Lancia Ypsilon Versus edition

The other day I was sitting at a beachside bar where they had Fashion TV playing on flatscreens around the place and I couldn't help notice that while some of the stuff looked great, the rest looked horrible. Looks like the same trend has applied itself to automotive design, as Italian fashion house Versace has forged a new relationship with another automaker. But while the Versace edition Lamborghini Murcielago looks cooler than air conditioning in Alaska, somehow this new Lancia Ypsilon doesn't quite cut it.

That's probably more Lancia's fault than Versace's, but the overall package, thorough though it is, leaves much to be desired. Created with Versace's second brand Versus, the special edition Ypsilon is sprayed bronze, much like the customers likely to buy it. The Versus logo is applied all over the interior and exterior of the car, which features matching bronze chromework and rims. The Lancia Ypsilon Versus edition will be unveiled in concept form next week in Paris, and will be produced in a limited run of 500 examples starting in March next year. This isn't the first designer edition Ypsilon, following the previous Momo edition, but Lancia's going to need something better than a new paint job to extract itself from the bronze age. For our part, we'd sooner go for the Diesel edition Fiat 500.

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2010 Lancia Ypsilon: Artist's Impression of Next Generation Premium Supermini

According to the Fiat Group's product plan, we're supposed to see the new Lancia Ypsilon making its world debut sometime this year but we wouldn't be at all surprised if the Italians have pushed the launch date of the premium supermini back to 2010. But just to get an idea of what the Ypsilon's replacement may look like when it hits European showrooms in 2010, here's a speculative artist's impression of the supermini that was published on Motorionline.

There's no way of being sure about the accuracy of the CGI that blends styling elements from the current Ypsilon and the new Delta hatchback, but we do know that the luxury supermini will share its underpinnings with the Fiat Grande Punto and the Alfa Romeo MiTo hatchbacks.

The engine range will also be common with other models of the Italian group, so buyers can expect to see the 1.4-liter turbocharged petrol as well as new Multijet diesel powerplants.

As with the previous Ypsilon models, the Lancia will feature higher-quality cabin trim and materials with customers being offered a variety of options to personalize their car.

[Photos & Link: Motorionline]

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Lancia Hyena: Zagato's Delta Integrale Coupe Spotted in The Netherlands

Once upon a time, not too long ago, Lancia produced a car that made grown men weep. Yes, we're talking about the last truly desirable production Lancia, the Delta HF Integrale which dominated the rally scene in the late 1980s and 1990s. Towards the end of the Integrale's career, famed Italian design house Zagato and Dutch Lancia importer Paul Coot had an idea: why not create a limited series coupe variant of the Delta Integrale. And the Hyena was born.

Designed by Marco Pedracini in 1990, the Hyena was introduced as a production model at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1992. Even though the two cars shared the same underpinnings including the Integrale's famed all-wheel drive system and the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine tweaked to deliver around 250HP, the Hyena boasted its own unique styling that was a radical departure from the boxy Delta.

Just like Zagato's Alfa Romeo SZ of the same era, the Lancia Hyena is one of those controversially styled cars that you're drawn to even though you feel like that you're not supposed to.

Aside from the unique bodywork and the tweaked engine, the Hyena was also significantly lighter than its five-door counterpart weighing close to 200 kg or 440 pounds less than the Delta HF Integrale. The 3.99m long coupe was said to accelerate from zero to 100km/h in just 5.4 seconds.

Zagato and Coot initially agreed with Lancia to produce around 500 unit of the Hyena, but in typical Fiat Group style, the Italian automaker pulled out of the deal and only 24 pieces were ever built making the Hyena one of the most sought after Integrales of all time.

This particular example (the yellow Hyena) was spotted by a member of the Autogespot forums in the city of Rotterdam in The Netherlands. The Red Hyena is up for sale in the UK by Classic Driver for 105,995 GBP which comes to around $173,000 or €124,000 at today's exchange rates.

[Via: Classic Driver & Autogespot]

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Analyst Forecasts New Chrysler and Fiat Models Until 2012 Including Jeep based Alfa GTX SUV

Research firm IHS Global Insight (GI) has released a new analysis forecasting a variety of Chrysler and Fiat Group models to be built in North America between 2011 and 2012. Before we say anything else, we'd advise to pay attention to the words 'analysis' and 'forecast'. That said, don't take everything you read as a fact. The report begins with the Alfa Romeo 169, a BMW 5-Series rival that is said to be built at Chrysler's Ontario factory in Canada with the first models rolling off the assembly line as early as November 2011.

The analyst predicts that the 169 will be based on Chrysler's LX platform which underpins the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger models. While it makes sense for the Italians to use the LX platform, unless Fiat is planning to simply re-skin / re-mask the next-generation Chrysler 300 into an Alfa, in which case, we're talking about a mistake from Fiat's behalf, saying that that the Alfa Romeo 169 will be ready to enter production in about two years time, is quite optimistic. Plus, as you can see in one of Fiat's previous product plans, Alfa was supposedly scheduling to introduce a self-developed 169 in 2009 - what happened to that?

Talking about the LX platform, the forecaster said that due to the bankruptcy of Chrysler LLC and the plant closures, the start of production of the new 2011 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 have been delayed to November 2010 and January 2011 respectively.

Continuing with the North American-built Fiat models, Global Insight said that the highly successful in Europe, 500 mini, will be made in Toluca, Mexico with U.S. sales starting in July 2011.

The MINI-rivaling 500 will be the only Fiat-badged model to be sold in the States. Since the 500 is based on Fiat's 169 platform, the Toluca plant will also produce the Jeep Panda 4x4, again from July 2011. We're guessing that the Jeep variant will most likely be a remasked version of the European market Panda 4x4.

Next up we have an array of models based on the Fiat Group's C-EVO platform that underpins C-segment cars like the Lancia Delta and Fiat Bravo. The report says that the C-EVO will be used on the next-generation Dodge Journey crossover, Dodge Caliber crossover and Chrysler Sebring sedan. Production is slated to begin for the Journey and Caliber in July 2012 at the Belvidere Assembly Plant, and for the Sebring, in June 2011 at the Toluca assembly plant.

In addition to the above models, the C-EVO platform is also reported to form the base for an Alfa Romeo compact SUV (no date) and weirdly enough, for the successor of the Jeep Liberty (July 2012) with both SUVs said to be produced at the Toledo plant in Ohio.

But the report gets even better as it is predicted that Fiat will produce a larger Alfa Romeo SUV model called the GTX at Chrysler's Jefferson North Assembly Plant beginning in July 2011. The GTX is said to be based on Jeep's WL platform that underpins the 2011 Grand Cherokee. However, bear in mind that the Grand Cherokee's WL platform is derived from Mercedes-Benz (it was developed during Daimler's reign over the company) so we're not entirely sure if Fiat has the rights to use the platform for one of its own models.

The paper ends with two subcompact hatches, the Dodge Hornet and Alfa Romeo MiTo that will share the same hardware- aka Fiat's 199 B-segment platform. Both cars are reported to be built for the American market at Chrysler's Belvidere assembly plant in Illinois with production slated to begin in March 2011 for the Hornet and July 2011 for the MiTo.

Call us skeptics, but if you want our opinion, we find the forecast extremely optimistic in the sense that Fiat will not only have to develop, design, engineer and test a whole bunch of new cars but also revamp Chrysler's North American factories to build the vehicles and all this in just two years from now.

[Source: Carsoop]

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