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Abarth 695 Biposto revealed as quickest Fiat 500 yet

The Fiat 500 is supposed to be a budget model - something you can pick up with less than twenty grand to your name. But once Abarth gets its hands on it, all bets are off. The Scorpion brand is charged with getting the most performance it can out of budget-oriented vehicles like the Cinquecento and Punto, and that's just what it's done with the new 695 Biposto.
Billed as the "fastest street legal Abarth ever" (quickest?) and unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, the 695 Biposto packs a 1.4-liter turbo four that's been tuned to produce 190 horsepower - a good thirty more than the already entertaining Fiat 500 Abarth we get in the United States. With a robust power-to-weight ratio - the highest in its class, according to the Italians - the 695 Biposto can hit 62 miles per hour from a standstill in just 5.9 seconds, more than a second quicker than the US model.
Now if you saw the name Biposto and figured out that means just two seats, you're spot on: in its campaign to trim excess fat, Abarth has ditched the rear bench and replaced the front seats with a set of Sabelt racing buckets with four-point harnesses anchored where the rear seats would be. The fixed plexiglass front side windows do their part, too. It's also been fitted with adjustable shocks, an MXL digital data recorder, a titanium rear roll bar, Brembo brakes and 18-inch OZ alloys.

Court ruling to delay Fiat's Chrysler buyout?

We've already reported on the attempts of Fiat to purchase the remaining 41.5-percent stake in Chrysler, currently owned by the United Auto Workers' VEBA healthcare trust. And while the issues still aren't resolved, Fiat has received both a bit of good news and a bit of bad news from a Delaware judge.
The good news is that the court ruled in favor on two key arguments of Fiat's, relating to what is a fair price for the Chrysler shares. The rulings essentially slash half a billion dollars off the price of the 54,000 shares owned by VEBA, according to a report from Reuters.
The bad news is that this makes the UAW an even more difficult opponent in negotiations. Its VEBA fund is meant to cover ever escalating retiree healthcare costs, so naturally, the UAW wants to get as much money as possible. Losing a big chunk of cash isn't likely to make the union more cooperative.

P. Diddy hosting Fiat 500L desert party

Fiat didn't run an advertisement during this year's Super Bowl. We've no idea why, though, because based on this recently released 60-second spot, the Italian brand probably could have done quite well during the big game.
The spot, called Mirage, stars Sean "Diddy" Combs (who happens to be the ex of former Fiat spokesperson Jennifer Lopez) and a pair of very unfortunate pedestrians. Wandering through the desert, the two are confronted by what they think are mirages before stumbling into a giant party hosted by the Grammy Award-winning rapper. It's a humorous spot, highlighting a product that Fiat really needs to succeed, the new 500L.
The Super Bowl-worthy ad is part of a larger campaign that will hopefully help distinguish the four-door L model from its smaller, two-door counterpart. "Too many people discover the 500L through the 500. That's what we have to solve for here," Jason Stoicevich, head of Fiat's brand in North America, told Automotive News. "It's awareness. We know it, we understand it and we had to find a creative way to deal with it."