Archive for Fiat

The latest whispers being passed around dinner tables in the automotive industry are that Jaguar and Land Rover are currently on the table, and potential buyers are Fiat. It seems that talks started in February this year but ended last month, with no resolution. Sources say the talks were dropped because Fiat was concerned on how the Jaguar would affect Fiat’s credit rating. Fiat would have benefited from Jaguar’s rear wheel drive platforms if the sale had gone through.

With rumours of BMW being interested in Volvo, and most of Aston Martin shares recently being sold, it seems Ford Motor Co is looking to offload all of it’s Premier Automotive Group (PAG) brands.

PAG lost US$327 million before taxes last year, it’s third loss in a row for three years. Jaguar has lost the most money apparently, a total of between US$500 million to US$1 billion since 2001. Land Rover has gained traction recently though, pardon the pun

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Fiat Powertrain Technologies has unveiled the latest revision of it’s 1.9 liter JTD MultiJet 16 valve inline-4 turbodiesel engine, which uses twin stage turbocharging to produce high power and massive torque in a wide RPM range at the same time.

Low end torque has improved by 50% over current JTD MultiJet models, with 300Nm available from just 1,250rpm going up to peak torque of 400Nm at 2,000rpm. The new engine is available in two stages of tune - 177 horsepower and 188 horsepower at 4,000rpm. The higher 188 horses version is exclusively for Fiat and Fiat Group companies like Alfa Romeo and Lancia, while the 177 horsepower version will be made available for purchase to customers. Nanjing as one of the first customers comes to mind - they were reported to be sourcing a powerful turbodiesel for it’s MG 7 sedan from an European manufacturer.

The new engine uses a 16.5 compression ratio, low-voltage metallic glow plugs, an improved EGR cooler, and a new inlet port design. It complies with projected Euro 5 emission standards. It has a cast iron block and an aluminium alloy head.

The 177hp version will be available in July 2007 onwards, while the 188hp version is set to be launched in June 2008. The engines will be produced at Pratola Serra in Italy.

A high performance version of the latest modern incarnation of a retro classic has been spotted by Car Online making rounds on the Nurburgring, one of the few places that every car under testing has to grace it seems. The camo is minimal, only serving to hide a little minor trim level details that might be exclusive to the Abarth tuned up version. The wheels are much bigger and sportier, and are complete with low profile tyres.

They say under the hood of this Fiat 500 Abarth lies a 1.4 liter turbocharged engine putting out more than 150 horsepower, and thus the front air intakes on the bumper have been redesigned to be larger so that they can accommodate the larger airflow needed for the high performance engine.

Fiat’s Abarth in-house tuning division will be making a comeback with the new Fiat Grande Punto Abarth. Set to bring Fiat back into the hot hatch game, the Grande Punto Abarth will feature a 1.4 liter Turbocharged engine making 150 horsepower at 5,500rpm on regular grade petrol, or 155 horsepower on RON98. With this engine, you get 6-speeds of manual fun to shift through. Peak torque is at 3,000rpm, with 230Nm, but only if you activate the sports mode which up the boost. Otherwise it is 206Nm at 2,000rpm. A more powerful version is also set to be revealed, with a total of 180 horses under the hood from the same engine.

The suspension system uses a McPherson layout at the front, and a torsion axle at the rear, similiar in setup to the Honda Civic 5-door Type R, something that has attracted criticism but somehow manages to perform well on the track. Brakes have Brembo twin pot calipers up front on 305mm ventilated discs, while the rear caliper is a single piston setup gripping 264mm discs.

An Abarth-tuned Fiat 500 is also in the works, which could prove to be quite fun.

More photos after the jump.

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This is a presentation that Fiat prepared for the Fiat 500 launch. The tagline seems to be “The Fiat 500 Wants You”. Video after jump.

