"They will make Ferrari become American" Montezemolo

Luca di Montezemolo and Marco Mattiacci

It's open war now between Luca di Montezemolo and FIAT's chief Sergio Marchionne.

Marchionne's harsh words  during the Italian GP week end leave little room for maneuvering, except perhaps with respect to the size of di Montezemolo's exit bonus.  

Not that di Montezemolo is taking it sitting down.   Milano's Corriere della Sera quotes the Ferrari president as  calling this "the end of an era" and that Marchionne and the new family leadership at Fiat will make " Ferrari become American".

What does that mean and how does it relate to racing anyway?   Will they all have to wear sweaters?

with Gianni Agnelli, his son Edoardo Agnelli and Cesare Fiorio

It has to be seen in a historical context,  in the 1960's Enzo Ferrari flirted with selling the company to Ford then famously backed out ( resulting in the GT40 ).     In the 1990's Gianni Agnelli engineered a deal with General Motors which famously resulted in GM paying FIAT not to have to acquire  it.    Specifically excluded from that deal from the beginning was Ferrari, Agnelli had no intention of selling his prized jewel, one which was controlled at 90% not by FIAT but by the Agnelli family trust. (10% by Piero Ferrari)

Ferrari had been controlled but independent from FIAT since.

With Lapo and John Elkann

Di Montezemolo has been president at Ferrari since 1991, he's overseen the spectacular success  of the highly profitable road car division, gone from near bankruptcy and the lows of the 348 to the current lineup of arguably the best road cars in production.  Along the way he did not fall into the temptation to dilute the brand with SUV's or sedans or more "affordable" models as other competitors have done.  Thursday this week at the Ferrari board meeting, he's expected to announce the largest profit ever achieved by the company.

On the competition side, di Montezemolo

oversaw the Schumacher era with successes yet unrivaled in the past 20 years: 6 driver's Championships and 8 Constructor's titles.

But time passes, Agnelli is now gone as is his brother Umberto, both dying within a year of each other and what used to be the Agnelli family is now New York born John Elkann,  the chief executive at FIAT is now Canadian Sergio Marchionne,  FIAT is now FIAT Chrysler.

Marchionne has brought in "american style" management and the new group will go public in New York October of this year.   FIAT still has not built a decent car of note except the 500  so the prestige of Ferrari is key for success on the stock market along with Maserati and Alfa Romeo.  Some say Marchionne wants an American to head the prancing horse, some say he will step in himself.  For sure the plan is to expand production.

The doubt, many fear, is that a Scuderia Ferrari not insulated from the larger FCA group could be vulnerable to market pressures,   No wins at the track could be seen as a reason by shareholders to just pack up and go home,  like BMW did, like Toyota and Honda did.

These is the realities of giant conglomerates but it has never been Ferrari's, the one team that has participated in every single Formula 1 Championship since its inception.

Through thick and thin, triumph and misery.

Already press is speculating on the future of Fernando Alonso at the Scuderia. He and di Montezemolo were in the midst of renegotiating the 2017-19 contract extension, thought to be in the order of 30 million euro a year (based on what Mclaren Honda is said to have offered the Spaniard).    If Marchionne steps in, it would effectively have to be a now contract, says Autosprint, and the Canadian, notoriously averse to paying out big salaries , would be in a position to have to justify that huge contract while defending the deep and painful cuts made to FCA.

Complicated.

Not exactly the picture you want to present to potential investors.  Enzo's not happy.

Why would Ferrari want to retire Luca di Montezemolo?

Talk of the week end is the possibility of this being the last Italian Grand Prix with Luca Cordero di Montezemolo as Ferrari's president.

di Montezemolo has been with the Scuderia and FIAT on off since 1973 when, in his mid twenties, he became Enzo Ferrari's assistant and was put in charge of Maranello's Squadra Corse.  Ferrari won the 75 and 76 constructor championships.  

Montezemolo always had the support of Gianni Agnelli, FIAT's boss and someone who had great admiration for Enzo Ferrari and appreciation for Ferrari's independence from its corporate bosses.

