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EditorialArchiveThis is part of the ItalianCar.net archive - go to ItalianCar.net now
26 Apr 06
Here is a photo of the new ItalianCar conveyance - the 2002 147 Selespeed. Can't wait to get the ItalianCar stickers on it. In Italian car-related news this week:
ItalianCar was officially the very first customer at Alfa Romeo Brisbane's shiny new showroom - and to prove it here's another photo:
--- 16 Apr 06 ItalianCar is just about to take delivery of a 2002 Alfa 147 Selespeed - dark metallic blue and 5 door - on 'long term test'. Look out for our updates on how things go - we'll keep you informed of how it drives, how much it costs to run and other things you might be interested in. We are also about to make wholesale changes to the way ItalianCar works - to your benefit we hope. The first change - which we hope you'll appreciate - is that we will move to as close to real time reporting as we can ie when a news story breaks we'll get it to you pretty quickly, not at the next update. More info to follow shortly... --- 06 Apr 06 So much to say... so little time. Or should that be space.
You might have noticed a small button appearing at the top left of the
home page called 'Premium'. Click on this and you enter a new world of
Italian cars. We only have two articles up in the Premium section right
now but plenty more are to come - and we will have some really great cars
featured! "We hope to raise awareness about cars available for motorists who want to reduce their impact on the environment," he said. "With these new technologies, driving a fuel-efficient vehicle does not have to compromise our lifestyle choices." Greenfleet Australia is a not-for-profit organisation that offers a tax-deductible $40 donation for planting and maintaining 17 native trees on behalf of a car owner. It claims that 17 is the number required to absorb the greenhouse gas emissions that the average car produces in a year (based on 4.3 tonnes of CO2). Peter Brock - a patron of Greenfleet - was at the trial driving the 1.9-litre turbo-diesel Astra due to go on sale in June. Mr Brock's vehicle delivered fuel economy of just 4.35L/100km over the event route, which took in about 200km of peak-hour city and country driving around Melbourne. The Astra's fuel economy was close to the new Alfa Romeo 147 JTD, which delivered 4.39L/100km and, although driven mostly under 1500rpm, was one of the most fuel efficient of the bunch. We'll be reviewing our test drive of the Alfa 147 JTD soon in the Premium section.
--- 08 Jan 06 2006 will see number of major upgrades to ItalianCar. Although there has not been much news over the holiday break we have used the opportunity to
Later this year we will also be launching
Feedback is always welcome - of course - please let us know what you think of the changes or if you have any other suggestions as to how we could improve the site - we look forward to hearing from you! --- 15 Nov 05 Spotted recently 'in the wild' - one of the new F430s. Looking at the front for a second we thought it was 'just' a 360. But no - it was the full Monty.
--- 17 Jul 05 Rumour has it that Lamborghini is planning an updated version
of the 1968 Espada sedan - due to go into production in 2008. This model
is likely to share features with the current models ie either 6.0l V12
or 5.0l V10 engine with four wheel drive and manual/e-gear transmission.
As Lamborghini is now part of Audi there may well be sharing of other
technologies - the Espada may well be based on the same platform as the
next version of the Audi A8 and also will likely be constructed in aluminium.
--- 19 Mar 05 The Canberra Auto Italia show marked ItalianCar's third
birthday - and to celebrate we are holding a very special competition
where top prize is a test drive in a Lamborghini! Other prizes include
official merchandise from Lamborghini Maserati and Alfa Romeo as well
as a copy of the book on Ferrari and ItalianCar membership and merchandise.
