Archive for May, 2009
GM reveals plan to build new small car at idled assembly plant in U.S.
Posted on 29. May, 2009 by admin.
In an atypically cryptic press release, General Motors today announced that it will be building a new small car at an unnamed idled UAW-staffed assembly plant here in the U.S. The new vehicle will be in addition to the already-planned 2011 Chevrolet Volt and Cruze, but it’s not yet known which small car it will be.
When the new small car will go into production also hasn’t been disclosed, though with the Volt set to enter production late in 2010 and the Cruze aiming for an early 2010 release, it could be timed to fit between them, sometime in summer 2010.
One small car candidate is the Chevrolet Spark, born from the long-lived Beat concept revealed in 2007.
2011 Chevrolet Spark minicar
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Bob Lutz: GM won’t abandon sports cars, pickups and SUVs
Posted on 29. May, 2009 by admin.
General Motors’ vice-chairman Bob Lutz has revealed what the future holds for the struggling carmaker, reassuring the press that despite an impending bankruptcy the firm will emerge as a “powerhouse” in the auto industry and that it will still produce the types of vehicles that are largely blamed for getting it into the situation it finds itself in today – sports cars, SUVs and pickup trucks.
There will be dramatic changes, however, including a much greater focus on hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as more conventional cars.
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Autocar drives the Alpina B7 4.4 V8 Switch-tronic 4dr Saloon
Posted on 29. May, 2009 by admin.
Autocar UK once again gets their hands on one of “hottest” Alpina models out there, the new B7, a vehicle powered by a V8 4.4 liter twin-turbo engine, which outputs a whooping 507 horsepower and an impressive 516 lb-ft of torque. Official and now tested numbers show the B7 running from 0 to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. Pretty impressive for 4,500 lbs car, isn’t it?
Add to this equation a top speed limit of 173 mph and that should keep the B7 owners entertained on the German Autobahn. But let’s see if the UK folks at Autocar were as excited as we are now about the new Alpina B7.
What’s it like?
Rapid. Really frighteningly rapid. Okay, so there might be the teeniest delay if you nail the throttle at idle. But by, say 1500rpm, a huge surge of torque is already propelling you way past the UK legal limit and onto speeds that are only of use on autobahns. It feels every bit as quick as the hot Merc – more so, I’d say, given the huge shove offered by the twin turbos.
It’s still a big car, mind you, so don’t think that you’re going to chuck it around like it doesn’t weigh two tonnes. The B7 has four chassis set-ups, but the two extremes – comfort and sport plus – feel unduly wafty and uncomfortably tail-happy respectively.
The two middle set-ups are more effective, but while the B7 feels agile, it feels like a big agile car. Don’t expect 5-series levels of chuckability. The steering is also a little vague around the straight ahead, although it does weight up nicely when you’re pushing on.
The ride is a triumph, however; sure, road noise is more pronounced from the 21-inch Alpina Classic alloys, but the switch from runflats to bespoke Michelins means that you can trundle around urban roads without much fear of being bounced off your (very comfortable) seat. the B7 is comfortable on worn motorways, too, even at more than 150mph.
Full Review Here
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Spy Shots: BMW 7 Series with the M Sport Package
Posted on 29. May, 2009 by admin.
While the initial plan was to build a Gran Turismo car based on the new 7 Series, BMW had to scratch that model off their “approved list”. But to satisfy the 7 Series owners who are looking to add even more sportiness to their cars, BMW decided to build an Aerodynamic Package, basically an M Sport Package that will visually enhance the image of the new 7.
So, the first test mule fitted with the M package was spotted by the never sleeping spy photographers. And judging from the photo below, the less exciting front bumper will be replaced by a far more aggressive, “M-ish” type of bumper. While we don’t have any confirmation, we speculate that the large grille will also be modified in the aerodynamic package, making it easier to differentiate itself from the regular 7 model.
Caption: Not the actual car, for the spy photos, see this link
In the near future, we also expect to see the corona-rings headlights coming to the 7 Series models, but once again, we can’t confirm at this time if the M Sport Package will include them as well.
