13 posts tagged “italy”

I’ve waited for ages to get the Vox compose screen: anyone else with this issue?
   Here was what I wanted to post an hour ago:

Fiat 127 Rustica coverage

Fiat 127 Rustica

If anything, this post was an attempt to figure out whether Vox had been fixed or not. The ‘Compose’ screen came up pretty quickly this attempt, though an earlier attempt resulted in a blank screen after a minute.
   Here are some rare cars from Autocade, anyway, since I’m not going to waste the opportunity to blog something. When I started Autocade, I expected some old cars that were around before my lifetime; what I didn’t expect was actually covering a good number of them. Here are some for those pub quiz nights.

Italia 2000 Coupé. 1959–62 (prod. 297 approx.). 2-door coupé. F/R, 1991 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV). Hand-made, rebodied Triumph TR3, with attractive Michelotti-designed bodies by Vignale, shown at Torino in 1958. Made under contract to Ruffino SpA. Never officially a Standard–Triumph model, particularly after Leyland Motors’ takeover and the company’s withdrawal of support. Often referred to as Triumph Italia. Very expensive when new, and not popular; underpowered considering the price, though reasonably competent.

AMC Marlin. 1967 (prod. 2,545). 2-door coupé. F/R, 232 in³ (6 cyl. OHV), 290, 343 in³ (V8 OHV). Marlin shifts to the full-size AMC Ambassador (1967–8) platform, but production dropped further due to poor sales. Deleted after one year. Price up from 1966 as Marlin became a full-size car, with more luxury appointments.

Ford Anglia Torino. 1964–8 (prod. over 10,007). 2-door saloon. F/R, 997 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV). Rebodied Anglia, with body made by OSI of Italy. Created for markets which might have found the original 105E to be too unconventionally styled, but export plans were never realized and the car remains very rare. Doors and front windscreen shared with English Anglia, but other panels new. Michelotti design: attractive to some, ugly to Angliaphiles. Two one-litre engines: standard tune with 41 hp and Torino S with 52 hp from 1965.

Volvo P1900. 1956–7 (prod. 67). 2-door convertible. F/R, 1414 cm³ (4 cyl. OHV). Flimsy fibreglass convertible from Volvo, with uprated engine shared with export model of PV444, developing 70 hp. Inspired by American roadsters of the 1950s, but killed off after new Volvo boss, Gunnar Engellau, felt the quality was under par.

You do not expect to see an Iso Fidia in New Zealand—one of the 192 the company made. This is a 1970 model that I spotted earlier today in Christchurch, in incredibly good condition. I am not sure if I have ever seen one of the Iso Rivolta supercars before—if I have, it would only have been in a museum—so to see one in everyday use was a real privilege. The registration is from 1980, which suggests it was imported at some expense by a wealthy owner that year.
   Naturally it now has its own Autocade entry, with one of these as the illustration.

I think Robin will appreciate this as much as I do.
   A Flickr user, Stephan Schmatz, has a Fiat Flickr album. Of interest to me was Schmatz’s grouping by development type number. When I was growing up, Fiat named its cars with this number, before they took a departure with the Ritmo in 1978. What is less known to the layman is that the numbers continued internally in Fiat, to this day. I have put down Schmatz’s numbers, with the X ones thrown in for autogeekdom.

110/120 Nuova 500 (Bambina in New Zealand terms)
119 Doblò
138 Ritmo and Regata
141 Panda
146 Uno
160 Tipo
169 Panda II
170 Cinquecento
175 Coupé Fiat
176 Punto
178 Palio
179 Ulysse II
182 Bravo and Brava
183 Barchetta
186 Multipla
187 Seicento
188 Punto II
189 Sedici
192 Stilo
194 Croma II
198 Bravo
199 Grande Punto
220 Ulysse and Scudo
225 Fiorino III
300 Qubo

X1/1 Fiat 128
X1/2 Autobianchi A112
X1/3 Fiat 130
X1/4 Fiat 127
X1/8 Later became X1/20, Lancia Beta Montecarlo
X1/9 Fiat X1/9
X1/20 Lancia Beta Montecarlo
X1/38 Fiat Ritmo

This spot from the late 1950s is very charming. And even when the economy wasn’t that fab, Italian people have stilo.

Show us a fictional character that you have been a fan of since your childhood.
Submitted by Jack Yan.

That’s two Vox Hunts from yours truly this week. Since I wrote it, I should answer it.

Ian Ogilvy as Simon Templar, with Jaguar XJ-S

   This chap would have to qualify, being the Saint I grew up with, rather than Roger Moore. I’m pretty sure that Leslie Charteris, the Singaporean-born Leslie Bowyer-Yin, intended Simon Templar to be a Chinese bloke, but just as I didn’t blink when the cinematic Felix Leiter went from a white Texan to an African–American in the James Bond films, so what if a Caucasian is the Saint?
   Since then I have seen all the colour Roger Moore episodes and read many of Charteris’s stories. I even saw the pilot where Australian actor, Andrew Clarke, played a Templar-with-a-mo, as well as the Val Kilmer movie which tried to get back to the literary character, with Simon Templar’s numerous aliases.