All you have to do to win is identify 5 mystery Italian cars and complete
the tie-breaker. Click here for
more details. --- 19 Feb 05 Where to start? There is so much happening in the world
of Italian cars and on ItalianCar itself it's hard to keep up. First off
you may notice a change to the look and feel of the home page - we have
given the home page a small facelift we hope to make it easier to navigate
and find things that are of interest to you. We have also simplified our
Buy-Sell classified advertising rates - the good news is that you will
not pay more than $25 to sell your car on ItalianCar and your ad and the
photos stay until you sell. Even better news for members is that advertising
your car on ItalianCar is now completely free! It's great to be able to
report that we are getting more visitors than ever before (up to 25,000+
visitors a month - and that's when each visitor is only counted once in
the month) - we are also delighted to see that we have been listed in
75th place in the 'Top 100 Websites' in Australia on new search engine
ANSEARCH/MySearch. --- 30 Jan 05 ItalianCar went along to the NRMA Motorfest on Australia Day.. but we didn't take any photos and we haven't prepared a report. Why? As far as we could tell it was all the same cars as last year - and the year before that. Our 2004 report will give you a good idea of what it was like this year. ---
08 Dec 04 Sales figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries VFACTS Service confirm that Maserati and Lamborghini are selling their new models like hotcakes in Australia - the Lamborghini Gallardo and Maserati Coupe and Spyder have substantially revived the fortunes of these two historic marques - Lamborghini have sold nearly 6 times as many cars this year as they did last. We're still only talking a total of 30 cars but at $400,000 a pop it's a good result by any measure. Conversely Alfa and Ferrari - while not substantially losing sales - have seen their sales decline slightly against last year. Changes to tax rules next year will make imported cars more affordable - so perhaps we will see even more Maseratis and Lamborghinis on the road next year. Look out for a more detailed report on ItalianCar soon. ---
08 Nov 04 Pretty much the only main Italian marque that does not figure in the news this month is Lancia - still doing its own thing in Europe left-hand drive markets only with occasional allusions to a possible return to centre stage. Fiat are having some success in motorsport and are also pushing the boundaries in the development of eco-friendly cars. Lamborghini are once again in the news for winning yet more accolades for their new range. ItalianCar met recently with Lamborghini Australia and we hope to bring you details soon of plans for new versions of the Gallardo - souped up and lighter weight for racing.
--- 10 Oct 04 Plenty of news from the motor show in Sydney this week. Here for the record we are showing a few photos of a car that might have graced Australian roads - were it not for the strong Australian dollar. These are pictures of the only known Fiat Stilo Abarth to come into Australia - brought in last year by Ateco Automotive in anticipation of Fiat coming back to Australia. Ian Allison provided us with the photos and these details: The car had been used for type approval testing and evidently the rear floor area had been distorted by the seat belt mounting point tests. Hence the back seats were held in by cable ties & the car could never be registered, it was wearing a trade plate that day. Ed Rowe brought it along to the 2003 Combined FIAT/Alfa/Lancia Concorso, unfortunately, due to heavy rain in the preceding few days the Council closed the ground at the last minute so only a few of us got to see the car. By the time the reschedule date came around, Ateco had cold feet about the whole FIAT deal and it never made a second appearance. So close and yet so far.....
--- 26 Sep 04 It's motor show season again and Paris is giving us a taste of what Sydney will look like next month. This month we have stories and articles on Alfa's latest models and also some news from Fiat - despite the fact that none of these models are scheduled to appear in Australia! You may have noticed that we are in the process of upgrading the Buy-Sell section - this is one of the most popular sections on ItalianCar and now - with the site attracting anything up to 20,000+ unique visitors (each person is only counted once each month) - is a great place to advertise your car. There are also still a few days to go until the new membership offer to previous members expires - you have another 4 days to take up the offer which is 15 months membership for less than the price of 12! Just click on 'signup' above to join (this offer has now expired). ---
