Paul Tan on the Automotive Industry
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 litre 8 valve petrol and 100hp 1.4 litre 16 valve petrol engine, as well as a 75hp 1.3 litre 16 valve MultiJet turbodiesel.
More photos and videos after the jump.
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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 litre 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 litre 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.
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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 litre and 1.8 litre ACTECO engines, though the ACTECO family has a wide range of displacements and configurations, from a tiny 0.8 litre to a huge 4.0 litre 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 litre 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!
If you’re the owner of an Alfa Romeo or a Fiat, here is a list of spare parts available from Sime Darby Auto Italia. Due to platform sharing between the two Italian siblings, some of the parts are universal. Parts are available for the Alfa Romeo 33, 75, 145, 146, 147, 155, 156, 164, 166, Alfa GT, Alfa GTV, and the Alfa Spider. The spare parts are also available for the Fiat Bravo and Punto.
Click the icon to download:
Prices available by calling Mr. Kong Seng Kiat at 03-5569-6680 or Wan Roslan at 03-5569-8978. Parts fitted in the workshop will carry one year warranty.
Chery Automobile’s latest ally to be in the automotive industry might just be Fiat. Fiat has an existing alliance with a Chinese auto manufacturer – Nanjing Automobile Group, but that partnership has been far from profitable so far. One option being discussed would be Chery making cars using Fiat technologies and selling them.
That sounds wonderful, give Chery access to your technology Fiat, and perhaps the next Chery QQ will look like a Fiat Punto.
The latest generation of the Fiat Bravo hot hatch will be presented to media in Rome on the 29th of January 2007, and will go on sale in the following weeks in Europe first, and in the UK in summer.
The new Fiat Bravo was styled by the Fiat Style Centre. You can see it still carries on key Bravo signature design cues, like the circle pattern in the tail lamps. There are also similiar cues to the Mercedes Benz B-Class to be seen in the side profile. The new Bravo is a five-door compact hatch 434 centimetres long, 179 cm wide and 149 cm high, with a wheelbase of 2.6 metres, and a loading capacity of 400 litres.
Engine options consist of two variants of 1.9 litre MultiJets putting out 120hp and 150hp, an economical 1.4 litre making 90hp as well as two 1.4 litre T-JET turbocharged petrol engines making 120hp and 150hp.
With the new Bravo also comes a new Fiat corporate logo, derived from the famous shield that adorned the front of Fiat cars from 1931 to 1968, with the vertically elongated letters of the word FIAT standing out against a ruby red background, encased in a chromed frame. Have a look at an larger image of the new Bravo’s grille showcasing the new Fiat corporate logo after the jump, as well as more photos of the new Fiat Bravo.
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Fiat has just unveiled details on it’s new European B-segment sedan contender, the Fiat Linea. The Fiat Linea is built on the Fiat Grande Punto’s platform and even shares similiar design cues at the front end, but the platform has been stretched to provide for a longer wheelbase.
This allows greater rear legroom, and makes a longer rear overhang look less weirder than it will look on a short wheelbase car – this allows for a massive 500 litre boot! Nice sleek side profile. I kind of like the new design language that Fiat is adopting, it makes the cars look like mini Maseratis.
The Fiat Linea will debut at the Istanbul Motor Show, and it will be manufactured in Turkey at a beginning production of 60,000 units a year. The Fiat Linea is expected to go on sale in the second half of 2007 in European countries, though strangely UK sales isn’t in plans for the moment.
Remember the Fiat Sedici? It’s Fiat’s version of the Suzuki SX4, in 4X4 form as the SX4 in the Suzuki stables is available both in hatchback and crossover four wheel drive form. The Fiat Sedici recently won the an award in the Caravan Club Towcar of the Year 2007 Competition, pwning competitors like the Daihatsu Terios 1.5, the Kia Magentis 2.0 CRDi GS Manual, the Nissan Note 1.6 SVE and the Vauxhall Meriva Active 1.3 CDTi.
According to Caravan Club: “One of the great surprises in this years Competition, the Sedicis one of those cars you want to drive enthusiastically, and it pays off. The Fiat stormed up the test tracks long 14% gradient in the third of its six gears, braked nicely and handled a 17% stop and restart with no problem. Rear end styling makes the Sedici a useful load carrier – the test car took the whole of our typical load with all seats available. Operating costs are reasonable given the added complication of 4×4 transmission.”
The Fiat Sedici comes in either a petrol or turbodiesel engine – a 107bhp 1.6 litre petrol and a 120bhp 1.9 MultiJet turbodiesel, mated to a 5 or 6 speed gearbox respectively.
More details on the Fiat Sedici by clicking here.