No release date has been announced at this time, but we will most likely see the package available for the MY2010 models, so….late fall.
Update: Scott27 states that the new Tri-Turbo Diesel engine (354 horsepower) will be available for the 7 Series.
[Source: 7Post ]
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First spy photos 2012 BMW 1 Series
Posted on 29. May, 2009 by admin.
To our surprise, the next generation BMW 1 Series due to launch in 2011 has already made an appearance in Munich. The test mule spotted here seems to be the 5-door hatchback version, one of the 5 different variants considered for the 1 Series family.
The first new BMW 1 Series will launch in 2011, along with the Z2 Roadster based on the same platform. The coupe and convertible models will be available a year later together with the 135i SuperSport vehicle.
Many people have wondered what the next 1 Series will bring to the table, some believe, including us, that the new 1 Series will have a revolutionary design, moving away from the safe design lines used in the current 1er.
But according to Scott27, “the best way to describe some of the styling “revolution” on the “evolution” is to look at aspects of the X1. The strong sculptured line that begins from the rear quarter light and scoops down towards the flanks and then joining the shoulder line before the front wheelarch, is the 1er family design characteristic for the next generation. If you look at the shape on the X1 on the lower flanks you can see it is an interpretation of the feature on the current 1er. The bathtub shoulder line will stay with more of an angle coming down towards the front of the car. ”
The 1 Series Coupe and Convertible models will receive different front and rear ends when compared to the hatchback. As we stated before, BMW is looking into developing at least five different variants of 1 Series vehicles:
- 5 door hatch – conventional 5dr hatch
- 3 door hatch – conventional 3dr hatch
- 2 door coupe – sedanish coupe with 2 doors
- 2 door convertible – sedanish cabrio with 2 doors and canvas roof
- small crossover CAS (1er GT / Y1) – 5dr mix of a hatch, wagon and sedan
The rumor around the Munich HQ is that BMW was looking at the idea of a smaller XCoupe, based on the original XCoupe Concept, but no green light has been given at this time.
BMW plans to downsize the displacement of its engines and moving into the turbocharging direction. The turbo four-cylinders developed together with the PSA Group, will power some of the entry level 1 Series models and we recently learned that 3 cylinder engines will be available for the entry level models.
We should learn more about the 1 Series family at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show.
[Source: 1Addicts - Photo Credit Brenda Priddy ]
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Harley Earl’s personal 1963 Corvette for sale by Mecum Auctions
Posted on 29. May, 2009 by admin.
Harley Earl, the father of the Corvette and so many other seminal General Motors classics, was a pioneer in the field of automotive design. His personal 1963 Corvette reflects that spirit, and now that it’s up for auction, Corvette collectors around the world are paying attention.
Built specifically for Earl as a one-of-a-kind factory special, the car – officially named the 1963 Harley Earl Chevrolet Corvette Convertible – offers a package unlike any other. Side-exit exhaust, unique door panels, one-off glove box-mounted instruments, custom white-trimmed blue leather interior and a hand-written number code make this car unlike any other.
Originally given to Earl as a gift by GM in 1963, the car was designed to closely resemble the 1963 Chicago Auto Show Corvette.
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Latest 2011 BMW 5 Series Wagon Spy Photos
Posted on 28. May, 2009 by admin.
Summer is here and BMW is increasing the testing on their upcoming models. The very much so awaited 2011 BMW 5 Series has made another appearance, this time, the Wagon variant. The fellows at CarMagazine UK managed to snap some new, exciting photos of the new 5er.
Everyone’s attention has been on the BMW 5 Series GT, but the real money-maker for BMW, will be the 5 Series models, one of the highest volume seller vehicles in the U.S. The new spotted test mule seem to be entering a higher phase in the Final Evaluation Stage where the now famous BMW camouflage doesn’t cover 100% the entire body.
We are almost certain that the headlights will be very close designed as the ones on the 5GT, but the common design elements stop here. As expected, the new F11 5 Series Wagon has grown in size and the rear-end sports a more coupeish like roof. The test mule also features a panoramic sunroof which we have no doubt it will look absolute spectacular.