16 Aug 04 You may have noticed that it's been a short while since we brought you any news on Italian cars - well today there are no less than 15 new stories for your reading pleasure! You will also see that the Italian Car Day planned for Sydney last month was cancelled due to inclement weather - it has now been rescheduled for this month (August). There are some changes taking place on ItalianCar over the next month - today we are introducing our updated and revamped 2004 Directory and at the same time making some changes to ItalianCar membership. We are introducing a paid subscription membership instead of the free membership we have had since we launched in 2002. All existing free members will be converted to ItalianCar monthly newsletter recipients and the free classified ad service for members will close. Paid membership will help us pay for the running costs of ItalianCar and also allow us to do a range of interesting things we can't do on our current limited budget! New paid membership (AUD $50pa) gives you a range of benefits:
We are also relaunching our classified advertising section - Buy-Sell - shortly with a much larger range of cars listed from private and trade sellers - we aim to be the place to be if you want to sell or buy an Italian car in Australia. Last but not least we are also launching a range of ItalianCar sponsorship packages to help businesses who sell to Italian car owners and enthusiasts make their advertising and marketing budgets really work for them - and we have sponsorship options for all budgets - large and small! We hope you like the changes we are making - please let us know what you think. PS special new membership offer to existing ItalianCar
members - valid until 30 September 2004 - --- 05 Jul 04 It's official - China is the place to be if you are a luxury/performance car manufacturer. In June both Maserati and Lamborghini announced they will be setting up a dealer network in China with Lamborghini projecting sales of around 20 cars in China this year. Lamborghini have flourished under Audi's wings - delivering the largest number of vehicles in the company's history (1305) last year. Check out a few updates to ItalianCar recently - we have updated the Links section with a few new sites - and noted a couple of old favourites have disappeared from view. The Alfa GT is now listed on the Alfa models section alongside the new FactFile - we're hoping also to test drive the new model shortly. Last but not least a few Italian car related events have been brought to our attention (and appear in the Events section) - particularly the Alfa/Fiat Concorso in Tempe in a few weeks time (Sun 18 Jul). We are still at work on the new Directory which will be unveiled soon. --- 05 Jun 04 Went along to the Italian National Day celebrations at
the Passenger Terminal in Sydney the other weekend - Alfa Romeo and Ferrari
were there with a few of their cars on display - but unfortunatley not
the ones to really get us excited - no 147GTA for example and Ferrari
are not going to have the new 612 Scaglietti here until October this year.
The big question is - will we really be able to tell the difference between
the old car and the new one? But - if Ferrari and Alfa were there - where
were Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani? Perhaps next year, with some hot laps
around Darling Harbour thrown in. --- 08 May 04 Lamborghini - like Maserati you never used to see too many around - always outnumbered by Ferraris on the road. But the times - they might be a changin' - if our experience at ItalianCar is anything to go by - why only the other night a Murcielago turned up at the local video store! Talking to Lamborghini Australia recently the new Gallardo is flying out the door even with the 'more expensive than a 360' $400K price tag - and we can back that up with several sightings around Sydney. Lamborghini's next trick (after the e-gear version of the Murcielago due out in August/September) will be the Murcielago Roadster due out at the end of the year with a likely price tag of c $650K. For a great review of the Gallardo get a copy of Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson testing the car - definitely worth seeing - part test drive part comedy act. Due to some technical hitches we are still waiting to review the Gallardo for ItalianCar - fingers crossed for May. --- 20 Apr 04 The May edition of Motor magazine is a veritable smorgasbord of information on Italian cars - no less than 3 main articles (Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, Maserati Quattroporte vs Audi A8, Ferrari F355) and lots of titbits about what might - or might not be going on. There's also a feature on the new Audi Le Mans - a model that borrows very heavily from the Lamborghini Gallardo (as you know of course Audi now owns Lamborghini) - apparently so as not to detract from the premium brand (that's Lamborghini) Audi will be de-tuning the Le Mans even though it was originally going to have a twin-turbo version of the Gallardo's V10 engine. There's a