Fiat’s reborn Abarth division has struck a secret deal with Lotus to use the next Elise to underpin its first stand-alone sports car in more than 30 years, sources have revealed. The project has been planned to hit European streets in 2011 and will give Abarth a light-weight two-seater to give a halo model to its existing Grande Punto- and Cinquecento-based sports models. While there has been no indication of the car’s name, nor a description of its exterior, we’ve put together a speculative illustration to underscore an important point: this will be much more than a simple re-badge.

Besides having unique styling, it will also differ from the English sports cars by using the Fiat Group’s new-generation of turbo-charged, direct-injection, air-valve four-cylinder engines, which promise high torque, high power and low emissions.

While Fiat executives have been coy on the stand-alone Abarth model, sources insist the project is already deep in development between Hethel’s engineering division and Torino.

Understood to use the highest power output version of Fiat’s revolutionary new air-head engines, the mid-engined, aluminium Abarth flyer will have more than 240 horsepower from its turbo-charged, direct-injection four-cylinder engine. And all in a package weighing around 900kg (1,985lbs).

At the recent Cinquecento Abarth launch, Abarth CEO Luca de Meo admitted he dreamed of a stand-alone Abarth but denied there were firm plans to produce one.

“Maybe one day we can develop a model that is just an Abarth for Abarth,” he said. “We might have this one day, but we don’t have the in-house resources to do that today.”

But sources insist Abarth has made up for its lack of in-house resources by enlisting Lotus Engineering’s help to short cut the cost, time and complexity of developing a new chassis. It will use an almost-identical version of the Elise’s chassis – itself a smaller version of the modular, bonded aluminium chassis technology which will debut with the Lotus Evora this year.

Slightly wider and longer than the existing Elise chassis, the new architecture will arrive in the Elise first in 2010, then in the Abarth less than a year later.

While refusing to acknowledge its Lotus-based sports car existed, de Meo hinted that any such car could be in for a long life wearing the scorpion badge.

“We won’t change our models all the time and we won’t have a large range,” da Meo said. “I see more the continuous development over long periods of two or three classic models, like Porsche does with the 911,” de Meo insisted.

Given that the Elise has now been “up” for 13 years, de Meo may have been dropping a bigger hint than he realized.

Words by Michael Taylor. Illustration by Larson.