When at the end of the 1980's Ferrari was in desperate trouble, not having won a championship in over 20 seasons, di Montezemolo, by then a successful businessman,  was brought back to revolutionize and reorganize the Scuderia.

Sound familiar?

LDM hired Todt, Brawn and Schumacher and the rest is history,  di Montezemolo not only galvanized the racing part of Ferrari but also rescued the foundering road car division, starting with the 360,  to the point where it now produces not just "Ferraris" but cars set the bar for the  competition like the 458 and the F12.

There are some who fault di Montezemolo for agreeing with the changing regulations and giving away one of Ferrari's greatest assets, the ability to use Fiorano for tests.  I'm not sure he had a choice.

di Montezemolo is of the same  "professional " generation as Bernie Ecclestone, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis and you could argue that that is one that is being replaced slowly.  The new generation is Toto Wolff,  Horner and Mattiacci a generational shift is happening, despite Mr. E's apparent immortality.

Frictions  are increasingly mentioned between di Montezemolo and the new generation of leadership in Torino, at FIAT.   While for Gianni Agnelli, Ferrari was a precious jewel,  for John Elkann and Sergio Marchionne, 90% of Ferrari is another asset seen in terms of the merger with Chrysler.

di Montezemolo had desperately wanted to take Ferrari public, to insulate it from Torino but he was never able to.    Once on the board of FIAT, he was crucially not named to the new board of FCA this year.

Officially it was done because seats were needed for Americans but without an ulterior motive, you don't keep someone responsible for a $285 million profit last year on the sale of under 7000 units.

Would the new generation from Torino, John Elkann, Andrea Agnelli, maybe Lapo Elkann know how to run Ferrari, both road cars and race team?  Will they understand and preserve its DNA or will they try and make it into say,  another Red Bull?

Would that be a bad thing?

Time will tell.
Forty one years have told a lot.

Fiat Abarth 695 goes to the dogs

Fiat showed a cool, if odd, variant of the Abarth 500 in Geneva.   Celebrating 50 years from the debut of the original 695,  the stripped out Abarth 695 biposto is a street legal, track day version of the 500.

Biposto, means two seater and that means two carbon fiber shells and a stripped out rear.  It comes with a lot of go-fast goodies: fully adjustable shocks and suspension, mechanical limited slip differential, Ackrapovic exhaust, a titanium roll bar, 4 point harnesses, a data logger,  and oversized Brembos .    Fixed windows with sliding poly slits and other assorted weight reduction cut about 300 lbs off the base Abarth while power is up 30 to 190hp allowing for a sub 6 second 0-62.

But what really sets the 695 biposto apart, and will make it a bit of a collector piece is the unusual gearbox:  it comes standard with a non synchronized 5 speed "dog box",  probably the only road legal, factory car in the world to do so in the 21st century!

Curiously, the original Cinquecento had a non synchronized gearbox meaning generations of Italians have double clutching embedded in their DNA.     In a track situation, a non syncro "dog box" allows for super fast, clutch less shifts and so the Abarth 695 biposto should become the hero for all those who champion manuals, because real men don't need syncros!

Snow chains

You're doing it wrong.....  (photo via Marchettino)

WIN!

Gaddafi's Green machine

(photo AP/Sergey Ponomarev)

Green has always been the color of choice for the wacky soon to be ex Libyan strongman: Green book, Green flag, lots of greenbacks stashed under the mattress I'm sure but, an electric car?

You have may have seen the wire picture of a green and gold pimped out Fiat 500 captured by rebels in Tripoli this week.
Gaddafi is known to have an extensive exotic car collection, including at least one Veyron. You would imagine the dictator of an oil rich country where most people live in poverty would but who knew he had a thing about electric cars? Apparently he had many and the green and gold FIAT is said to have been his favorite.


(1914 ALFA 40/60hp Aerodinamica "Siluro Ricotti" built by Castagna)

The car was built by the famed Milanese coach builder Castagna. In business since the mid 1800s, Castagna is known for building pretty much whatever you can think up and have money to buy. The Libyan leader had some very particular requests for his green machine. Find out more after the jump.







