After two days and 608 km of timed special stages in Argentina, Gerard de Rooy is leading the truck category of the Dakar Rally in the Iveco-powered Team de Rooy Ginaf truck, closely followed by the two Kamaz factory team entries

Three factory-run Grande Punto Abarths will lead out the seven Abarth that appear on the entry list for the 77th Rallye Monte Carlo, which runs this year for the first time as the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge

Australian Cabinet papers for 1978, released by the National Archives of Australia, reveal a bizarre proposal by Alfa Romeo to trade ‘cars for cows’: buying 7,000 tons of beef in exchange for an increased car sales quota of 2,000 units

The year may be just getting underway but preparations for the Rolex 24 At Daytona are in full swing at Mastercar - Coast 2 Costa Racing which plans to enter the race in the GT category as usual with a pair of Ferrari F430GTs

With 43,559 vehicles sold in Italy during December, down 15.14 pct year-on-year, a better than expected result in light of the global recession, the Fiat Group ends the year having racked up 689,686 vehicle registrations in its home market

Gerard De Rooy will begin his bid to win the Dakar Rally in his Iveco engined truck tomorrow; only 28 years old he has quite a track record, finishing three of his five participations to the Dakar: 6th in 2002, 3rd in 2004 and 5th in 2005

Abarth has chosen to use the integrated NX Advanced Simulation solutions from Siemens to analyse suspension systems for both its high performance road car range and the Grande Punto Abarth Super2000 rally machine

The Fiat Ritmo, as the Bravo is known in Australia, the stylish family hatch with so much Italian ‘brio’ that its name is the Italian for rhythm, is now available for a limited time in Australia from A$19,990 driveaway price

This weekend the Dakar Rally 2009 sets off to discover a new continent, South America, and in contention for victory when the 530 competitors roll out of Buenos Aires will be the Iveco Cursor 13 powered trucks of Team De Rooy

Photo Gallery: Fiat Sedici [2009 restyling]

The Pininfarina family will sell their stake in the historic 600 million euro debt laden Italian design-and-engineering company as the long drawn out restructuring plan which will see an end to contract manufacturing is finally in place

Dallara today released further information about its entry level range of cars titled the Formulino (Little Formula in Italian); the latest addition is the Pro version which completes a 3 step range of cars, the Base, Plus and Pro

Police in Croatia have arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of stealing no less than 30 Fiat Uno cars for joy rides over the past three months; appropriately the suspect was behind the wheel of a Uno when he was detained

Giandomenico Basso is confident that a pre Monte Carlo test will kick start a successful season for his Abarth team in 2009; the Italian clinched two wins at the end of this year’s season and is determined to hit the ground running in 2009

Fiat India Automobiles, the joint venture of Fiat and Tata Motors, has delivered the first batch of 100 Lineas from its plant in Ranjangaon near Pune to 50 of the 65 dealerships under the Tata Fiat umbrella across the country

The Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club of Malaysia recently marked the end of its events calendar for 2008 with their flagship event, the 11th AROC MY Grand Tour 2008, the 620 km long Targa Nord through the northern states of Kedah and Perlis

Photo Gallery: 11th AROC Malaysia Grand Tour 2008: 620 km Targa Nord

The Fiat Sedici is set to receive a cosmetic makeover early next year, first images of the facelifted crossover model, that is built in a joint venture with Suzuki, have circulated on the internet ahead of its Geneva Motor Show debut

Reiter Engineering has followed up its new street styling kit for the Murciélago with the commercialisation of a comprehensive new bodykit for the Gallardo that is drawn from the aerodynamic package of its successful GT3 racer

Photo Gallery: Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo [bodykit]

Fiat Powertrain Technologies plans to make its range of compact and highly efficient engines available to Chinese carmakers and according to local media reports is now locked in talks with several major domestic brands

PIERUGO GOBBATO 1918-2008: A talented engineer turned executive who was known for constantly striving to push the boundaries of engine technical development, and best-known as ‘father of the Stratos’, has died in Turin

Iveco participated in the 14th United Nations Climate Change Conference and Exhibition held in Poznan, Poland, this month; as a leader in the field of natural gas commercial vehicles, Iveco exhibited Daily hybrid and electric models

Fiat Group is set to realign its £150m European media advertising business into WPP-owned agencies, a move that will see the Mediaedge:cia agency taking over the £10m UK account from Publicis Groupe's Starcom

Ferrari has confirmed the news that Tata will be a sponsor next year, stating just before Christmas that the logos of Tata Consultancy Services, the division that already is a supplier to the F1 team, will appear on the red F1 cars