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Details of the revival of the Fiat 500 has been officially released by Fiat Automobiles SpA. The new Fiat 500 is 355cm long, 165 cm wide, 149 cm tall and has a wheelbase of 230 cm. Despite rumours of a two-cylinder turbocharged engine, we now know that the Fiat 500 will be conventionally powered by Fiat’s 69hp 1.2 liter 8 valve petrol and 100hp 1.4 liter 16 valve petrol engine, as well as a 75hp 1.3 liter 16 valve MultiJet turbodiesel.

More photos and videos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Fiat 500 previewed

Now, in the span of over 30 years since the last Fiat 500 rolled off the production line in 1975, what do you think fans of the Fiat 500 have been doing? Restoration and outright pimpage of course. Introducing the Prancing Mouse - a Fiat 500 done up at the former premises of the Arrows F1 team at Leafield, rechristened the F500. The Fiat F500 Prancing Mouse is built by Hartham, a race car constructor, will do 0-100km/h in under 4 seconds and hit a top speed of 193km/h.

The Fiat F500 trades in it’s tiny 2-cylinder boxer engine for an L-Twin superbike engine from the Ducati 999R - an fuel injected liquid cooled 999cc Testastretta Desmodromic 8 valve making 150hp at 9,750rpm. The engine is also available in a higher state of tune churning out 200hp, and this is mated to a sequential 6-speed gearbox. The tiny brakes for a tiny car have been replaced with Brembos, and the chassis is a carbonfibre composite. Yes, another car powered by a bike engine.

Production of the Fiat F500 is strictly limited to 500 units. More technical specifications after the jump.

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Following the moves of other car manufacturers that have revived classics (e.g.: the MINI and the New Beetle), Fiat is bringing back it’s old adorable Fiat 500, the town car with a boxer two-cylinder engine that came in either 479cc, 499cc, or 594cc displacements. There were even estate and convertible versions.

Fiat’s new Fiat 500 is set to be a 2007 release model based on the Fiat Panda platform, and word is that the two-cylinder configuration is coming back, now in turbocharged form! The engine is set to be a two-pot 0.9 liter engine making between 90hp to 110hp and 120Nm of torque, which is likely to kick in pretty low in the torque band considering the usual turbocharged torque curve patterns. The photo above is a computer generated rendering of how the new Fiat 500 could potentially look like, but expect the production version to retain all the retro looks of it’s predecessor.

More powerful variants will use the new Fire 1.4 liter engine that will also be put into the new Fiat Bravo. It makes about 150hp, doesn’t look as nice on paper as the 1.4 TSI from Volkswagen but still commendable.

Will the modern interpretation of the Fiat 500 enjoy the same runaway success that BMW has had with the New MINI Cooper? In case you don’t know how the original Fiat 500 looked like, a photo of a 1973 variant is available after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of New Fiat 500 to use two-cylinder turbo engine

Fiat and Chery have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will result in Fiat using Chery’s ACTECO family of engines in it’s China-produced cars, with a possibility of the ACTECO engines finding it’s way in Italian models like the Bravo.

The deal involves Chery’s 1.6 liter and 1.8 liter ACTECO engines, though the ACTECO family has a wide range of displacements and configurations, from a tiny 0.8 liter to a huge 4.0 liter V8.

The ACTECO family of engines was developed by AVL, an Austrian-based automotive consulting firm. Despite the negative stigma surrounding China products, the ACTECO family of engines is actually quite modern, incorporating aluminium alloy cylinder blocks/heads and direct fuel injection, complying with Euro IV emission standards.

Pictured on the left is the ACTECO 1.8 liter DOHC turbocharged engine. With a bore of 81mm and a stroke of 87.2mm, the long stroke turbocharged engine makes 180 horsepower at 5,750rpm and a very healthy 250Nm of torque at 4,300rpm.

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Chery and Fiat in talks

Fiat has produced this promotional video for their upcoming 2nd generation Fiat Bravo, which replaces the Fiat Stilo in it’s product line-up. Also notice that the letters a and v in the new Bravo logo forms the number 2. Pretty smart, though I can’t say I appreciate the way they took the new Fiat logo very much. Click here for my previous post on the Fiat Bravo, and the video is available after the jump!

Click here to read the rest of 2nd gen Fiat Bravo promo video