The 500 was commissioned anonymously in June 2009 but when the spec sheet came in, it did not take long for Castagna to figure out who the buyer might be.

Ordered with full options, nautical teak wood and cream leather interior with green stitching, sand colored top and a metallic green and gold paint job, it had to be ready by September.



It is said to be powered by a 34kW engine running on lithium batteries good for a top speed of 100 mph and a range of 160 miles.
As you would imagine, Muammar is a man who needs to get places fast so he specified that the car needed ultra fast charging. Castagna provided two enormous charging machines, sourced in Sweden, which cost as much as the car itself and can fully recharge the batteries in ten minutes (...yes and Quaddafi has not been defeated, he is simply lulling the rebels into a false sense of security!).

The car would not of course wear a FIAT badge but a custom made malachite emblem depicting Africa and Gaddafi's Green Book. Tasteful.



One last detail. The car has does have a gas tank, not for propelling the car but to power a generator for the oversized air conditioning compressor, Those Romanian nurses did not like the heat!

The car was delivered on time, final price, 100000 Euro for the car, 100000 euro for the charging stations.

Bad news for coach builders that eccentric third world dictators are on the outs...



(Corriere della Sera/Castagna Automobili)

Badass Cinquecento

FIAT 500 Abarth, Silverstone Classic 2011 by Si558
OK not a real Abarth but badass none the less!



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Mad Mid engine FIAT: Motore Centrale R240

You could think of the Motore Centrale R240 as a FIAT 500 Abarth backwards but a more correct comparison would be with those mad mid engine creations by Renault, the Turbo5 and the Clio V6. Don't look for a FIAT warranty though, the Motore Centrale (Mid Engine) is a project of Lucarelli Monza and Aznom S.r.l of Codatronca fame.

The idea was to have a perfectly balanced car with the ideal mass distribution found on much fancier vehicles. As with the French cars, the Abarth engine in a 500 is moved behind the driver, replacing the rear seats. The rear suspension has been replaced with the fancy subframe with double A arm, fully adjustable suspension you can see in the picture above.

Brakes are 335 front and 305 rear with monoblock 4 piston calipers, Bilstein shocks and Kumho track day tires. Abarth engine is tuned 240HP and 240ft-lb.

That's the "touring" version, available with fancy leather interiors by Aznom etc. A R280 "Pista", track version will also be available, 280 hp900kg/ 1980lbs with full FIA cage, data recording and a racing Limited slip differential. A light track car that is not a Lotus might be of interest.

Axnom is hoping to produce 30 Motore Centrales per year and will present the cars at Monaco Top Marques, April 14 to the 17th.

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A sure sign of the pending apocalypse?

Wow, I couldn't even get back home that this picture was Jalopnik'd, those guys are the ninja masters of the internets! Fine, I'll have to kick their buts on a track one day :).

Anyway, I was driving by on 11th Avenue when saw the FIAT store going up, even as a jaded New Yorker I did a double take. I never thought I would see it to be honest. I don't think I'm alone, got a funny reply on the Axis Twitter feed claiming this was a sure sign of the pending 2012 apocalypse!

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How do you say "YeeHaw" in Italian?

Well actually it doesn't matter because in this video we are in the UK and the car is driven by a Dane. Still, the cars are FIAT Abarth Trofeo and they seem behave just like the classic 60's Cinquecento derived racers did back then: more often than not with something less than four wheels on the ground.

Momentum cars, got to love them!.



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"Blonde au Volant" Monaco 2009, by AC


more POD on AXIS

Holy $h!*!!!

Around this time of year in Rome, if you park under the wrong tree near the Vatican, even the holy power of all the saints will not protect your freshly Zaino coated paint....


(Ansa.it)
In late fall in southern Europe, starlings gather in the millions and fly around like winged schools of sardines. They all land at the same time, packing themsolves on trees and proceed to do what birds to when they land...

Car owners ought to donate to falcon breeding programs as that is the only thing that can kill and scare off the flying varmint. I'm sure the environmentalist would be in an uproar so some cities, MonteCarlo for one, are resorting to trucks with loudspeakers blasting out bird of pray sounds from loudspeakers...

