The first two examples of the Maserati supercar have been delivered to their Italian and English owners this month. The first MC12 was collected from the Modense company's avant-garde showroom and the second was delivered in England. The Maserati MC12 is a two-seater long-tail coupe-spider with a long wheel base (2800 mm). It has a typical racing/sporty set-up with a removable hard top. It is also powered by an impressive 630 hp six-litre mid-rear V12 engine and boasts 41%-front and 59%-rear weight distribution. Designed for high level road use, it can exceed 330 km/h at full throttle, sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds.

Alfa Romeo AutoDelta Squadra Corse, winners of 2004 FIA European Touring Car Championship Teams’ Trophy, have just completed a three test programme at the Ferrari-owned circuit of Fiorano in Modena, in order to improve the set up of the Alfa Romeo 156 Super 2000. At the wheel was regular team leader, Gabriele Tarquini.

A school for maintenance-repair technicians in the automotive industry has been set up in Cairo, Egypt. The initiative, promoted by IVECO, an industrial vehicle company of the Fiat Group in collaboration with the “Don Bosco” Salesian Institute, has the objective of training the future Egyptian technicians with respect to the latest technological and diagnostic developments in the commercial and industrial vehicle industry. 

Thursday saw the first day of a two day test for Reparto Corse Maserati at the Valencia circuit, in Spain. Mika Salo and Fabio Babini shared driving duties at the wheel of the Maserati MC12. The Finnish driver and the Italian GT driver and Pirelli tester, completed a tyres testing session. Salo covered a total of 83 laps, the quickest in 1:46.480, while Babini did 107 laps, with a best time of 1:46.687. Yesterday was the second and final day of test and on cars n. 33 and 34 Mika Salo and Fabio Babini continued and completed a rain tyres testing session, on the artificially wet track. Salo covered 80 laps, the quickest in 1:46.310, while Babini did 88 laps, with a best time of 1:45.850.

On the occasion of his trip to China, where he took part in the Business Forum “Made in Italy in China” organised in Shanghai by Confindustria and Ice (Institute for Foreign Trade), the Managing Director of the Pininfarina Group, Andrea Pininfarina, signed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese company Changfeng for the supply of design and engineering services for a SUV scheduled for production in the Changsha plants. The signing of this important deal with a new customer confirms Pininfarina’s position of leadership in China in the automotive services sector and helps to consolidate even further the company’s relations with AviChina (Hafei) and Chery. This deep-rooted presence in China has also led Pininfarina to open offices in Beijing to improve its servicing and support of local customers. Pininfarina was the first independent Italian design house supplying automotive styling, engineering and development services to reach an agreement, in May ’96, with a Chinese company: from this cooperation with Hafei have come the Zhongyi minivan, the Lobo city car and the Saibao saloon.

Ferrari has announced that it has signed an agreement with the driver Marc Gené who will join Scuderia Ferrari as from today, for the 2005 race season, as a test driver, working alongside test driver Luca Badoer. Meanwhile Scuderia Ferrari resumed testing today, at Vairano. First on track was Andrea Bertolini, who worked on an aerodynamics programme aimed at next season, at the wheel of an F2004. Bertolini covered a total of 226 kilometres. The Scuderia continues testing at this track tomorrow, again with the Ferrari Maserati Group’s test driver at the wheel.

Welsh rally driver Leon Pesticcio was disappointed in his attempt to secure a second successive Super 1600 win on the British Rally Championship counting Tempest Rally when he and co-driver Tim Sturla retired from the Aldershot event last weekend. Their entry was a last minute decision and the Hi-Tec run car arrived straight from Rallye Catalunya on Thursday evening. “We were scheduled to test the Punto on Thursday afternoon but it was always going to be tight and we missed the daylight.” explained Leon, “We managed to shake the car down after the recce but we didn’t get the chance to set the car up properly.”

Following today’s news concerning the ownership of Cosworth Racing, the Minardi F1 Team has confirmed that it will be supplied with the Cosworth TJ engine in 2005. Due to the timing of the announcement, however, the team will be seeking to operate its 2004 car and engine package for the first three races of the new Formula One season.

