BMW BLOG

Horatiu has been providing a lot of coverage of the X5 xDrive35d and how well it is performing on the drive from Chicago down to Spartanburg.

However, in addition, to providing a platform to for testing out BMW’s fantastic new diesel SAV, it’s also provided transportation all the way down to the BMW Mecca of the United States: The BMW Performance Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

What are we doing at the Performance Center? Well, we’re attending the one-day BMW M Driving Shool tomorrow. While we’re not 100% sure yet which M cars we’ll be driving, we do have the itinerary of what skills we’ll be working on:

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An investment in the future: the Aerodynamic Test Centre.

No other car maker is as committed as the BMW Group to making lasting and substantial investments in the enhanced efficiency of new models. Building the new Aerodynamic Test Centre, the BMW Group now has even greater competence and qualifications than before in the area of innovative technologies contributing in the medium and long term to the further improvement of all BMW and MINI models in their fundamental strengths and benefits.

For optimisation of the car’s aerodynamic qualities improves both its performance and efficiency, as well as the driving stability offered by the car on the road. Precisely this is why optimum aerodynamics is already a fundamental factor today in the development of new models.

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Anyone who has experienced the E30 Picnic will tell you it is like no other car show. Even if you don’t own an E30 you will feel the soul of the BMW perfection at this event. With its growth in 2009 bringing 243 different E30s to the XXX Drive-In in Issaquah, WA on Sunday, the event has not lost its “come as you are” attitude.

The first weekend in June is always on the calendar for any E30 owner in the Pacific Northwest (or those coming from SoCal, Clagary, Utah, and Iowa). Sunday is what this weekend is all about. Root beer floats, raffles, and, oh yeah… E30s! The show ‘n shine is a time to catch up with friends from out of town, check the status of an ongoing project, and enjoy floating in the sea of E30s. The day is capped with a cruise through local back roads to enjoy our E30s as what they are, the Ultimate Driving Machine.

2009 was an extra special year for the attendants of the E30 Picnic since Satch Carlson, Editor-In-Chief of Roundel, was in attendance with his 325ix, Bad Dog. Satch shared his stories and insights with anyone that asked. From thoughts on BMW’s future to stories of his recent participation Silver State Classic Challenge, Satch loved to pass on some of his extensive knowledge of BMWs.

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Mike, or Bunker, as some of you might know him by that name, has shared with us some photos from a Concours d’Elegance exhibition which took place in Cincinnati, Ohio, this past weekend. A large collection of vintage automobiles across the country took place in this special event and the automotive art work of many notable artists was displayed there.

As one would expect, BMW was well represented there through some of the classic models, from the BMW 327 Sports Cabriolet, 2000 tii Touring to BMW 507 and Z8 and many others. A great way to spend a quiet weekend while enjoying some of the most extraordinary cars ever built in the last century.

Considering that tickets were sold for $25 and free for children under 12, it makes the event even more valuable. We’re hoping to attend a Concours d’Elegance exhibition soon, but in the mean time, let’s enjoy these great photos!

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BMW Group has announced that is supporting the City of Munich in their attempt to win the  2018 Olympic Winter Games event. BMW will be offering  three to five million euros for the first application phase which will run between 2009 and 2011. This includes non-cash contributions such as the provision of vehicles, for example.

While we’re excited to see BMW stepping up for the Munich citizens and the entire Bavaria Land, we’re going to root first for our hometown Chicago which is still in the race for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

We would be thrilled to attend both events within a two year time period….

Full press release below

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BMWBLOG Directory

At the beginning of this year, in a conversation with several people from the auto industry, I announced my plans to turn BMWBLOG into one, if not, the most important blogs out there, of course, in regards to our dear bimmer cars. I’m not sure how many of them believed in my words, especially coming from a small blog started by a single person. But what they might have underestimated were my skills, knowledge and most important, PASSION.

So, three weeks ago, after months of planning, development and more usability planning, we released the BMWBLOG 2.0, the second generation of our blog design, more than a facelift as we initially called it. The positive responses were overwhelming and it made us very happy, mostly because this design was all about YOU, our readers and an increase in the overall experience.

But since I had even bigger plans for this year, I couldn’t just stop here, so decided to push the blog even further. So what could have been the best next step? Well, once again, turning the blog into a one-stop shop for all your BMW news, photos and now, RESOURCES.

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BMW fans have been looking forward for an Audi R8 rival for quite some time now, but unfortunately for all of us, BMW has no plans at this moment to build a supercar that will compete against the now famous R8.

BMW’s future plans focus rather on smaller, fuel efficient vehicles and this will be the direction in the few years.

Of course, things might change in the future, but until then, we just have to settle for concepts designed by independent artists looking for more exposure.

Designer Idries Noah decided to draw his own version of BMW M Supercar, a true Audi R8 competitor in his eyes. Do we dig it? Can’t really decide yet….

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Another lucky UK auto magazine had the opportunity to drive the stunning Alpina B7. The fellows at CarMagazine spend some time one of the most talked cars on our blog in the past few weeks.

After seeing the initial reviews and shortly followed by some amazing photos, we decided to keep an eye open for any reviews.

Unfortunately for those of us in the U.S., we won’t be able to test the car, but maybe in our next trip to Europe we can arrange for that.

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Every week we’re receiving emails from our readers asking for advice on their next purchase or about BMW related issues. Even though we’re making those emails a priority of ours, there are times when we might not know the right answer.

So, instead of referring them to Google or even worse, ignoring the emails, we decided to start something new here. Since over the course of last years we’ve built a very close and valuable community here, we are going to leverage that and ask for your help. Many of you might actually have more experience with some of the BMW models out there, so your input can and will be valuable.

And this leads us to our first inquiry we have received from one of our long time readers, Hasan, who is looking to purchase a BMW 850 CSi. This particular 8 Series model is powered by a 5.6 liter 2-door 2+2 coupe built by BMW from 1989 to 1999. The engine is based on the regular 850i mode, but it was tuned up to 375 horsepower.

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We probably don’t even have to remind you, but we will anyway, here at BMWBLOG we love photos, the more photos we post, the happier. Even when attending auto shows, we tend to spend countless hours at the BMW stand trying to capture the cars displayed from all the possible angles.

So, no surprise here, today we will give you an extensive photo gallery of some BMW models displayed at the annual DC09 german car meet in the UK. Courtesy of DarkLine and our friend Mohammed, we will show you some of the hottest BMW modding jobs we have seen in a while.

Pretty much all of the big car tuners were represented there through their accessories, from Hamann and Vorsteiner to Eisenmann. The stars of this German Cars meet-up were an E46 BMW M3 sporting lots of carbon fiber parts and also, the unique Lumma CLR X 650 based on the BMW X6.

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