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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.

Is this 1983 Fiat Spider EV conversion worth Porsche 911 GTS money?

$140,000 can buy a lot of car. Nothing about Fiat Spiders built in the 1980s would be described as "a lot," unless you're referring to the quantity of maintenance that is sometimes required just to keep them on the road. In that context, this eBay find, a 1983 Pininfarina Spider America EV conversion, might be a bit of a two-for-one. Not only do you get a lot more power, but you might even get a lot more reliability.  Sure, you could score a brand-new Porsche 911 Carrera GTS for the price of this humble Italian roadster, but the fine folks of Roadster Salon think they might be able to make it worth your while.  This conversion retains the stock five-speed manual transmission, but mates it to a dual-motor electric drive unit that produces an unspecified amount of horsepower and more than 200 pound-feet of torque. Admittedly, those numbers don't really stack up nicely against the brand-new Porsche's, but, hey, at least it's a manual? The power unit itself is supplied by Electric GT, which has carved out a niche for itself developing electric "crate motors" that are as close to plug-and-play as possible, which should be a point in favor of this conversion's overall build quality, as custom fabrication would have been kept to a minimum.  Roadster Salon will also go over the suspension and steering components, updating them to modern standards (and ostensibly to support the extra power from the EV conversion), so you're getting more for your money than just some electron-pumping spinny bits.  So, it's much fancier than your run-of-the-mill 1980s Fiat Spider; you just have to spend a lot more money for the privilege. Like, an astronomical amount. Oh, and the car hasn't actually been built yet; what you're bidding for is a build slot in a forthcoming 2020-21 production allocation.  If you desperately want your own Fiat Pininfarina Spider America EV but can't stomach the $139,995 price tag, we have great news. Roadster Salon will sell you an "EV Junior" variant, which retails for just $89,995 — a bargain! Alternatively, you can wait for Electric GT to finalize its crate Fiat crate EV motors for mass production and just slap one together yourself. How hard can it be?

Fiat Centro Stile sells design sketches to support kids in Italy

Fiat's Centro Stile design studio in Europe has kicked off a project called stART Again to support the global charity Save the Children. The studio put 136 high-resolution sketches of Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep, and Lancia vehicles for download online at just ˆ20 a pop — about $22. The proceeds from all sales will be donated to a charity founded in England 101 years ago "to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts." Save the Children will use the funds to provide supplies, teaching materials, and support for studies for more than 100,000 children in the most disadvantaged areas of Italy who have been additionally harmed by the coronavirus and its effects. There are a heap of knockout drawings available. The selection at the Alfa Romeo store ranges from a 1958 Alfetta 158 racer to the coming Giulia GTA, classics in between including the immortal GTV 6 and the left-field 75 1.8 Turbo TCC racer. The Fiat marketplace contains wares from Abarth, Fiat, and Fiat Professional, with a massive emphasis on the new 500, but the hardcore 1972 Abarth 124 Spyder and oddball 900E van get slots in there (the 900E looks like a Volkswagen Vanagon, but the 900E came first). The Jeep shop is all business and big tires, save for the 1942 Willys MB, but someone needs to take the 1956 Jeep Forward Control sketch off the page and into reality. And the Lancia store has more to offer than the Stratos and Delta Integrale, an ominous Aurelia B20 GT and a Fulvia GT part of the five-model lineup. For some reason, Maserati got left out of the graphic bonanza, as did Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, which is a shame. That still leaves 136 good reasons to click through and help the kiddies. Related Video: