13 X 7 " Vintage Nos. Luxor Reverse Sphinx 4-100 Universal Fit Wheel Rims, on 2040-parts.com

Lorenzo Ramaciotti visits RCA for 'Two of a Kind' project

Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Fiat-Chrysler's head of global design, has visited the Royal College of Art as part of the Fiat ‘Two of a Kind' project explaining how Italian design has become world-famous in all fields in a talk themed ‘The Roots of Italian Car Design'. The ‘Two of a Kind' project asks four teams of four Vehicle Design students to design innovative exterior and interior proposals for how the Fiat 500 and the Panda might look in 2020, taking interactivity, digital interface, sustainability and global appeal into account. Maserati brought along a Quattroporte, a GranTurismo Sport as well as an Alfa Giulietta Sportiva to complement his talk in the hope it would encourage students to consider what the carmaker believes are the three concepts of the legacy of Italian car design: sportiness-dynamism; elegance-balance; and character-personality.

Hoon Small! Fiat 500 Abarth to start at $22,000

Fiat's U.S. arm is hoping that the Abarth-tuned antisocial edition of its diminutive 500 will inject some heat into the model's disappointing sales figures. Pricing it starting at $22,000, not including destination charges, should make the heated, tiny Italian more compelling to hot-hatch enthusiasts.

July 14: Figuring out range

Topping off the tank seems to work best. By keeping it full I get a lot more freedom and a lot less range anxiety. Today I drove up to Pasadena twice, down to Los Angeles, west to Santa Monica and all the way back to my office in LA.