Here are some executive cars that you might not have come across—or you may have, but not often. A few entries on Autocade. I was going to say how none of them are German, but some of you might argue the first one is—sort of.

Daewoo Prince. 1991–7 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan. F/R, 1796, 1998 cm³ (4 cyl. OHC), 1998 cm³ (4 cyl. DOHC). Development of earlier Opel Commodore C-based Royale (GM V-car), but with some new sheetmetal. Prince, like Royale, had ideas above its station and was marketed as a large, luxury car in Korea. Dated at this point but considered a top model for Daewoo (below the similar Royal Salon and Brougham), until it began developing models of its own.

Daewoo Arcadia. 1993–2000 (prod. unknown). 4-door sedan. F/F, 3206 cm³ (V6 OHC). Daewoo flagship was in fact a rebadged Honda Legend (1990–6), but not as popular as Hyundai rival. Very refined, as Honda originally anticipated an upmarket move with this generation of Legend. Not directly replaced.

Fiat Argenta. 1981–6 (prod. unknown). 4-door saloon. F/R, 1585, 1995 cm³ petrol (4 cyl. DOHC), 2445 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. OHC). Rebodied 132 marketed as all-new car but evidently not. Narrow, 1960s thinking in car that was first released as 132 in the early 1970s. Adequate at best though equipment levels not bad for the era. Facelift for 1984 saw corporate five-bar grille, and addition of supercharged VX and turbodiesel models.

Renault Vel Satis. 2002 to date (prod. unknown). 5-door saloon. F/F, 1998 cm³ petrol, 1995, 2188 cm³ diesel (4 cyl. DOHC), 2958 cm³ diesel, 3498 cm³ petrol (V6 DOHC). Unable to confront BMW 5er-Reihe and German executive saloons, Renault went on an original path with Vel Satis. Show car from late 1990s was sleek and modern; production car upright. High seating position, apeing Espace minivan in some respects. Not as capable as Germans, but sold on unusual design. Poor ride, handling, with automatic gearbox leaving something to be desired. Same platform as Laguna II and Espace IV. Facelift shown April 2005, with no RHD models from then.

[Cross-posted from Lucire] Lucire has a distinct Italian flavour at the moment, thanks in part to photographer Thomaz and his Milano shots from two fashion week shows so far: Byblos and Frankie Morello. Of the two, Morello is more newsworthy in its three-dimensional, origami quality; Byblos is more subtle, using silks and cashmere in showing off a structured, almost military inspiration.
   Stanley Moss, who gave us news of a special at the splendid Palazzo Magnani Feroni in Firenze, reports on more bargains in these budget-conscious times from Italy’s most artistic city. Whether you are shopping for gloves and handbags, ceramics, or a great-value meal that includes truffles, then his ‘Florentine Insider’ article has the low-down.
   The world does not revolve around Italy, as much as we would like it to: Elyse Glickman and Leyla Messian report from Hollywood on the Golden Globes’ suites, and we show off some beds that we spotted at a Design Mobel launch in Wellington, New Zealand last Wednesday.

Honking, tailgating, excessive lane-changing—there are so many things that can drive you crazy when you’re behind the wheel. So tell us: what’s your driving pet peeve?

Tailgating would be the number-one menace for me. I don’t do it, and I certainly don’t expect others to do it. And when others do it to me, I slow down, for a very good reason: to minimize whiplash if the other driver hits me.
   I wrote on Jen’s blog that I am too stubborn to pull over unless I sense that the driver is in a legitimate emergency, because I can’t see how that would help either of us. If he is a dangerous tailgater, he will be a dangerous overtaker. And I am not sure if I should reward bad drivers—there’s my Mr Wheeler emerging.
   Honking is not a big deal for anyone who has ever driven in Italy, where they hook the horn up to the accelerator (kidding), and at certain times in Wellington’s Mt Vic Tunnel, you are expected to honk (it’s a form of greeting and stress relief). As to lane-changing: I have to do it in Auckland, since drivers there generally have not figured out that the inner lane is for slower traffic and the outer lane is for faster; though having said that, Auckland motorists tend to be all right at letting others change into their lanes.
   Sadly, overall, New Zealand drivers would rank near or at the bottom of any country I have driven in, as evidenced by the high per-capita road toll.

[Cross-posted from Lucire] Campari launched its 2009 calendar, starring Jessica Alba, at a celebrity event in Milano yesterday. We’ve featured a few of Mario Testino’s stunning images from the calendar, with Alba promoting the red spirit in each one, some subtly, some less so (with the Campari bottle being quite noticeable). Also noticeable: make-up has been getting a lot more glamorous as 2009 begins.