You might not readily associate Fiat with the other Italians like Ferrari or Lambo due to the mental images of small cars and perhaps even Lancias but mind you that it’s the parent company of Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo.

And how about the Fiat 500 Abarth? Now that’s a small car I’d want to own.

So it’s not really a bad thing design and engineering-wise that it took over Chrysler. Now, word has it that the Fiat will be developing the new Dodge Viper so we could just hope that Fiat makes the iconic American sports car be a better well-rounded car.

The Viper is fast but it wasn’t a car that people from other places like Europe would call a proper sports car. Maybe some Italian fiddling will make a proper car out of it and even even make the car more stylish.

The Viper was close to getting the axe with initial reports saying that Fiat might drop the car from the Chrysler line up but that’s not meant to be. Chrysler is also set to release 11 new vehicles in the next five years in an effort to bring back the company to profitability again.