Many of you might wonder where this new 5 Wagon will fit into, but as BMW has explained it before, the Wagon model will still appeal to the same consumers as it did before, larger families or people looking for more interior space and cargo room, without having to jump into an SUV or break the bank by buying the more expensive 5er GT.
The BMW 5 Series Wagon is considerably lower and sleeker than the Gran Turismo version, still keeping that sportiness much needed by any BMW owner.
While we can’t fully confirm these allegations, CarMagazine UK believes that the below engine line-up will most likely be offered by BMW. We would like to add that the 550i might actually use the new N55 engine and also that a hybrid version will be offered in the future as well.
- 523i – 2.5-litre straight six
- 530i – 3.0-litre straight six
- 540i – 3.0-litre straight six twin-turbo
- 550i – 4.4-litre V8 twin-turbo
- M5 – 4.4-litre V8 twin-turbo
- 520d – 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
- 530d – 3.0-litre straight-six turbo
- 535d – 3.0-litre straight-six twin-turbo
[Source: CarMagazine UK]
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Yes, BMWBLOG is getting a FACELIFT
Posted on 28. May, 2009 by admin.
We don’t even know where to start…..it has been several months of planning, brainstorming, more planning and again brainstorming trying to figure out how to create a new, better, modern and user friendly design.
We started from the idea of creating a new theme that will focus mostly on you, our readers, and providing more content at your finger tips and just a click away. Another goal and quite difficult task was to reduce visual clutter to improve usability and we believe we manged to achieve that.
While the old design has done an amazing job offering content in a simple straightforward way, we wanted to evolve from that and move towards a magazine type of design, where all the content is well structured and defined.
The first step was to increase the font size, this has been a request that we have received since last year, we acknowledged it and received a high priority on our list.
By doing that, we implicitly had to go over to a wider reading column, a design feature that we always wanted to change. As you might have notice, we post a lot of photos and I mean…A LOT…last year, there were over14,000 photos uploaded by us. Since we know how much you enjoy seeing photos right in front of your eyes, we thought it would be a great idea to show them to you in a larger format.
The increased fonts and the wider central column will substantially increase the overall browsing and reading experience, maybe now all that tiny, but still important text will not be overlooked anymore. Also, the entire commenting system has been revamped, redesigned and brought up to the current standards. How did we do that? Well, beside the Facebook login that we offered in our previous design also, the comment replies are now threaded, so if you would like to reply to a particular member, simply click on the Reply link below their comment and an indented box will appear. Pretty cool, right?
What else have we done? OH YES…the top menu, which keep in mind, it’s a work in progress and it will better organized and categories well grouped together. So here, we decided to go with a fairly simple design, regular text link menus with a sub-menu that will display topics within the main category, this way, we can break down now several models that belong to some of the BMW Series. Above the main menu, we kept the usual Contact and About pages, but to the right of that, we added all the other blogs in our network.
As some of you might have noticed in the past, we expanded and now we control equal shares in BimmerToday.de, a very successful blog operated by our former contributor, Benny H., and also BMWBLOG.ro, the Romanian version of this blog. All these websites serve over 1 million pages to BMW fans around the world. But more on our future plans in another article…
Incorporated in the menu, you can see some placeholders we created for auto related services, of course the focus of these pages will be to provide tools and resources for all the BMW owners, from looking up new and used BMWs, to car insurance, warranties, financing and even classifieds. In the next few day, all these sections will be populated and even more content added in the future.
You might have noticed that our famous German license plate type of logo is not there, but no worries, it will return shortly since it has been part of our blog from the beginning and we intend to keep our identity intact.
Now onto the right sidebar, one of the most important pieces of puzzle in our re-design process. We strongly believe that the sidebar is one of the most powerful, useful and content display tool on an auto related site. If done well, it can help provide the readers interesting information that might be lost within the thousands of past and new articles. Beside that, it brings upfront some of the most popular articles and accessible with a click of a mouse.
We wanted to keep it fairly clean, so we grouped together some of the things like Recent Comments, Top Articles and our newest invention, Editor’s Pick. Once again, it’s still work in progress and we know there are a few bugs that need to be corrected.
