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Lee Iacocca’s 10,000-square-foot Bel Air mansion hits the market

We’ve seen the auctioning off of much of the estate of the late, famed auto executive and former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, who died last year at age 94, including his 1992 Dodge Viper and wood-sided 1986 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country Convertible. Now comes his former Southern California mansion, which has hit the market for a cool $26.9 million. The Tuscan-style mansion in the tony Bel Air section of Los Angeles is where Iacocca lived following his retirement from Chrysler and the automotive industry in 1992. According to the website TopTenRealEstateDeals.com, itÂ’s a 10,682 square-foot, five-bedroom, eight-bath palace on 1 acre near the Bel Air Country Club. It comes with four ensuite guest rooms, a separate staff apartment, formal living and dining rooms, a wood-paneled library and five (!) fireplaces. High ceilings, chandeliers and expensive wood trim and moulding work abound. ItÂ’s also tailor-made for entertaining, with big open-plan rooms opening to landscaped terraces, a chefÂ’s kitchen, a swimming pool, spa and tennis courts. And in fact, Iacocca was said to have entertained the likes of Bob and Delores Hope, Frank and Barbara Sinatra, Priscilla Presley and Betty White. Oddly, considering Iacocca was one of the first celebrity auto execs, thereÂ’s no information about the estateÂ’s garage; Autoblog has inquired about that with the listing agents and will update this if we hear back. In the overhead view in the gallery above, the driveway leads to the large wing on the left side of the house, so the garage is potentially pretty big, but it's hard to say what else might share space under that roof. Aside from his work developing the iconic Ford Mustang in the 1960s, Iacocca is perhaps best known to generations of Americans for his role rescuing Chrysler from collapse. He did so by securing a $1.2 billion federal loan from Congress, restructuring the company by cutting wages and closing plants introducing popular fuel-efficient cars like the K Car and introducing the minivan. After his retirement in 1992, Iacocca invested in casinos and a line of imported olive oil, and he was a member of several corporate boards.   Featured Gallery Lee Iacocca's Bel Air mansion View 11 Photos Celebrities Chrysler

Dodge Viper saved from crusher by students, but will it last?

The saga of the Washington state community college hoping to keep its allegedly pre-production Dodge Viper out of the maw of the crusher is going strong. Not only does the school still have the car, but there's a chance that the college might even get to keep it.
The whole situation flared up in March when the South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, WA, received a notice from Chrysler Group that requested that the school's Viper be destroyed. The automaker had loaned the muscle car to it about a decade ago to use for educational purposes in its auto tech classes. With the Dodge growing long in the tooth, "it is unlikely that these vehicles offer any educational value to students," the company said in its press release on the matter.
However, the college balked at destroying its Viper, despite the fact it had signed a contract with Chrysler Group to do so. The school further claimed that its car was incredibly special because it was a pre-production example and just the fourth one made back in 1992. Although, as we pointed out at the time, the photos of the school's vehicle showed a coupe that looked like a newer Viper GTS.

Fiat GIF-based ads make our heads spin

Take a good, long look at the image above. Don't worry, it's completely real; you're not hallucinating. Would you believe that's an actual screencap from an actual ad commissioned by Fiat that's airing on actual television? Believe it.
The commercials started as a series of animated GIFs from The Richards Group for Fiat's Tumblr page, according to Adweek. Chrysler's Chief Marketing Officer reportedly liked them enough that he had them cut into ads for TV. The result is a combination of Internet meme heaven that includes the above horse mask and "Deal with it," animation, experimental filmmaking, cats, a person in a bunny suit twerking on a Fiat 500 and more general bizarreness.
Whatever your opinion on them, you have to admit that the advertising is certainly attention grabbing. Imagine looking up at the TV form your tablet to catch a glimpse of this weirdness. If you don't like them, Fiat is even giving people the chance to do a better job. Its Tumblr is open to submissions of new GIFs, which could lead to some very inappropriate and potentially hilarious results given the way that the Internet often works.