Luigi - Disney Pixar Cars
Big-hearted, gregarious, and excitable, this 1959 Fiat 500 ragtop runs the local tire shop, Luigi's Casa Della Tires, which is the "Home of the Leaning Tower of Tires." Like the rest of the town’s shopkeepers, Luigi’s stock sits gathering dust on the shelves. He even keeps a stock of ancient whitewall tyres in the hopes of one day selling them. At first, Luigi and Guido do not respect Cars Movie Lightning McQueen when he comes to Radiator Springs, because he is not a Ferrari and says he has never heard of him ("Luigi follow only the Ferraris"), but later on they learn to show courtesy to McQueen, suiting him up in whitewalls. In the end, McQueen directs a group of Italian sports cars comprised of a Ferrari and two Maserati cars to his shop, having recommended it. His car model is also a pun on Fiat's sponsorship for Ferrari at Formula One.
Luigi is a Scuderia Ferrari fan, and has followed racing his entire life. His license plate reads 445-108, which is the latitude and longitude for the main Ferrari factory in Modena, Italy. Luigi keeps himself busy by following motorsport and as an Italian he is of course an avid ‘Tifosi’ or Ferrari fan.
With his forklift pal, Guido, by his side, Luigi is an avid racecar fan (with a bias towards Ferrari's) who is always eager to please. Business hasn't been good in years, so you can always count on a bargain on a new set of wheels from this merry merchant. Luigi and his forklift assistant Guido dream that one day they will get to change the tyres on an actual Ferrari.
Scuderia Ferrari is the name for the Gestione Sportiva, the division of the Ferrari automobile company concerned with racing. Though the Scuderia and Ferrari Corse Clienti continue to manage the racing activities of numerous Ferrari customers and private teams, Ferrari's racing division has completely devoted its attention and funding to its Formula One team, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Scuderia is Italian for "stable", and Ferrari refers to Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the company. The prancing horse was the symbol on Italian World War I ace Francesco Baracca's fighter plane, and became the logo of Ferrari after the fallen ace's parents, good friends with Enzo Ferrari, asked him so, to continue his tradition of sportsmanship, gallantry and boldness.
Scuderia Ferrari was founded in 1929, and raced for Alfa Romeo until 1939. Ferrari first competed in F1 in 1948 (the team's first F1 car was the Tipo 125 F1), making it the oldest team left in the championship and statistically the most successful one (with a record of 15 drivers' championships and 15 constructors' championships won). The team's numerous and ardent Italian fans are known as tifosi, though the team also has a vibrant international following.
The team's current drivers are Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, who has signed on to Ferrari for a three-year contract after the retirement of Michael Schumacher following the 2006 season, and its test drivers are Luca Badoer and Marc Gene. Ferrari and Raikkonen are the reigning Constructors' and Drivers' title holders respectively, after the conclusion of the 2007 season.
On the 12th November 2007 Ferrari President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo announced team's new structure, with Jean Todt moving up to his senior role as CEO of the company, Stefano Domenicali will be taking over as team principal as Ross Brawn declined a return following his sabbatical, who subsequently on the same day was announced as the new Team Principal of Honda F1, Aldo Costa as technical director and Mario Almondo as Operations Director.
The design of the new 2007 Fiat 500 is based on the 2004 Fiat Trepiuno concept. This car will feature a distinctive retro-look just like the Volkswagen New Beetle and BMW MINI but may well be substantially cheaper than those cars, with a starting price of 10,500 Euros. The car is 3.55 meters long and 1.65 meters wide. Top speed is 180 km/h (112 mph). The basic price is 10,500 Euros in Italy; with options 15,000 Euros .
Fiat will share the underpinnings of the new 500 with Ford for the next Ford Ka. Production takes place in Fiat facilities in Poland, and is currently scheduled for mid 2007 with commercial debut in September 2007. Three engines are available. A 1.2 8v unit, the 75 bhp 1.3 Multijet common-rail turbo diesel, and a 85 bhp 1.4 16v engine coupled to a 6 speed manual gearbox as found in the Panda 100HP. Currently, three trims are available the Pop, Sport and Lounge. A fourth more basic model called 'Naked' may be put on sale, although it is doubted whether it will be available in all markets.
A Fiat 500 Abarth will be unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, and it will be powered by a 1.4 liter Fire engine with an IHI variable geometry turbocharger. The Abarth will have 135 horsepower and 180Nm of torque, with the option for 206Nm in sports mode.
The all-new 500 received critical acclaim from many magazines. British-magazine Car called the new Fiat "irresistible". The car also received a full five star EURO NCAP crash test rating.
Cars don't come smaller, cheaper -- and stranger-looking -- than the Fiat 500. First introduced in 1957 as the Nouva 500 (the "cinquecento" for "500" in Italian), the car was marketed as a cheap and practical roundabout car for Italians to deal with the congestion and tight parking spaces in many of their cities. It measured less than 10 feet in length and had the squat look of a car that had been squished between two large trucks.
Still, it was a big seller throughout post-war Europe and was patterned after the VW bug with a smallish rear engine that saved on gasoline. Luigi the Italian car runs Casa Della Tires, "home of the leaning tower of tires," and would love to outfit the hot-shot Lightning McQueen in a new set of whitewalls. Big-hearted, gregarious, and with infectious energy, Luigi makes friends with everyone who visits his shop.
The Fiat 500 (the "cinquecento", or "chin-kwe-chen-to", from the Italian word for "500") is a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975 (the Fiat 500 K alone was produced until 1977). It was designed by Dante Giacosa.
Launched as the Nuova 500, it was marketed as a cheap and practical town car. Measuring only 2.97 m (9 ft 9 in) long, and originally powered by a tiny 479 cc two-cylinder, air-cooled engine, the 500 redefined the term "small car" and is considered one of the first city cars.
In 2007 Fiat launched a similar looking, retro-styled car, the Fiat Nuova 500, basing it on the Fiat Panda.
To meet the demands of the post-war market which called for economy cars, the Fiat 500 was rear-engined on the pattern of the Volkswagen Beetle, just like its bigger brother, the 1955 Fiat 600. Several car makers followed this now nearly vanished design at the time and were quite successful, but only the Fiat 500 was used as the template for other car makers in Europe. The firms Neckar of Germany and Steyr-Puch in Austria each made cars that were legally based on the Fiat 500.
Despite its diminutive size, the 500 proved to be an enormously practical and popular vehicle throughout Europe. Besides the two-door coup�, it was also available as the "Giardiniera" station wagon; this variant featured the standard engine laid on its side, the wheelbase lengthened by 10 cm (4 in) which yielded a usable rear seat, a full-length sunroof, and larger brakes from the Fiat 600.
Production of the 500 ended in 1975, although its replacement, the Fiat 126, was launched two years earlier. The 126 was never as popular as its predecessor in Italy, but was (and still is) enormously popular in the former Eastern Bloc countries, where it is famed for mechanical durability and economy. Fiat previewed the all new 500 in March 2007 exactly 50 years after the first Fiat 500 was presented.