Part of our increased usability plan was the addition of pagination to the entire blog, so the popular Next/Prev links have been replaced by actual page numbers, so this should help you browse back and forth the pages way faster than before.
So in the end, why al this brainstorming? Well, we wanted to create a platform, a base for our future plans than can be built on top of this new layout without having to make any compromises or overloading the pages even more. We have been blessed to have such a great community of BMW fans and not only, formed around our blog and we owe you the best experience possible. Your comments, suggestions, feedback and even criticism has always been appreciated, and with your help and support, we came a long way and we promise, it will only get better.
Now putting away this emotional monologue -at least for us it was- we encourage you to report any bugs or issues that you might notice, please feel free to either leave a comment here or send it through our Contact page.
We hope you enjoy our facelift and while it might not be better than the one on an M3, M5 or Z4, we’re confident that you will appreciate it.
Many thanks to the talented team of designers and software developers at WP-Design, especially for putting up with the never ending change requests and additions. Awesome job Paul and Nicu, and we already look forward to our next project.
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Real Volts Now Under Construction
Posted on 28. May, 2009 by admin.
For everyone who keeps asking when the first Chevrolet Volt will roll off the assembly line, you now have your answer: in less than two weeks. Well, we should say the first complete, pre-production Volt will be built, by hand, for final testing by then.
This is the first time the automaker has built a test mule Volt that actually looks like the real thing – inside and out. Before now, all Chevy Volt prototypes looked like the 2011 Cruz or old Malibus. Underneath, the mules carried the Voltec technology that will propel the plug-in hybrid up to 40 miles on just electricity.
The latest prototypes will help validate the Volt’s safety and performance capabilities. Building a complete Volt will also help GM decide how to effectively manufacture the plug-in hybrid to ensure that build quality is consistent and reliable.
The first Volts will take an average of two weeks to build, but by mid-July assembly will ramp up to 10 a week. By the fall, GM expects to have 80 on the streets.
After that, GM will build hundreds of pre-production Volts at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. That’s where the real Volt will be built, showing up at a Chevy dealership near you in the summer of 2010.
That will only happen, of course, if everything stays according to the automaker’s current plans, even amid a seemingly unavoidable bankruptcy filing.
GM Builds the First Chevrolet Volt (Autopia)
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Celebration: 75 years since the first BMW Roadster
Posted on 28. May, 2009 by admin.
Today, BMW Group celebrates 75 years since the company announced their first self-engineered roadster. At the Berlin Motor Show in May 1934, BMW has introduced the 315-1, a prototype of a Sports Roadster. The idea was the same back then: a fast automobile with a sporting allure and dynamics, designed to carry two people and a roof above their head.
The same roadster culture moved through time and the latest BMW Z4 describes, in my opinion, the perfect Roadster design. With this special occasion, BMW has issues a lengthy, but very information press release, along with one of the most comprehensive BMW Roadsters photo galleries I have ever seen.
Don’t be discouraged by the length of this press release, if you love Roadsters, then you will find it very interesting.
Download the Press Release in PDF format
The style has changed, but not the content: “Many German motorists see motoring not just as a comfortable and fast means of transport, but also as a sporting activity. These are people who, once they see an aerodynamic car body with a long and sleek engine compartment, as well as a speedometer extending all the way to 150 km/h, feel that strong yearning for wide open roads simply perfect for driving fast, for Alpine passes just begging to be conquered, and for ompetitors so easy to overtake.”
It was precisely with these words that BMW announced the Company’s first self-engineered roadster in 1934. And indeed, this concept with its six-cylinder power unit was destined to shape the future of the brand, extending all the way to the current BMW Z4.
The starting point for this development came at the Berlin Motor Show in May 1934. Here, together with the BMW 315 Saloon, BMW for the first time presented the prototype of a Sports Roadster with exceptionally attractive lines. Right behind the long and sleek engine compartment there were two sports seats tailored to the driver and front passenger protected by the low, raked windscreen and an mergency roof.
The rear end tapered out in an elegant sweep to the back of the car, adding a particular aerodynamic touch with excellent streamlining.
