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Concept Car of the Week: Alfa Romeo BAT 7

This week sees the Concept of the Week title go to Alfa Romeo and Bertone for their collaboration on the Alfa Romeo BAT 7, the second addition to the BAT series that began in 1953 and finished in 1955. First seen at the 1954 Turin motor show, this wildly futuristic ‘dream' car came about after Alfa Romeo contacted Giuseppe "Nuccio" Bertone of the Bertone carrozeria to commission three concepts with the lowest possible drag coefficient. The cars were named BAT for "Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica." Built upon the Alfa Romeo 1900 chassis, the BAT cars featured large rear bumpers and curved fins, and the concepts achieved a drag coefficient of just 0.19 - an impressive result.

Jet Age lands at Rodeo Drive Concours

Fins and aerodynamic stability -- the latter sometimes real, sometimes just for style -- dominated the 20th anniversary of the Rodeo Drive Concours in Beverly Hills Sunday. The era of magnificent tail fins was born from the sweet optimism of the 1950s, when “The Future” was just around the corner and we were all looking forward to piloting jet packs, being served by robots and living in futuristic domed cities on the moon. You could call it The Jet Age, and when businessjet timeshare company Flexjet offered to sponsor the Rodeo Drive Concours this year, it suddenly sounded like the perfect theme for the show.

Study finds customer satisfaction up slightly

U.S. customer satisfaction with vehicles industrywide has increased slightly, fueled by gains among Asian and European automakers, according to an annual report released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index on Tuesday. Overall satisfaction with the auto industry climbed 1.2 percent from 2010 to 83.