DAMS Lamborghini pilots Felipe Ortiz and Beppe Gabbiani were unable to make the journey to Zhuhai. They will now be replaced by three Chinese drivers Philip Ma, Samson Chan and Michael Choi. The experience of this trio in GT and single seater racing in Asia and Europe, as well as their strong knowledge of the Zhuhai circuit was important in DAMS' decision to run them. The all-Chinese line-up will race with the number 24 usually allocated to Deletraz and Piccini, who will instead take number the 26 for this weekend.

The Lamborghini Murciélago Roadster has been named as "The world’s most beautiful car 2004" in the supercar category.  The Murciélago Roadster was selected by an international jury - made up of designers, car and art historians, and specialist journalists - which gathered in Milan in the charming background of the Castello Sforzesco. The award will be handed over at the beginning of March 2005 on the occasion of the Milan Triennale. In 2003, the same award was won by the Lamborghini Gallardo. And in 2001 the first of Lamborghini’s new model range, the Murciélago, received a special award.

Although neither Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT managed to reach the finish line at Dubai, due to transmission problems, both cars performed well and the DAMS team is confident for the final round of the FIA GT Championship at Zhuhai in China next weekend. "We now have a better understanding of the Murcielago and how to use the tyres. We knew that running a new car like this would not bring top results in the first races, but we had good speed in Dubai and we are confident for Zhuhai," commented Jean-Paul Driot, the DAMS CEO. Meanwhile, lead driver Jean-Denis Deletraz explained, "Our aim in Zhuhai is to concentrate on reaching the finish line. The team is very focused and motivated, and everyone has been working hard since Dubai, trying to get rid of our small reliability problems. We really want to finish the season with a good result, in the points!"

The Lamborghini Gallardo has received a significant award in Canada. The editors of the reference book "L'Annuel de l'Automobile 2005" have named the Gallardo as a winner of its prestigious "Golden Key Award" (Clé d’or). The eight members of the jury - who are all contributing editors for the publication - voted for the Gallardo as the best sportscar in the over $100,000 category, after taking into consideration criteria such as design, performance, comfort, handling and price-quality ratio. The "Golden Key Award“ is the latest in a series of awards won by the Lamborghini Gallardo since it was launched in 2003.

Regular FIA European Touring Car Championship Alfa Romeo driver's Gabriele Tarquini, Fabrizio Giovanardi, Augusto Farfus and Salvatore Tavano, together with Italian Rally Championship Fiat driver's Paolo Andreucci, Giandomenico Basso and Matteo Gamba will take part next weekend in the 500 Miglia Kart Challenge in Milan. The event is organised in order to raise funds for Telethon, the Italian association supporting the multiple sclerosis research.

Fiat had already claimed the Super 1600 Class title of Turkish Rally Championship, on the last round, the penultimate event of the series. But crowning an excellent season, the Fiat Abarth Motorsport's Palio dominated the 6th and last rally of the year, held at Yariş Pist in Korfez. Palio driver Selim Bacioglu stormed to victory, on the way dismissing the challenge of the Superproduction Class cars, which run together with Super 1600s, but include 2.0-litre engine cars such as the Opel Astra and Ford Focus. Selim Bacıoğlu ended the season with 87 points, 22 ahead of his nearest rival.

Rory Bertram won the final event of the 2004 Pearle Alfa Challenge season, the Dutch series that runs with identical-specification Alfa 147 GTA Cup racers. The race, held at the Dutch seaside track, Zandvoort, saw Sandor Van Es placed second, while Phil Bastiaans, in third, completed the podium as well as claiming the championship title. This trio also took the top three places in what has been a very closely fought series: Bastiaans ended the year with 139 points, while Bertram and Van Es tied together with 130 points.

Yesterday at Fiorano, Scuderia Ferrari carried out a shakedown of some electronic solutions that the team will might use in the forthcoming Brazilian Grand Prix, scheduled for Sunday 24th October at the Interlagos circuit. At the wheel of an F2004, Andrea Bertolini completed a total of nine laps on the short version of the track, without a lap time being recorded. Circuit: Fiorano track, 2.976 km – short course 1.413 km, Driver: Andrea Bertolini, Car: F2004, Weather: air temperature 14°C, track 17°C. Cloudy skies.