The radiator grille on this two-seater was inclined much further to the rear than on the Saloon, with mighty, sweeping front wheel arches extending on beneath the doors into the rear wheel arches. To reduce air drag to a minimum, the rear wheels were fully covered, while the body of the car itself rested on an electrically welded steel-pipe double frame with three crosswise box elements.
Front suspension was made up of the upper track spring, wishbones further down and hydraulic lever-type dampers. The rear wheels, in turn, were mounted on a live axle incorporating semi-elliptic springs and hydraulic lever-type dampers.
Small but hot: six-cylinder power unit displacing 1.2 litres.
Both the saloon and the sports car were powered by the same outstanding engine: a 1.5-litre straight-six developed out of the 1.2-litre originally featured in the former BMW 303. The crankcase and cylinder block of this outstanding engine were made of one single piece, the engine featured one camshaft beneath the block, with tappets operating the vertical hanging valves aligned in series via rocker arms. The intake and exhaust pipes, finally, were on the same side.
A feature quite unusual today is the different distances between the individual
cylinders, with the second and third and, respectively, the fourth and fifth cylinders being further apart, the space in between being used for the crankshaft and amshaft bearings.
The crankshaft without any counterweights therefore ran in four bearings, just like the camshaft.
This was however not the reason for this particular design and configuration, which was rather attributable to the assembly process at the time, with the crankshaft being completely pre-assembled together with the connecting rods and pistons. And since the pistons, as a result, had to be inserted from beneath, the main bearings for the crankshaft had to remain outside of the cylinders, not extending into their contour lines. As a result, the main bearings had to be accommodated between cylinders spaced out at a large distance.
While this power unit delivered maximum output of 34 hp on the saloon with its two carburettors, maximum output of the six-cylinder in the BMW 315/1 sports model was 40 hp. And the standard of efficiency offered was quite exceptional, BMW’s engineers proudly stating that “this beautiful and fast sports car consumes only 10–2 litres of fuel on 100 km, with oil consumption between 0.1 and 0.2 kg. So in terms of running costs, it is no more expensive than a small car far lower down in the market”.
With the public simply falling in love with the BMW 315/1, BMW decided to build the car in a small series – also because the Company wanted to make a more powerful entry into the prestigious world of motorsport. Starting in summer 1934, therefore, the very attractive BMW 315/1 was retailed at a substantial 5,200.– reichsmarks. The production model differed from the prototype primarily through the modified arrangement of the headlights and side ventilation grids taking the place of the bent openings originally featured on the first model.
Outstanding success in motorsport.
Reaching a top speed of 120 km/h or 75 mph, the BMW 315/1 Roadster was one of the really serious contenders in the sports car market at its time. Indeed, BMW’s story of success on the race track quickly took on even greater significance with this new model, the BMW 315/1 achieving its first significant success in the International 1934 Alpine Rally.
The starter grid for this rally in Nice was made up of 127 truly outstanding cars looking at daily race sections of 500–600 kilometres to be covered at a minimum speed. On the fourth day there was an additional speed test at Stilfser Joch.
After covering precisely 2,867 kilometres or 1,778 miles, 96 of the 127 cars which had originally entered the race reached the finish line in Munich – 66 thereof without having lost one point. The five cars entered by the BMW Works Team were the only cars in their class to complete the International Alpine Trophy without one single penalty point, the BMW 315/1 Team Richard Brenner/Albert Kandl/Ernst v. Delius finishing first in their category.
Only 230 units of the BMW 315/1 were completed by mid-1935, many of them going to private drivers. One of them was Ralph Roese, a BMW works driver for many years, who built himself a BMW 315/1 Special. This was a complete re-build of the 315/1, the highly modified engine ultimately developing no less than 136 hp in a brand-new race car body weighing just 380 kg or 838 lb.
Given qualities of this kind, it is no surprise that this racing car finished first in its very first race at Nürburgring in 1936, a staggering 17 kilometres ahead of the competition. Understandably, this special model remained a great success over the years until finally winning the German Road Racing Championship in 1939.
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