2012 Fiat 500 Abarth- Only 10,887mi. Fastest Bolt-on Fiat On The Road on 2040-cars

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FCA worker in Indiana tests for coronavirus, but the plant will stay open

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said Thursday that an employee has tested positive for COVID-19 at its Kokomo, Indiana, transmission plant, but the location will remain open. The Italian-American automaker said the company placed the employee and his immediate co-workers and others he may have come into direct contact with in home quarantine. The automaker said it is “deploying additional sanitization measures across the entire facility, re-timing break times to avoid crowding and deploying social spacing.” Fiat Chrysler is canceling all in-person meetings unless “business critical” and conducted meetings through video conferencing technologies. Automakers also have canceled non-essential travel. Ford, meanwhile, said its plants in North America remain unaffected. General Motors spokesman Jim Cain said the Detroit automaker has not had any cases of the coronavirus in its North American plants yet, citing such measures as reduced travel and restricted entry to plants as helping. How the No. 1 U.S. automaker would respond to a positive test would depend on the situation, he added. “You do plan to operate with a certain amount of absenteeism, but every facility has a different operating plan,” he said. The Fiat side of the FCA operation, meanwhile,  is temporarily halting operations at some plants in Italy and will reduce production rates in response to coronavirus in the country, the largest outbreak in Europe, a spokesman for the automaker said on Wednesday. FCA said in a statement it had stepped up measures across its facilities, including intensive sanitation of all work and rest areas, to support the government's directives to curb the spread of the infectious disease. "As a result of taking these actions the company will, where necessary, make temporary closures of its plants across Italy," it said. The spokesman said affected plants were Pomigliano, Melfi, Atessa and Cassino, each of them halted for two or three days between Wednesday and Saturday. FCA said that to allow greater spacing of employees at their workstations, "daily production rates will be lowered to accommodate the adapted manufacturing processes." However, a source close to the matter said FCA did not expect an impact on overall production rates. The source added that temporary closures were in no way linked to disruptions of auto parts supplies following anti-virus measures imposed by Rome all over Italy.

Fiat Panda by M-Sport a one-of-a-kind rally car

English racing and engineering firm M-Sport is probably best known for the Bentley Continental GT3 endurance racer and the Ford Fiesta R5 customer rally car. Since building the first of 294 Fiesta R5 Mk. I cars in 2013, the fleet of pint-sized competitors has won a total of more than 950 races. So when a longstanding M-Sport customer asked the company to do something special with a clapped-out, 1990s-era Fiat Panda that would retain the car's Panda-ness but also make it a stonking rally car, M-Sport decided to combine the Italian with the Anglo-American. The result is the Panda by M-Sport, a widened Panda bodyshell lowered atop a Fiesta R5 chassis and engine. Otherwise known as Panda'monium. Or Pandiesta, if you're tipsy. Just fitting the skinny Fiat over the tube-frame chassis meant widening the Panda's body shell by 14.2 inches; that slick grille is actually made of two Panda grilles to gain the required width. That surgery helps maintain the original Panda's silhouette, but more was needed to slide the Fiesta's wider track underneath. More latitudinal stretch was provided by the box-section wheel arches that, up front, flow into a front bumper that is half snowplow. In the longitudinal direction, the Pandiesta's wheelbase is 12.6 inches longer than that of the stock Panda. The Ford's 1.6-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder lives under the hood. It sends nearly 300 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque to four Pirelli P Zeros through a five-speed sequential transmission and two custom differentials. The new rear diffuser and single, central exhaust convey the seriousness of the endeavor. Hand-embossed lettering spells "PANDA 4x4" on the rear hatch in case anyone has questions about this having as much capability as the standard Panda 4x4. The interior is all Fiesta R5 save for the Panda-mimicking instrument panel and the co-driver's footrest. The latter is also inscribed with the word "PANDA." Despite the license plate, there's no question of street legality here, or rather illegality. M-Sport says the Panda'monium is ready to do any special stage on tarmac or gravel. Seems this is also the car that launches a new division for customer creations called MS-SV, which is M-Sport Special Vehicles. You can watch M-Sport owner Malcom Wilson take you on tour of the Panda by M-Sport in the video at top, and check out what the finished product can do on a track here.  Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party.

Fiat 500X poised for Paris catwalk

We've known for some time that the new, Fiat-based baby Jeep (which may or may not be called the Jeepster) is set to arrive at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. What we weren't sure of was whether its platform mate, the so-called Fiat 500X, would be doing so alongside or at a later date. Well, according to Reuters, we'll get to see the first all-wheel-drive 500 later this year in the City of Lights.
Yes, we can expect the 500X to arrive at the 2014 Paris Motor Show, according to an official with an Italian trade union. The unnamed source cited retooling at Fiat's Melfi factory, in southern Italy, which currently produces the Grande Punto. It's expected that the newest member of the growing 500 family will replace the Suzuki SX4-based Fiat Sedici, although when the X will go on sale remains an open question.
According to Reuters, both the Jeepster and 500X will be built alongside each other in Italy. Whether the 500X will cross the pond with it's slat-grilled cousin, though, remains to be seen (we're leaning towards yes).