quick comparison of the Ferrari Enzo and the Maserati MC12 showing the Maserati as having the quicker lap time around Ferrari's Fiorano test circuit and finally an interesting rumour that 2 Lamborghini Gallardos will be competing in the Targa Tasmania next weekend... no listing on the entrants section on the official Targa Tasmania website though... --- 12 Apr 04 We've finally got around to putting up a short report on Auto Italia Canberra 2004 that took place last month (March). We have also been debating whether or not to run an article on the Lamborghini Gallardo winning Motor magazine's Performance Car of the Year but since absolutely everybody seems to know about it already we figure there's no point in re-hashing old news... We're still expecting to be test-driving the Gallardo for ItalianCar shortly and we only missed out on driving it down to Canberra as the boys at Motor magazine had really put the car through its paces (if you know what we mean) and Lamborghini were somewhat reticent about letting yet another journo get his hands on the beast! Also hidden away in our Events section is notification from Italy of the annual "Modena - Terra di Motori" festival in - you've guessed it - Modena. Unfortunately our Italian was just not good enough to translate the press release but we think we've got the dates right if any of you are heading out to Italy in the next few weeks. Remember you still have until the end of April to go in for our competition to win a Gallardo - 1/18th scale model. You may be more attracted by the free sub to Auto Italia magazine and the $100 book voucher - the prize is worth $300 so why not give it a punt. A small clue - we're asking for your estimate of how many ItalianCar members when they filled in their application form to join said they wanted to drive a Lamborghini. It's not the same as asking them 'would you like to drive a Lamborghini' to which of course everyone would answer 'yes' giving an answer of 100%. Some people might have chosen say a Ferrari or perhaps even a Fiat. If you think you might have got it wrong you're welcome to enter again! --- 18 Mar 04 So much to do... so little time! March is a big month on the ItalianCar calendar. We've just got back from Auto Italia Canberra where we saw the biggest collection of Italian cars yet (we think) - topped off by the appearance of the new Lamborghini Gallardo - report coming soon. We've also launched our second anniversary competition where you can win a Gallardo - OK it's a bit small to drive but it'll look good on your mantlepiece + a year's subscription to the best magazine on Italian cars - Auto Italia. We will also shortly be test driving the real Gallardo and will report our findings in the MemberZone test drive section. And finally... watch this space for details of our forthcoming lusso club - a special club for real Italian car enthusiasts with a range of very special benefits. --- 29 Feb 04 It's official - all Italian car manufacturers have gone 4WD / SUV / MPV crazy this month - anxious not to miss out on the market Alfa Fiat and Lancia have all announced new 4WD or off-road/crossover vehicles to satisfy unending demand for these vehicles. Another 4WD - but one that you couldn't ever take off road - was spotted the other day in the heart of bushy Kings Cross in Sydney - a bright yellow Lamborghini Gallardo prowling around. It was a good day for spotting rare Italian sports cars - a De Tomaso was also sighted in the same area parked up in a multi-storey. Lastly Lamborghini are finally going public on the much touted Roadster version of the Murcielago - let's hope they bring it to the Sydney motor show this year. --- 07 Feb 04 Just over a month to go until that annual gathering of all cars Italian - Auto Italia in Canberra. We are busy trying to organise some interesting stuff but it's our turn to play things close to our chest until we have finalised arrangements. Check the MemberZone for a short report on buying or selling an Italian car on the internet and look out for news on the Buy-Sell section on the site. --- 24 Jan 04 Maserati certainly play their cards close to their chest - the new Maserati supercar profiled here was nowhere to be seen before this month - and now there is talk of Maserati competing in 2 motorsport classes. It's interesting to see the similarity between the Enzo and the new MCC/MCS - I wonder why the Maserati model doesn't seem to be quite as powerful as the Ferrari...? Alfa and Fiat also both gearing up now for the 2004 motorsport season - so more of the same this year. Thank you to those who responsded to our survey request and we will be implementing some of the changes you requested and suggested shortly. --- 07 Jan 04 While you've all been enjoying the break we've been slaving over a hot website to bring it right up to date for 2004. The Directory is now updated to include about another 30 specialist suppliers and changes - in new car dealerships for example - have been effected. The Events section for 2004 is also updated with latest expected release dates from the manufacturers and all the major events of interest to Italian car lovers in Australia and - selectively - around the world. We have plans to do a lot of new and exciting things in 2004 but - before we did anything - we thought we'd ask you what you'd like to see: help us plan 2004 by completing our survey (2 mins max) and go into a draw to win a 2004 Italian Sports Cars calendar (to win you must submit the survey by 15th Jan). Read about the brand new Ferrari 612 Scaglietti launched recently in the US and about the racing plans of the major marques - the only major Italian marque not doing anything in motorsport is Lancia which is a shame given its illustrious history. Scanning through the UK Times website it's interesting to note that - in the UK - 2 of the worst-selling cars of 2003 were Italian - the Fiat Barchetta and the Lamborghini Murcielago. The Fiat (getting only 45 new registrations) - so the article speculates - is the victim of the success of the Mazda MX5 and it certainly doesn't help that it's only available in left-hand drive in the UK. The Murcielago - despite only 34 selling in the UK - is actually quite a success for the company as it represents 10% of total worldwide sales, and at a price tag of £168,000 even managed to outsell some BMW and Honda models. --- 24 Dec 03 Must be silly season at the moment - all new car launches for 2003 done - all motorsport pretty much finished - think I'll have a snooze... --- 13 Dec 03 Having a look through editorials from a year ago reminds us that it is over a year since we were in Italy last - watching footage from 'the world's FASTEST cars' DVD (on sale in the shop) took us back to the Murcielago test drive around the same roads they drive the Diablo around on the DVD. New Italian car designs seem to be winning awards all over the place at the moment - both the Maserati Quattroporte and the Lamborghini Gallardo have been nominated 'most beautiful' cars in their respective categories in a recent competition - the new Fiat Panda has won European Car of the Year 2004 and GQ magazine in the UK has put the new Quattroporte amongst its 'world's most beautiful 100 things'. Lists must be in at the moment - Wheels magazine here in Australia has also compiled a list of the 50 most influential cars of the last 50 years (to mark its 50th anniversary) - Italian cars listed include the 1957 Fiat Nuova (49th), 1955 Fiat Multipla (42nd), 1966 Lamborghini Miura (35th) and 1969 Ferrari Dino 246GT (27th). On a completely different subject - Holden have just opened their new V6 engine plant in Port Melbourne. What does this have to do with Italian cars? The Holden V6 will be the power plant for the next generation General Motors cars around the world - including the next generation of Alfa Romeos. Italian cars with Australian engines - whatever next?!? --- 24 Nov 03 Well - this editorial is being written just as the Bathurst 24hr comes to a close - looks like we may have to eat our words about the dominance of Italian cars in motorsport - at least in Australia - not one Italian car within spitting distance of the title. See our short article on how it went. --- Nov03 Italian cars are winning everything in motorsport at the moment - even aussie icon Peter Brock in a Monaro has been beaten by Paul Stokell in a Lamborghini Diablo in the Nations Cup. Look out for the forthcoming Bathurst 24hr where ItalianCar sources understand that a brace of 156GTAs have entered the race alongside the normal bunch of supercars - with a couple of Ferrari 360s, a Maserati Trofeo or two and - possibly - a Lamborghini. We'll keep you posted if we hear before you do. Also unconfirmed reports that an Alfa (we suspect either a 147GTA or 156GTA) overtook a Porsche GT down the straight at Eastern Creek recently - Italian cars rule! --- 06 Oct 03 Catch latest information from Alfa Romeo on the facelifted 156 and have a look at the photos from the Italiani di Sydney exhibition at the Museum of Sydney last week. Many thanks again to our members who responded to the Museum's request for classic Italian cars - it was a great (if a bit windy) day. Here are some photos of the new Maserati Quattrporte that didn't quite justify a news article
--- 28 Sep 03 We are pleased to announce that we have just re-launched
the 'Books' section of the site in association with AutoBook World. We
will be reviewing new and older titles of interest to Italian car lovers
and owners on a regular basis and you will be able to order these books
and others via a direct link to the AutoBook World website. We have also
just launched a mini competition with a chance to win classic footage
of a dash across Paris in a Ferrari in the short film 'Rendezvous' by
French film director Claude Lelouch. Enter via the link on the home page.