For the most part, starlings are not impressed and the poo rain continues unabated haunting the dreams of world's car neat freaks!





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You are doing that wrong...

For your consideration, three spectacular hill climb fails.



Shop for KUMHO tires at Tire Rack.




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Kimi Räikkönen in action at Rally Finland

We'll need some Finnish translation help... but it looks like he's keeping his Abarth on the road...mostly, he does miss a turn, In the second video, after the jump you can see another view of his "I said right, not left" moment.

Raikkonen Testing for Rally Finland, Video.

While the motoring world is, as was predictable, obsessing over Massa's replacement, the Kimster is in the Finnish forest testing with Tommi Makinen Racing in a Fiat-Abarth Grande Punto S2000 for this week end's Rally Finland.

You can turn on the Closed Caption feature on this clip (lower right corner) to follow what Inka from Finland's YLE is saying. Summarized, Ferrari has put no limits on Raikkonen for the rally, he can go all out and his more experienced Finn friends are enjoying giving him a bit of a hard time.

(YLE via YouTube)



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Axis Says: Rally cars should be RWD only!

We said it 247 times already, we'll say it again: want WRC to come back to life? Bring back RWD production rally cars. Take a look at this BMW 135i at the 2008 the Rallye du Var, elegant, no? Why should we be stuck watching 4wd spec cars nobody is excited about?.

Same driver in 1992 at the Rally Corsica



After the jump a selection of thrilling rwd rally action clips!

Legendary Fiat 131 Abarth in action



Mercedes 190 driven by Guiness Book "world's longest drift" record holder Uwe Nittel


One of many rally e30M3's








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Politically Incorrect Commercial Film Festival

Unconstrained by an easily offended public, car companies have commissioned all manner of creative work for markets outside the US.   From Nissan's artistic stuntman Joe Zakopane to Maserati's mysterious soft core to Peugeot's humping bugs these are some of funniest and most bizarre clips you will never see on your American TV.

We'll start with Poland's most famous stuntman, you'll find the rest after the jump.

Raikkonen in a Rally Car.

A vaguely incognito Kimi Raikkonen showed up to visit his countryman Anton Alen (son of legendary 80's rally driver, Markku Alen) at this week end's Rally du Valais in Switzerland. 

In the end, he could not resist and had to have a seat inside Alen's Grande Punto Abarth 2000 running in the IRC series. OK,  so he just sat in it but, a taste of things to come after 2010?

(RacingWorld)

More of less: Abarth-Lotus rolling in 2011

Fiat is big on "secret" deals these days, after the recent connection with BMW now comes word that Torino as been shopping in Hethel for a lightweight sport platform...




The recently resurrected Abarth does not have the resources to develop a new car from scratch but having a lightweight focused two seater would recall days when Abarth was more than just a FIAT tuner.



This "halo" car would be based on the next generation Elise platform and powered by a FIAT turbo engine.

While the combination of a FIAT and a Lotus might strike fear in the hearts of anyone concerned with reliability, we applaud any company moving in the direction of building lighter sports cars, 240hp on 900kg is a good direction!

(pictured is the Elise based Pininfarina Enjoy concept)

more from Autocar

BMW+Fiat = Mini and Alfa?

According to Italian news agencies, BMW and Fiat have signed a memorandum of understanding whereby they would do a certain amount of platform sharing, specifically for Mini, as well as joint development of components for all brands. 

BMW's US dealer network would also, somehow, be involved in the distributions of Alfa Romeos on the US market.... Thoughts?

If you need an "official" source, you can read this

Shut up and drive

hey CG...maybe Fiat were reading our comments on Kimi and did a whole campaign based on it!

But in the end these commercials invariably make the drivers look like, at best, dorks (Oh ya Kimi Ich bin VERY excited von those seven airbags and 150 hp!).

At worse....well, I don't even want to say what came to mind when Schumi winks at Kimi: "Zoo... want to see a pensioner drive?"  Ugh.