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| Road Test Fiat Bravo 1.4 T-Jet 120 Active Sport |
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The Revenge Of Petrol?
The point about these engines is that they give differing amounts of performance, as suggested by their power outputs, but have more or less the same combined fuel economy and CO2 emissions according to the official EU test, since that test requires virtually no input from the turbo. In effect, during the test process all three T-Jets behave in almost exactly the same way, which is good news in terms of CO2-based taxation even though it might not reflect an individual car's economy in the real world. More about all that, if you wish, in our feature, The Rise Of The Small Engine. For now the more important thing is how the T-Jet 120 works in the Bravo, and from a driver's point of view I must say it works very well. 120bhp turns out to be a very pleasing output in this case - the car never feels sluggish, but there is also no suggestion that the chassis is being asked to do anything that it would find unduly strenuous. The willingness to pull from low engine speeds is also impressive. A further aspect which isn't really important (though I liked it a lot, which is why I'm mentioning it) is the sound. The decibel-damping effect of a turbocharger tends to make cars fitted with them sound rather dull, but with the T-Jet 120 Fiat has managed to retain a lovely, and characteristically Italian, high-pitched gurgle as you head towards the rev limiter on full throttle; not the kind of thing buyers of this car are likely to bother with, I suppose, but good fun all the same.
Anyway. The point I was making earlier about fuel economy is demonstrated very well in the official figures for Bravos fitted with these engines. The T-Jet 120 clocks up 42.2mpg combined, along with 158g/km of CO2, which is exactly the same as the non-turbo T-Jet 90. Even the T-Jet 150 kicks around in the same ball park with 39.8mpg and 167g/km. |
