Alfa Romeo is about to return to the United States, as stressed many times by Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Group CEO. Marchionne also declared that Fiat Group will build a brand new plant in the US that will assemble only Alfa Romeo cars.

Mentioning the strength of the euro on the US dollar as the main reason for such a decision, the Marchionne stated that manufacturing cars in North America is vital to the Alfa Romeo brand. Marchionne also added that Alfa will start to make profits on the US market only three or four years after the brand’s debut.

A curiosity: this won’t be the first Fiat plant in the United States as the italian brand built a factory in Poughkeepsie (NY) back in 1909. Meanwhile, Alfa’s most important factory in Pomigliano D’Arco will stay closed for two months (January 7th- March 2nd 2008) for an “update”.

Via | Autoblog.com

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Mercedes Classe C Station Wagon

Mercedes-Benz has announced the new C-Class Estate. Based on the same W204 platform as the recently presented C-Class sedan, with the same engines and speficications, the C-Class Estate has a load capacity of up to 1,500 litres, higher than any other car in the segment, according to Mercedes-Benz.

Below the fold you can find the full text of the Mercedes-Benz press release concerning the new C-Class station wagon.

Continue reading: Mercedes - C Class Estate

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TopSpeed has a photoshop of the Ferrari F450, the presumptive heir of the Ferrari F430 that should be on the market in 2010.

According to TopSpeed, the F450 might have a 10-cylinder 4.5-liter engine with more than 500 hp, to better compete with the likes of the Lamborghini Gallardo. The number of cylinders would be highly unusual for Ferrari, and there would be no special reason to work on a 10-cylinder engine, now that F1 cars have 8-cylinder engines. And Ferrari,with the F430 Scuderia, has shown that it can squeeze 510 hp from the 4.3-liter V8 of the F430.

Continue reading: Ferrari F450 - photoshop

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BMW is preparing to show the three-door version of the 1-Series at the Geneva auto show, together with a slight restyling for the 5-door version. Below the fold you can find a couple of videos: the first seems to be a “capture” of an official video for the 3-door version; the second, from Carscoop, seems to be an official video of the 5-door version.

The restyling for the 5-door version seems to be a very minor job: new front and rear lights, new front bumper with bigger air intake and new fog-lights.

We are waiting for the official announcement to have more precise data regarding news on the technical data, but we can expect the 1-Series to be brought in sync with the rest of the BMW range (272 ps for the 130i, 170 ps for the 120i, etc).

Continue reading: BMW 1-Series videos - 3-door and 5-door facelift

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The official blog of the Fiat Bravo, “Quelli che Bravo”, is publishing a series of posts on the design & development of the Bravo. The latest instalment is about the interior, with a coupe of nice sketches by the Centro Stile Fiat. These sketches are the only “official” view we have of the interior of the Bravo, but on our italian language blog you can see the latest unofficial images of the Bravo, both inside and outside.

Continue reading: Fiat Bravo - interior sketches

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Finally Lancia has officialy announced the Delta HPE Concept. Below you can find the full text of the press release.

Continue reading: Lancia Delta HPE Concept - press release

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To complement the first news about the new Audi S3, below the fold you can find the official Audi press release and high-res images.

Continue reading: Audi S3 - official press release

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More photos and details on the Land Rover Freelander 2. It will be available in Europe at the end of 2006, with prices starting from 30.000 €. Performance and engine data is available in the previous post (a 3.2 liters V6 gasoline engine outputting 233 ps, a 2.2 liters turbo-diesel with 160 ps).

The Freelander 2 will grow by 77 mm in length (4.50 meters), by 101 mm in width (1.91 m - 2.18 m with mirrors) and by 23 mm in height (1.82 or 1.74 m, depending on whether roof rails are present). The luggage comparment has a capacity of 755 liters.

The 4WD system is based on a Haldex multi-disk clutch. In optimal conditions, torque will be going almost exclusively to the front axle. When needed, the Haldex clutch will transfer torque to the rear axle. The response time is 150 ms, but the clutch can be “pre-loaded”, thanks to the PreX system, already seen on the Volvo XC90.

The Freelander 2 will be available with alloy rims going from 16″ to 19″, (tyres from 215/75R16 to 235/55R19).

Via | km77.com, which also has plenty of high-res photosy.

Continue reading: Land Rover Freelander - more photos and data

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AMG is thought to be going to produce the Mercedes SLK 55 Tracksport, a limited production run of the SLK 55 AMG.

The M113 E55 EVO engine with 400 hp and 520 Nm (about 40 hp more than the standard SLK 55 AMG). The 0-60 should go down to 4.5 seconds, from the SLK 55’s 4.9 seconds.

The SLK Tracksport should “feature a hard top, 19 inch wheels, a new front and rear apron, a new leather package for the interior, a carbon package for the exterior, and a number of new matte lacquer finishes available as an option.”

The production run should be limited to 120 units.

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After its debut at the Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza, here are the official images of the Ferrari 575 GTZ, a one-off made by italian bodyshop Zagato for a japanese collector (here you can find the press release).

Continue reading: Ferrari 575 GTZ - official photos

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