BMW BLOG

Our friends and sponsors, WheelSTO, are once again “up to no good”, of course, metaphorically speaking. Recently, during the Tokyo Auto Show, they spent some time also at the one of the most famous car shops in Japan: Bond Shop Urawa.

As always, they brought back some amazing photos, including details that accompany each one of these shots. And YES, while there are some BMWs and MINIs in these photos, there are plenty other brands featured below, in the end, we’re not only BMW fans, but just car nuts in general.

“One of our missions during our visit to Japan and the Tokyo Auto Salon was to experience for ourselves the difference between US and Japanese tuning shops, and the car culture in general. Our visits to Dort, Bond Shop, and Studie all reveal just how unique car culture in Japan is. Read the rest of this entry »

At the Geneva Motor Show, BMWBLOG had the opportunity to sit down with BMW’s Head of Interior Design, Marc Girard.

Girard has worked as a designer for the BMW Group for 16 years now and in April 2009, he took the team leader position at Interior Design BMW Automobiles.

In March 1993, after completion of training and studies in Paris and in the USA, Marc Girard joined BMW, where during the following years he assumed responsibility, inter alia, as project manager in the lifestyle, prototypes and advanced design sectors, both for exterior and interior design. From 2000 to 2002 he developed the interior design for the BMW 1 Series, the first vehicle of the brand to enter the compact segment.

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With so much talk around a potential new BMW M1, we thought it would be appropriate to bring back the ….old M1, the original supercar that caught everyone’s attention in the late 70s.

The  BMW M1, along with other supercars such as a 2003 Ferrari Enzo, a Ferrari F50, the McLaren F1, the Mercedes-Benz Gullwing or the Ford Model T, took the center stage at the Franschhoek Motor Museum Concours & Time Trial, a celebration event of classic cars which changed the automotive world in one way or another.

The museum boasts over 200 cars in its collection, however, only 80 will be displayed at once.

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The BMW N55B30 represents the current workable technical edge of gasoline engine performance and economy. It is a state-of-the-art powerplant available in the 535i GT and soon the 535i from BMW. It is possible, that before long the N55B30 will supplant the N54B30 in BMW’s entire lineup.

To gain a better understanding of the technical advances contained in this engine, it is necessary to develop a simple example of a gasoline Otto cycle engine. This will be used to help explain the benefits of the technology contained in the N55B30. Read the rest of this entry »

We might be totally out of line here, but after seeing the new Mercedes-Benz F 800 Style Concept, we had to ask ourselves this question: does it resemble in any way the now canceled BMW CS Concept?

No, we are not referring to the front-end which clearly is no where near identical to the CS, but rather we would like to focus on the rear-end design. While not identical, at a first glance, there are some similarities that stand out, the proportions, character line running into the rear lights, exhaust pipes area, bumper, even the angular rear view mirror.

While on the CS Concept everything seems to be minimal, the MB F 800 enhances some of these design elements: the longer taillights, wider rear bumper and larger openings for the exhaust tips.

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After its recent comeback on the big screen in the Ghost Writer flick, BMW increases their marketing efforts, this time in the music world. The popular pop band “Black Eyed Peas” and their lead singer Fergie, give BMW an important marketing boost in their latest music video, Imma Be Rocking That Body.

In the video embedded below, at approximately 1:35 min in, BMW’s Superbike or the “///M of bikes” as our editor Shawn named it, S1000RR, serves as a transportation mode for the talented and nonconformist Fergie. Read the rest of this entry »

I bumped into Dr. Oetker in the frozen food aisle of our local super market.

BB: Hello Dr. Oetker, fancy running into you here!

DO: Where else would you expect to see me? What’s cooking?

BB: Well, the latest buzz is that BMW is possibly supplanting their long standing North American ad slogan of, “The Ultimate Driving Machine”, and replacing it with a new theme revolving around the term. “Joy”. Read the rest of this entry »

BMW tuning fans rejoice: Tecnocraft introduces its first major step into European mass-market product in their release of the TECNOCRAFT E9X ///M3 ENVY™ Intake System. Designed from the ground up, all in-house, with a performance build strictly in mind, the dry carbon fabrication team set to work in producing the most comprehensive quality intake system BMW E92 ///M3 owners (and would-be owners) have ever seen.

This completely modular system consisting of four, separate and equally functional, pieces fabricated in 100% Dry Carbon (or in Carbon/Kevlar special edition for an added cost) can find its way into your ///M engine bay over time.

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