new Alfa Spider and 156 test drive --- 14 Sep 03 What we can we say? We had some advanced information about what Alfa were planning to unveil at the motor show in Frankfurt and it turned out to be - well - misinformation of sorts. The concept car they were due to unveil is the 8C Competizione we have previewed here - and what a stunning car it is. Also read the feature on the Gallardos at Eastern Creek last week. --- 07 Sep 03 All eyes are on the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show and a number of 'surprise' unveilings are scheduled. Word has already leaked out however - check the article on Alfa at Frankfurt. Also ItalianCar was down at the exclusive preview of the Lamborghini Gallardo at Eastern Creek Raceway last week. Unfortunately we did not get an opportunity to drive the Gallardo but we have plenty of photos from the day and a forthcoming short piece on what the car was like to drive by one of our members. Also remember to keep an eye on the Events section - there are plenty of Italian car related events coming up over the next few months. --- 31 Aug 03 Blimey! What with the Frankfurt Motor Show and the recently released Italian Job film and the Alfa spoiler ad there's too much going on to keep track of. We will endeavour to keep you up-to-date with all the new models and developments coming out of Frankfurt and any indication of what you can expect to see at the Sydney Motor Show. We'll also be at Eastern Creek this week to watch (and perhaps get a drive/be driven in?) the new Lamborghini Gallardo - 2 of which will be in attendance. Apparently an Aston Martin Vanquish will also be there but we don't care 'cos we're only interested in Italian cars... Also - a Lamborghini Display Day is coming up in November in Sydney and the Museum of Sydney will be holding a small display of classic Italian cars towards the end of September - check the Events section for details of both of these + watch out for more details soon. And finally...we have heard on the grapevine that Alfa may be unveiling a couple of new models at Frankfurt. We do know that the Alfa Brera will be going into production and it will also be coming to the Sydney Motor Show. There are all sorts of other rumours that we will attempt to verify before going to press. --- 17 Aug 03 Alfa have just announced a raft of new and revamped cars coming out over the next few months. The downside is that Ateco Automotive - importers for Alfa Romeo and Fiat for Australia/New Zealand - have announced that Fiat's much vaunted return to Australia has been postponed again - in all probability a function of the current strong Australian dollar. New Fiats are unlikely to be seen here until 2005. ItalianCar test drove the new Alfa 147 GTA last week - read all about it in the TESTdrive section of the MemberZone - yep you have to be an ItalianCar member but it's free to join. Also a couple of things coming up over the next month or so that will be of interest to Italian car fans - ItalianCar members will read about it all in the August Newsletter coming out very soon. --- 03 Aug 03 Well we're looking forward to the ItalianCar test drive (is this a 'fang'?) of the Alfa 147GTA - not sure if we can wait. Leafing through the current batch of car magazines we'd be forgiven for thinking that Italian cars were the only ones worth driving - Gallardo, Bugatti (OK it's not Italian - just sounds it), Murcielago, Maserati. Aussie motoring journalists can't stop salivating over these supercars - and can you blame them? Just to right the balance we're featuring an article on the new smaller cars coming out of Italy - check the articles on the Lancia Ypsilon ("Whatever happened to Lancia?") and the article on the new revamped Fiat Panda. Conscious of the fact that most of the articles on the site are about new cars we are going to focus a little bit more on older, classic cars over the next month or so - or at least try to. If you would like to submit an article on your own classic Italian car or (particularly if you're in the Sydney area) think we should come out and go for a drive and take some nice pictures of your beloved steed, please get in touch with us - editorial@italiancar.com.au. --- 11 May 03 A few little snippets of interest to Italian car lovers: 1) we've announced the winners of our 1st Year Anniversary
competition today - check the MemberZone for details News-wise things seem a little quiet at the moment. We're mainly reporting Alfa's success on the racetrack in the European Touring Car Championship series. Our first year anniversary competition closed at the end of April and we'll be announcing the winners soon. And we're still waiting to test drive the Maserati Coupe. We're planning some major upgrades to the Directory section of the site - you'll soon be able to send a message directly to listed organisations. At the same time we will launch a few new MemberZone services enabling members to send requests to groups of listed organisations - CARfind, PARTfind and BOOKfind. Also look out for an upgrade to the Buy-Sell section and some special offers to members. --- 19 Mar 03 Geneva or broke! Lamborghini Alfa Romeo and Fiat all chose
Geneva to display new cars and concepts and smaller player Pagani showed
off an open top version of their Zonda supercar. The long awaited short
wheel base Lamborghini Gallardo launched at the show and Fiat had no less