Sime Darby Bhd has been awarded the exclusive distribution rights for the Alfa Romeo brand in Malaysia, a franchise that has been available for tender for more than a year. Formerly held by Milan Auto (M) Sdn Bhd, it was confirmed that Fiat Auto had granted to rights to Sime Darby's wholly owned subsidiary, Sime Cerah Sdn Bhd, in a statement released on Tuesday. Sime Cerah, is presently an inactive company, with importing expected to commence early next year. Parent company Sime Darby see this move as a major step in their strategy of expanding its core motor trade business by increasing its portfolio of marques in Malaysia. "The group has an existing relationship with the Fiat group including Ferrari and Alfa Romeo in New Zealand," said Sime Darby's CEO Ahmad Zubir Murshid in a statement, concluding, “We are pleased to be able to strengthen our relationship with the Fiat group by representing Alfa Romeo in Malaysia.”

Ferrari Maserati UK Ltd is the new name for the importer of Ferrari and Maserati cars in the UK. The transfer from Maranello Concessionaires Ltd (part of Inchcape plc) took place on 1 October 2004 and the company is now operating from new premises, as part of the Ferrari Maserati Group. Massimo Fedeli is the new Managing Director of Ferrari Maserati UK Ltd and joins the company from his recent position as Aftersales Director for Maserati SpA. 2004 has been a landmark year for the Ferrari Maserati Group with new models from both Maserati and Ferrari, the return of Maserati to GT racing and the continuing success for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One team.

American Power Conversion (APC) said that Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, the Formula One racing team, has selected APC’s InfraStruXure solution for its new datacentre in Maranello, Italy. Capable of cooling 20kW (kilowatts) per rack, InfraStruXure with integrated cooling will serve as the physical infrastructure for Ferrari’s hardware platform that performs the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations essential to the aerodynamic modelling of its championship-winning F1 cars, APC said in a statement.

The Super 1600 specification Fiat Punto Abarth Rally of Polish crew Sebastian Frycz and Maciej Wodniak, won the 31st Rajd Warsazawsky last weekend, the final round of the 2004 Polish Rally Championship. Thanks to this result Frycz and Wodnisk claimed second place in Super 1600 classification.

Fiat Auto's share of all European new car registrations slid fractionally last month to 6.6 percent (down from 6.7 percent in September 2003), with sales dipping 2.3 percent (91,056 to 88,988 vehicles). However overall for the first for the first nine months of this year, market share is unchanged at 7.4 percent, while sales climbed 2.3 percent, to a running total of 833,417 vehicles. September proved another strong month for Lancia with sales up 21.2 percent, equating to 8,666 vehicles registered, the luxury brand once again buoyed by continuing demand for the Ypsilon. Fiat and Alfa Romeo both slid, by 3.9 percent (68,102 vehicles) and 6.8 percent (11,848 vehicles) respectively. Over the first nine months, Lancia again leads the way, up 15.4 percent with its market share, at 0.8 percent, up 0.1 percent year-on-year. Fiat's sales are also up by 1.4 percent, to keep its slice of the European new car market firm at 5.5 percent, while Alfa Romeo are down by 1.6 percent, although their market share also remains firm at 1.1 percent.

It was a Super 1600 class one – two finish for the Fiat Abarth Motorsport team on the penultimate round of Turkish Rally Championship. A Fiat Punto Abarth Rally driven by Isik and Ozsenler was first in the Super 1600 classification, followed by the Fiat Palio Abarth Rally of Unal and Guleren. On the tarmac roads around Izmit, Isik was also able to win a special stage outright and finish the rally in 2nd place on the overall classification, powerful WRC cars included. Unal backed him up with a fine 4th place overall. Thanks to this result, and with one more event of the season, the Kibris Rally, still remaining, a Fiat car wins the Super 1600 class.

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