a pretty standard stock dyno graph can be seen below, as power results are showing pretty close to the mark at 142hp. Torque showing slightly higher than what is claimed, producing 216Nm instead of the 206Nm claimed, but not particularly unusual to see strong stock figures here, as they often push higher torque figures than Abarth claim.

Once we are happy that we have everything logged and the stock figures are dialled in, it’s time to connect to the ECU. We use our Autotuner system to connect directly on to the ECU here, allowing us to tap straight into the software. As you can see from images below, the process of this custom tune is very much a hands-on, ‘fine tweaking’ procedure. We make several alterations to the software, adjusting the exact parameters we need and configuring the software files to give us that increased power and torque.

Once we are happy with our alterations, we take the 595 for further dyno testing, allowing us to monitor the engine responses in real time, data logging the entirety of the test. Once the first few tuned runs are complete, the data is analysed and conclusions can be made as to where further adjustments and alterations can be made. Again, we configure this directly within the ECU, changing the exact parameters which are necessary to reach the requirements.

After these adjustments, there are further tests and the Abarth is once again taken for more tuned runs. The data is logged and gains are recorded. This process is repeated several times, as we will constantly analyse and fine tune, right down to the final requirements, until we are happy that we are getting the very best results from this remap.

The final tuned dyno run is displayed in the YouTube video, where we have finally finished altering everything, giving us the complete results. Dyno testing before and after shows healthy gains across the rev range, with a significant increase in power and torque, really transforming how the Abarth feels to drive.

Peak power was increased, we were able to lift it from 142hp at stock, up to 179hp after the custom tune. Taking a look at the dyno graph below you can see how the curve changes (dotted red and blue lines), bringing that power in right down from those lower revs, and showing improvements across the whole rev range. Second and third gear will see some significant improvements and any turbo lag will have been removed.

Torque also saw some great improvements. At stock the engine produced 216Nm, and now 303Nm after the remap. Again, taking a look at the graph (solid lines), you can really see the difference in that curve, seeing that tuned run start to break away and continue to climb, creating a huge difference around that 2300rpm – 4500rpm section of the range.

Check out the full dyno test here, across on our YouTube channel: