1998 Alfa Romeo 916 Spider Lusso on 2040-cars

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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Drive like a prince: Join us for a walk through Monaco's car collection

Small, crowded, and a royal pain in the trunk lid to drive into during rush hour, Monaco sounds like an improbable location for a huge car museum. And yet, this tiny city-state has been closely linked to car culture for over a century. It hosts two major racing events every year, many of its residents would qualify for a frequent shopper card if Rolls-Royce issued one, and Prince Rainier III began assembling a collection of cars in the late 1950s. He opened his collection to the public in 1993 and the museum quickly turned into a popular tourist attraction. The collection continued to grow after his death in April 2005; it moved to a new facility located right on Hercules Port in July 2022. Monaco being Monaco, you'd expect to walk into a room full of the latest, shiniest, and most powerful supercars ever to shred a tire. That's not the case: while there is no shortage of high-horsepower machines, the first cars you see after paying ˆ10 (approximately $11) to get in are pre-war models. In that era, the template for the car as we know it in 2023 hadn't been created, so an eclectic assortment of expensive and dauntingly experimental machines roamed whatever roads were available to them. One is the Leyat Helica, which was built in France in 1921 with a 1.2-liter air-cooled flat-twin sourced from the world of aviation. Fittingly, the two-cylinder spun a massive, plane-like propeller. Government vehicles get a special spot in the museum. They range from a Cadillac Series 6700 with an amusing blend of period-correct French-market yellow headlights and massive fins to a 2011 Lexus LS 600h with a custom-made transparent roof panel that was built by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet for Prince Albert II's wedding. Here's where it all gets a little weird: you've got a 1952 Austin FX3, a Ghia-bodied 1959 Fiat 500 Jolly, a 1960 BMW Isetta, and a 1971 Lotus Seven. That has to be someone's idea of a perfect four-car garage.  One of the most significant cars in the collection lurks in the far corner of the main hall, which is located a level below the entrance. At first glance, it's a kitted-out Renault 4CV with auxiliary lights, a racing number on the front end, and a period-correct registration number issued in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of France. It doesn't look all that different than the later, unmodified 4CV parked right next to it. Here's what's special about it: this is one of the small handful of Type 1063 models built by Renault for competition.

Alfa Romeo could reportedly bring Sauber F1 tech to its road cars

In the summer of 2018, Alfa Romeo laid out its five-year plan, only weeks before former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne passed away. Alfa ambitiously projected several new vehicles of various shapes, sizes and performance levels but gave only vague details. A new report from Piston Heads adds a layer of color to the timeline, suggesting one or more of these upcoming rides could feature influence from Alfa Romeo's Formula 1 partner Sauber. PistonHeads.com recently had the chance to chop it up with Sauber Team Principal Frederic Vasseur at the F1 pre-season sessions in Barcelona, where Alfa Romeo and Sauber were testing out their just-unveiled 2019 car. According to the brief conversation, Alfa and Sauber have collaborations in the works beyond the paddock. "We are already working on another project together and you will see the result quite soon," Vasseur told PH. "It's a huge opportunity for us, but it will involve only the guys at the factory in Switzerland, as the trackside guys are focussed on the racing." Vasseur later tipped that they might have several projects in development. Without any more details, there's a lot of room for speculation, so let's quickly unpack what Alfa has already admitted to be planning. In addition to two new SUVs that will launch in the upcoming years, the performance-minded Italian brand said it would resurrect two well-known and highly desirable nameplates: 8C and GTV. Both cars will reportedly be hybrids, with the 8C serving as a halo mid-engined supercar, while the GTV will essentially be a Giulia coupe, complete with an eventual Quadrifoglio variant. Considering how great and high-powered the current Giulia and Stelvio Quadrifoglios already are, it seems unlikely these projects would deal with those current models. It's possible Sauber is helping Alfa Romeo with the GTV, as previous reports suggested the two-door will have F1-derived technology, but it is unclear if the coupe is coming "quite soon." It's also possible that Sauber is collaborating with Alfa on all of its upcoming performance electrification and hybrid technology. For now, it's a guessing game, but if the reports are accurate, we won't have to wait much longer to learn more. News Source: Piston Heads Rumormill Alfa Romeo Crossover Racing Vehicles Performance Sedan F1