than 5 new projects or vehicles on display and Alfa launched its new 4WD
the Kamal. All of these cars will be reviewed on ItalianCar over the next
week. Maserati are also getting stuck into racing with their Trofeo series
- more on this in the Motorsport section soon. --- 09 Feb 03 As ever plenty going on for the Italian car enthusiast
at the moment. Italian car news website Italiaspeed (see Links) has insider
information that Lancia - in the doldrums for a while now - has ambitious
new plans under boss Fabrizio Longo. Lancia are apparently planning a
successor to the Stratos, a new Integrale, a new Fulvia - or Fulvietta
2+2 and a luxury MPV (to join BMW, Porsche, Maserati and perhaps Lamborghini
- the list goes on). It also has plans to return to RHD markets - does
this include Australia we wonder? Australia has not been on Lancia's world
map for quite a while (if you've visited the Lancia website you'll know
what I mean). ItalianCar sources at Fiat Group have advised us to look
out for a press release on 22 Feb on Lancia's plans. --- 21 Jan 03 Happy New Year from us all at ItalianCar. Most of the news
at the moment is about new car releases or new concept cars at the motor
shows. Geneva is shaping up to be an important show for performance car
fans with the launch of the Lamborghini Gallardo - the new short wheel
base car to be produced alongside the Murcielago - and the new Ferrari
Challenge Stradale. You may have noticed a couple of new sections appearing on the site in 2003 - TESTdrives - in 2003 we will be regularly arranging test drives of all sorts of Italian cars, old and new. Join up to read these in the MemberZone - the first of course is the test drive of the Lamborghini Murcielago FACTfiles - these are in-depth reports on particular cars, normally new releases with detailed data direct from the manufacturer Features - in this section we run other in-depth reports or articles including articles and contributions from ItalianCar visitors and Members. If you have a story to tell or a car to show us email us at editorial@italiancar.com.au Also look out for continuing upgrades to the more static parts of the site - the Lamborghini section has been completely overhauled and next on the list is Maserati. Also on the list for an upgrade is the Books section - look out for a lot more information on a lot more books.
Editorial 23 Dec 02 As you can see a lot has been going on in the Italian automotive
world over the past few weeks - Alfa Romeo are going from strength to
strength, defying the problems of their parent company Fiat, taking on
all comers in motorsport and winning and announcing an unprecedented number
of new models planned over the next few years. Lamborghini are similarly
selling more cars than ever and flourishing under new owners Audi. Maserati
and Ferrari have had a record year and Ferrari (owners of Maserati) are
scheduled to float early next year. Even small players like Pagani winning
UK 'Car' magazine's Performance Car of the Year award with the Zonda C12S.
Incidentally Italian contenders did not do at all badly in Car's competition
- other places were We'll stop harping on about the ItalianCar Murcielago test drive - but it's well worth joining up as a member to read the story and see the pics. Have a good Christmas and all the best for 2003 from the ItalianCar team. Editorial 06 Dec 2002 You may have noticed very little change (OK no change) to the site in the past month. The reason for this is that the editorial team (of 2) has been over in the UK and Italy - part holiday and part editorial mission on behalf of the site. Despite the wonders of modern technology, laptop computers etc it has proved too difficult to update ItalianCar while on the move - so all articles photos etc will be posted over the next few weeks. And what a successful trip it was! As well as test driving the 330kmh Lamborghini Murcielago we visited and toured the Ferrari and Maserati factories as well as the Museo dell'Automobile in Turin and the private Panini collection of Maseratis (and other exotic/historic Italian cars) near Modena. While we were over in Italy we hired a Fiat Punto ELX (not quite in the same class as the Lamborghini but it is Italian) so we'll be reviewing that car as well. Word of warning - if you have never driven on an Italian motorway and ever intend to - be prepared! You have a choice of 100kmh behind the trucks or 140kmh in the outside lane - there is no middle way! And Italian drivers have no qualms in sitting about 1 metre away from your rear end at 140kmh flashing their lights if they think you are holding them up unnecessarily. Over the next few weeks all of these visits will be documented with around 100 new photos to add to the site and plenty of news. We will also be launching a Christmas competition with the prizes being some books on Maserati donated by Maserati Modena. A large scale overhaul of the site is also planned - adding new photos and updating all sections as well as adding some new functionality. So - keep your eyes peeled over the next 4 weeks - a lot will be changing! Editorial 07 Oct 2002 Well as promised plenty of news on the Italian car front both here in Australia and overseas. Please have a browse through the new titles reviewed in the Books section - this time we have included a couple of non-book items we thought you'd be