SPY VIDEO: BMW i8 Hybrid Coupe

Via carscoop

BMW's new i-series will start making market debut in about a year's time with the small city car but today we have a real treat, a video of the i* clad in skimpy camo testing on ice.

The car looks neat and modern under all that blue vinyl but will it be exciting? How close will itbe to the concept car?

From the video (after the jump) it is clear that the 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine is very quiet, or maybe most of the testing was done purely electric to see how it stands up to arctic temperatures which usually kill batteries...

Long wheelbase BMW 3-series spotted in China

It seems that if you can tack on a few inches of rear legroom on any car in China, it would sell better.

The reason? Drivers are cheap in China and the rich there don't like to drive...

and so here we have a long wheelbase BMW 3-series joining the fray for the chauffeur driven market.

Hyundai snares BMW designer Chris Chapman

• Chapman responsible for X5, X3, Z4 and 1-series at BMW
• Expect accelerated design maturity at Hyundai as we have seen at KIA with their ex-Audi design guru, Peter Schreyer

Champan's first concept. Isuzu XU1
Tokyo Motor Show 1993

Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc. (HATCI) announced that Christopher Chapman has been named chief designer of the Hyundai Design Center in Irvine, Calif. Chapman will be responsible for new vehicle and concept design for Hyundai.
"With over 22 years of experience in the industry working on esteemed automotive brands, Chris provides a level of talent that will help further our design portfolio," said SukGeun Oh, Head of Design, Senior Executive Vice President Hyundai Design Center.

Did Mini dump WRC for BMW's DTM assault?

Would you believe that the Mini WRC team did not have enough money to pay for a driver? We are talking about a factory supported works team not having money to sign up a driver here.

Apparently Mini WRC has released Chris Meeke from his three-year contract and the team has failed to meet the sign-up deadline for the 2012 World Rally Championship, simply unbelievable since the outfit is run by the most consummate of rally professionals, Prodrive.
It seems that BMW's decision to take on the DTM championship in Germany has meant they have very little left for the little car.

It is no secret that the DTM series is probably second only to Formula One in terms of the cost of running the season and BMW has been out of the game for a long time, leaving rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi to slug it out.

DTM is so expensive that only two German car companies can afford to field works teams.

VIDEO: Fifth Gear pits BMW 1M against Audi RS3

Tiff Needell and Mark Higgins puts these two monsters of Hatchback against each other and find out which car they would rather go home in.

Will it be the high tech all-wheel drive RS3 or the Hooligan-rocket BMW 1M?



I have not whacked the RS3 but I have had fun in the 135i and I can tell you that very few cars can match the balance and fun level that the 1-series coupe can dish out... 

2012 BMW 5-series get three turbocharged 4-cylinder and estate variant

New for the 2012 model year is a pair of 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four petrol engines delivering 184HP in the 520i and 245HP in the 528i, plus a four-cylinder diesel unit with the same displacement delivering 184HP on the 520d EfficientDynamics model.

The latter has a 0-100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration time of 8.2 seconds and a top speed of 231 km/h (144 mph), while recording an average fuel consumption in the EU test cycle of 4.5 lt/100 km (52.3mpg US or 62.8mpg UK) and CO2 emissions of 119 g/km.

More photos after the jump

VIDEO:BMW Singapore's strange switch campaign

We are not sure what is happening here, it looks like BMW Singapore changed one owner's car with another one fitted with BMW performance parts, it confused the owner but did she get to keep it? Watch the video to find out

BMW files patent for V6

Sacrilegious but inevitable...V6 is the most compact of modern engine designs, allowing multi-cylinder refinement while staying within the length limit of a large four-cylinder design.

Figure 1

according to bimmerpost these images are part of BMW's patent filing for a V6 engine...

From this schematic we can see that the exhausts flow (unbroken line) from both banks are combined into one pipe before it is delivered to one turbocharger (marked 4a) , there is a valve (6)  to the second turbocharger (5a) , which, presumably would open when there is sufficient pressure.

follow the jump for the rest of the explanation and to see two more V6 patent schematics from BMW

TEST DRIVE: BMW 528i M Sport

Ever since BMW introduced their new tagline, ‘Joy is BMW’ my eyebrows have never quite straightened out properly. I don’t understand why they got rid of ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ which was brilliant, descriptive and accurate representation of their products.

 I wondered if I don’t get the new tagline, would it mean that I would not get their new cars either? It was a genuinely worrying prospect for a car nut, even one that prefers Stuttgart to Munich.

I still do get BMW cars but I still don’t get the tagline, in fact I get the tagline even less after driving their cars.
The 528i Sport that we are featuring this week is a perfect example of my confusion because, the F10 five series is really a much better driver’s car than the model that it replaces and at the same time it is no better than the predecessor as a passenger car.

VIDEO: BMW 6-series Grandcoupe caught out and about

BMW's challenger of the Mercedes-Benz CLS is nearly ready and this is the first video of the car in the wild that is clear enough for us to see the silhouette and some details including the trademark spoiler-bootlid and the greenhouse  outline.

Overall, it looks like a 6-series with two additional doors, which will probably split opinions the way the six did when it was first launched.

To read the rest of the story and watch the video, please follow the jump.

2012 BMW 3-series caught naked

The F30 BMW 3-series caught completely without disguise