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Fiat 500X takes the blue pill

The Fiat 500 keeps getting bigger. Ron Arad aptly pointed out that much with his special-edition hatchback, but even in its modern incarnation, it just keeps growing: from the three-door hatch to the five-seat 500L, the ruggedized 500L Trekking, the seven-seat 500L Living and now the long-awaited 500X. Sure, it may be smaller than most crossovers, but it's positively huge by Cinquecento standards - a good third larger than the original whose spirit it embodies.
So how did Fiat make it grow? We'll give you a hint, Morpheus: it didn't take the red pill. As if it doesn't itself know, Fiat puts forward this possible explanation that's worth a watch... if you can make it through the first borderline-NSFW scene without puking. All we'll say is that the sexual suggestiveness of the 500 Abarth ad with Catrinel Menghia was a bit more palatable.

What a 28.5-liter LSR engine sounds like firing up for the first time in 100 years

Racecars seem to keep getting quieter these days, and if electric vehicles and fuel cells ever fully take over motorsports, then the bang, pop and growl of internal combustion engines may be gone for good. This clip of a Fiat S76 land speed record racer awaking after over a century of being dormant shows just what we would miss so much. The four-cylinder engine in this Fiat displaces about 28.5 liters, making it among the largest automotive engines ever, and it gives each cylinder around as much capacity as the whole mill in a Chevrolet Camaro Z/28. Once this thing starts firing with no exhaust in place, the look and sound is like a demon at work with a rain of fire and sparks. This clip is just the trailer for a documentary called the Beast of Turin chronicling the history of this period of racing. The movie also focuses on the rebuild and restoration of the S76 after over 100 years. If the rest of the film lives up to this tease, then it looks like something to watch for.

Stellantis ready to kill brands and fix U.S. problems, CEO Tavares says

  MILAN — Stellantis is taking steps to fix weak margins and high inventory at its U.S. operations and will not hesitate to axe underperforming brands in its sprawling portfolio, its chief executive Carlos Tavares said on Thursday. The warning for lossmaking brands is a turnaround for Tavares, who has maintained since Stellantis was created in 2021 from the merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA that all of its 14 brands including Maserati, Fiat, Peugeot and Jeep have a future. "If they don't make money, we'll shut them down," Carlos Tavares told reporters after the world's No. 4 automaker delivered worse-than-expected first-half results, sending its shares down as much as 10%. "We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money." The automaker now also considers China's Leapmotor as its 15th brand, after it agreed to a broad cooperation with the group. Stellantis does not release figures for individual brands, except for Maserati which reported an 82 million euro adjusted operating loss in the first half. Some analysts say Maserati could possibly be a target for a sale by Stellantis, while other brands such as Lancia or DS might be at risk of being scrapped given their marginal contribution to the group's overall sales. Stellantis' Milan-listed shares were down as much as 12.5% on Thursday, hitting their lowest since August 2023. That brings the loss for the year so far to 22%, making them the worst performer among the major European automakers. Few automotive brands have been killed off since General Motors ditched the unprofitable Saturn and Pontiac during a U.S. government-led bankruptcy in the global financial crisis in 2008. Tavares is under pressure to revive flagging margins and sales and cut inventory in the United States as Stellantis bets on the launch of 20 new models this year which it hopes will boost profitability. Recent poor results from global carmakers have heightened worries about a weakening outlook for sales across major markets such as the U.S., whilst they also juggle an expensive transition to electric vehicles and growing competition from cheaper Chinese rivals. Japan's Nissan Motor saw first-quarter profit almost completely wiped out on Thursday and slashed its annual outlook, as deep discounting in the United States shredded its margins. Tavares said he would be working through the summer with his U.S. team on how to improve performance and cut inventory.