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The whole car-freak thing seems like an all-XY-chromosome deal sometimes, but it's just not so; here's an all-women car club that roars across the East Bay landscape in a fleet of temperamental spirited Italian, French, and German vintage cars (plus a couple of Detroit products), blasting a few stereotypes in the process. The Pedal Pushers had an Oakland-to-Port Costa rally a couple weeks back, and TheEastBayKid was there with his '76 BMW 2002 and camera to get some shots for us. Jump away for the rest of the gallery! galleryPost('PedalPushersRally', 6, 'Pedal Pushers Pullover Rally 2008');
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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');
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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...
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BMW and Fiat have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-develop the next-generation platform underpinning three different small cars — the Mini , the Alfa Romeo Mi.To , and the Fiat Grande Punto (which is desperately in need of help based on our experience). To borrow a phrase, the auto industry works in mysterious ways. It's not that BMW needs help on the engineering front, but by partnering up, the companies gain economies of scale they'll be able to leverage against their suppliers for a better price. Guess all's fair in love and the battle against rising material costs . [ Auto News Europe ]
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We already knew Fiat's Alfa Romeo was bringing the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione to the US and using the Maserati distribution network to do it. We'd also heard one option Fiat was discussing was creation of a new plant in Mexico to supply North America with volume models like the 159 sedan and upcoming Mi.To and 149 hatchbacks. But what we didn't know, if the coy allusions made in an article appearing in today's Financial Times are to be believed, is that Fiat CEO Sergio "March Madness" Marchionne may be looking at snatching up excess capacity at US automakers. If you think about it, such a deal would be a marriage made in convenience heaven, especially given the current value of the US Dollar against the Euro. We're also fairly certain the US automakers would be eager to part ways with the cash black hole of unused auto plants. So putting the two together would be a profit-making proposal we could easily see happening. We're only hoping the UAW labor won't...
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Looks as though Dr. Z has something else up his sleeve, with the announcement from Fiat that the companies are in talks to do a little body swapping. While we think a Monica Belluci for Heidi Klum exchange might provide fruitful for all involved, we're fairly sure they're talking about something else. Though details are a little sketchy, it looks as though Fiat could be sharing their small-car platform (see the Panda Sport above) to help underpin a new A-Class, perhaps. On the peninsula, Fiat could be getting help with developing a new sedan and possibly an SUV based on existing Benz platforms. It'll be interesting to see what comes of these talks, as German engineering + Italian style is quite the combination. The Germans and the Italians have, historically, always made a good team. [AFX via Forbes ]
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