interested in - an audio CD of Italian (and other) supercars and the latest Italian Sports Car calendar for next year. Also if you're in Sydney next weekend take the opportunity to meet the one and only Murray Walker when he signs copies of his autobiography at Motorbooks in Cremorne next Saturday 12th October from 2.00pm. The ItalianCar trip to Italy has been put back a few weeks - we will have an exclusive report in the MemberZone at the beginning of December. We are also looking to complete our set of car photos for the site over the next few months - we will be putting up a list of cars we need photos for in the MemberZone so if you would like to submit photos of your own car please do so (all photos credited to original photographer and owner of course!). Editorial 24 Sep 2002 A veritable smorgasbord of news and information on Italian cars is coming your way in October - look out for the new police Alfa 156, information on the new Alfa 147 GTA coming over to Australia soon and news from the upcoming Paris motor show. Here are some titbits to keep you going until then... Lancia models make an epic journey from Turin to North
Pole Editorial 03 Sep 2002 Latest additions to the site are the new article on Maserati's contender for the racetrack - the Maserati Trofeo. Also a comprehensive run down of the all new (although you wouldn't believe it to look at it) Alfa 156 - JTS. Look out for a forthcoming review of the new 156GTA soon. We are also endeavouring to get some more information from the horse's mouth (no pun intended) on the Enzo Ferrari and track down more information on a new smaller Lamborghini. ItalianCar is planning a trip to Italy soon and Milan Turin and Modena are on the itinerary. Editorial 28 Jul 2002 Well since the last update of the site there has been quite a lot of news - particularly about the spectacular success of Alfa and Fiat in racing - see the Motorsport section. As we mentioned earlier Maserati is also contemplating a return to racing so perhaps Italy is on the verge of a return to the 'good old days' on the racetrack? The Sydney Morning Herald reports that English buyers of Ferraris prefer the old fashioned manual gearbos to the new F1 style paddles (which get the thumbs up from 80% of Australian buyers of 360 Modena and 575M Maranello models). Where's the surprise there? Poms (including the Editor of ItalianCar) have always preferred racing through the gears on manual gearboxes - what's the fun otherwise? What's new on the site - * the Buy-Sell section to Members only access (but the
good news is - it's still free to join!) Editorial 23 Jul 2002 We must be in the middle of the silly season at the moment - to be honest there does not seem to be a lot going on. From what we hear *Luc Besson the film director is one of the lucky owners
of the Lamborghini Murcielago - he bought it at the launch Editorial 01 Jul 2002 What's new on ItalianCar this week - well we are scheduled for another visit to Italy later this year - this time taking in Milan and Turin and we are hoping to arrange visits to Fiat and Alfa. A return to Modena is on the cards and we're hoping this time for a better reception at Maserati and Ferrari! We're looking forward to taking plenty of photos of Italian cars in the homeland and of course a full report will arrive in October in the MemberZone. We've also spotted a couple of new websites for Italian car lovers - check out the Links section for details. We were Right! Lamborghini Murcielago vs Porsche 911 GT2 Ateco Automotive European Cars
Editorial 16 Jun 2002 This week sees the launch of our new Books section - we'll be updating the page every month to give you an overview of all the best titles - new and old. You may also have noticed a major upgrade to the Buy-Sell section - we're now updating this weekly. This new editorial section will have snippets of current information of interest to the Italian car enthusiast (we hope). If you have any news to report email us at editorial@italiancar.com.au. Anonymity guaranteed! What news is there this week? * spotted in Dee Why last week - what looked like an old Porsche convertible turned out on closer inspection to be an Intermeccanica. Thinking that the website needed some hasty updating we checked out Intermeccanica on the internet. Intermeccanica is now a Canadian based coachbuilder that specialises in upgrading other makes (particularly Porsche) although the company was founded in Turin in 1959 and was based there until it transferred to California in 1975. For more information have a look at www.intermeccanica.org. * also spotted last week - an almost brand new Maserati Spyder sitting in a German luxury sports car dealership. On enquiring why such a splendid Italian vehicle might have been traded so quickly for a German model it was explained that the Maserati was a bit of a tight fit for a 'corpulent' body shape! * there was a Lancia Motor Club display today (Sunday 16th June) - unfortunately the first ItalianCar knew about it was reading about it in the paper today. Oh well. * should we have a joke/funny stories section on
the site? We'll kick it off with the only Italian car joke we know: what
does FIAT stand for? Fix It Again Tony. If you have a better joke or story
(not difficult perhaps) send it through to us at editorial@italiancar.com.au
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