|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Fiat » Abarth ( RSS)
-
|
October is generally the warmest month here by the Bay, so that's when you get the big car shows on the island. On Saturday, Park Street was taken over by hundreds of chromium-dipped chariots ; the following day, a horde of Ferraris, Fiats, Lancias, Alfas, and the like swarmed across the bridges and set up shop on the soccer field of the junior high school at which I was forced to learn " The Hustle " in P.E. class, circa 1979. Sadly, the LeMons-veteran Ecurie Ecrappe Alfa wasn't there, but the presence of such jewels as a Fiat 2100 wagon, supercharged Lancia Scorpion, and SEAT 850 compensated somewhat. Jump, jump, and see all the purty cars! galleryPost('LHSItalianShowTop', 6, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1'); galleryPost('LHSItalianShow2', 50, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1'); galleryPost('LHSItalianShow3', 27, 'All Italian Car And Motorcycle Show Part 1');
|
-
|
An Italian car with a glorious racing history should be given the red-carpet treatment at the Concorso Italiano , so you figure the Ecurie Ecrappe 1971 Alfa Romeo Spider should be a slam-dunk Best Of Show winner. Sadly, such was not the case, in spite of the car's great performance at many 24 Hours of LeMons races (when everything works, it's one of the fastest things on the track). Ecrappe member TheEastBayKid shot us a bunch of photos of the event; make the jump for the big gallery and EBK's description. galleryPost('Concorso08Top', 3, 'A Celebration Of Italian Style And American Bondo 1'); The Ecurie Ecrappe/Autodenta 1971 Alfa Romeo Spider returned to the Concorso Italiano in 2008 sporting red livery, Autodenta hood logo, and 750-series Giulietta front clip. This configuration was historically correct for Altamont 2008, though show judges did point out that while the car was accurate, fully documented, and competition-verified, it still totally sucks. Also...
|
-
|
We're going to leave Anaheim and head a few additional miles behind the Orange Curtain... to Costa Mesa, as we continue our special Down On The California Street DOTS-O-Rama. Costa Mesa, as you may recall, gets a Thomas Pynchon shout-out in Vineland , with the Great South Coast Plaza Eyeshadow Raid sequence taking place at the city's famous shopping mall . We can thank VeeArrrSix for capturing this not-very-legally-registered little yellow bomb for us; make the jump to read his description. galleryPost('DOTSBECostaMesaFiat', 3, 'Fiat 500 Abarth Down On The Costa Mesa Street'); Spotted this "lifeguard truck" yellow little guy a few weeks ago in Costa Mesa, CA, right by my office. I didn't get a chance to grab a pic, but I saw it again yesterday, sans the car cover that thwarted me last time. The owner has a Exige as his daily driver... he definitely doesn't mess around. Any idea how he gets away with a british plate in the OC? Thanks! VeeArrrSix
|
-
|
While we feel as if we're no stranger to the new Abarth-tuned Fiat 500 -- we've seen all the press shots , seen all the leaked specs and even seen a gigantic Fiat-pooping 500 -- it doesn't compare to seeing it in person. Here's our first glimpse at the tarted-up Abarth 500, and although not as cute as the cinquecento, it's still as adorable as the base model. And now there's even 33% more power to love as the folks at the Turin-founded and now Fiat-owned Abarth have turbo'ed that 1.4-liter gas engine, bumping the power up from the meek 100 bhp (as Ben found out in his test drive of Fiat's 2007 small hotness ) to 135 bhp at 5500 rpm. That power-play gives the 500 a 0-to-62 mph grade of 8.2 seconds. Not too shabby and definitely allows the remnants of the Abarth family to rest easy knowing the "small but wicked" past continues into the present. Full press release after the jump. galleryPost('abarth500geneva', 12, 'The Small Fiat 500 Abarth...
|
-
|
It looks like the Jalopnik readership did some agonized soul-searching and decided to go with the 308/Esprit combo over the somewhat imcomplete 365 at a 7-to-3 ratio in yesterday's Cheap Ferrari Edition Choose Your Eternity poll. But an Italian car versus an Anglo-Italian 2-fer brings to mind an interesting PCH dilemma: what happens when you pit a geeky-yet-cool Italian car against a geeky-yet-cool French car? No dreamworld Quattroporte versus SM here; instead it's a pair of cars that don't cost all that much and can even be driven... straight to Hell (i.e., your garage). Most Americans have never heard of the Autobianchi A112 , which is why we're providing the quick lesson in the video above. The little Lancia/Autobianchi/Fiat (mechanically similar to the Fiat 127) wasn't sold in the US of A, but it's worshiped as a classic rally-winning hoonmobile over there in Yurp. And now a A112 could live in your garage, simply by handing over $7,950 to the seller of this '79...
|
-
|
Fiat 's not kidding around with the launch of its Abarth tuning marque. Following an initial launch at the Geneva auto show earlier this year , The company's treating the venerable racing shop -- and Fiat property since 1971 -- as its own motorsport lifestyle...
|
|
|
|