Here is a Best Motoring video with a spy footage of the upcoming E92 series BMW M3’s testing laps on the Nurburgring. What a lovely V8 sound. M3 fans will have to the new aural signature that the M3 is going to take though, the signature sports sedan has always used 6-cylinder engines, and the 6-pot from the previous E46 M3 lives on in the current BMW Z4 M Coupe and Roadster.

Video after jump.

Click here to read the rest of BMW M3 testing at the Nurburgring track

Dutch car manufacturer Spyker has made a bid for Lotus, reported Dutch auto magazine AutoWeek. AutoWeek’s unnamed sources claims the Dutch company is already in talks with Proton about the possible porchase. Spyker’s owner however, refused to confirm this but commented it could be a serious option.

Sources say Spyker intends to use Lotus Engineering’s technical know-how to develop it’s upcoming Spyker D12 Peking-to-Paris SUV (shown above). The odd name is to commemorate Spyker’s participation in the 1907 cross-country race of the same name. The concept model, first put on show at Geneva 2006 features full-time all-wheel-drive, four doors with rear suicide doors, a 500hp Volkswagen 6 liter W12 engine, carbon-ceramic matrix brakes and an all-aluminium construction.

Spyker follows Porsche’s footsteps - a sports car manufacturer releasing an SUV model that combines practicality with the sporty prestige of a sports car logo on it’s hood. Spyker also owns the Spyker F1 Team, previously known as Midland F1 Racing.

Source

Other than the obvious buyout by another car company - General Motors, two non-automotive companies have been interested in Chrysler - the Blackstone Group and Cerberus. Investment firm Blackstone is currently already in the auto industry, and has US$125 billion in the bank. It currently has 58% ownership in TRW and has a stake in American Axle. Cerberus is currently looking at Delphi, and already own 51% in GMAC.

Blackstone has been given access to confidential Chrysler data to determine whether the firm is worth buying or not, while Cerberus has hired Chrysler’s former COO to advise it on a possible bid. This former COO is none other than Wolfgang Bernhard, who was involved in turning Chrysler around to a short-lived earnings rebound a few years back, but somehow got booted off the team in 2004. He then joined Volkswagen, and left in January 2007.

Other companies said to be interested in possibly taking up stake in Chrysler include Magna International and General Motors.

Kia’s attack of new and upcoming models on the European market continues with Project Snowflake, which will be a sports car similiar to the likes of the Audi TT. Now, the codename Snowflake sounds very similiar to Raindrop, the original codename for the first generation Audi TT when it was still in development. A snowflake is quite similiar to a raindrop, both are small amounts of H2O falling from the sky, except a snowflake is much much more cooler than a raindrop, literally. I suppose this is what Kia intended it to be interpreted, heh! Shown above is Kia’s previous Kia KCV III Concept.

Kia’s Snowflake is rumoured to come in both front wheel drive and all wheel drive variants, and will be equipped with a powerful 2.0 liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine, a formula that has worked so well with the likes of the Golf GTI and Lancer Evolution. This new engine will give Kia it’s much needed performance engine to give it a hot hatch in the European market. The engines in the Tiburon are weak, to be generous.

Great news for those who are looking to buy a new car and have a budget of less than RM100,000. The Mazda3 1.6 liter is now available for RM99,500 while stocks last. This is for the standard specification Mazda3 1.6 liter. There is also a special finance package available where your first year’s installment will only be RM888 a month.

A basic recap on what the Mazda3 1.6’s loaded with - a 105 horsepower 1.6 liter DOHC engine with S-VT variable valve timing, a 4-speed auto with manual shifting, dual front airbags, ABS, EBD, and a 3-year warranty backed by Cycle & Carriage Bintang Berhad.

The Mazda3 1.6 liter sedan normally costs about RM111,863.00 without insurance, so this is a saving of roughly RM12,000. Just head on to a Mazda showroom for more details about the deal.

Having been tagged by the country’s number one cyber-patriot, the ever-entertaining but often-misunderstood Daft Oi to post up entry No.24 in Nizam Bashir’s 50 Posts to Independence project, I have decided to allow Shannon Teoh, a journalist from NST and part-time contributor to this site, to tell his rather interesting tale of two cars. Coincidentally, his first two cars were the same as mine. Full story after the jump!

Click here to read the rest of 50 Posts to Independence No.24

So you’ve got the drum brake, then the disc brake, then the disc brake with multiple calipers. Then you improve that further with slots, cross-drill holes and make the whole disc ventilated. Even brake by wire has been introduced. What next, something totally different?

Introducing the Electronic Wedge Brake (EWB), a technology by Siemens VDO, based on a concept from aerospace engineering. The Electronic Wedge Brake completely bypasses any hydraulic system, instead it is powered by a simple 12-volt power system that already exists in the car. The system also has a faster reaction time, it works about a third quicker than conventional brakes, only requiring 100ms to reach full braking power compared to a hydraulic brake’s 170ms.

Basically, a brake pad connected to a wedge is pressed between the rod and the disc through the use of electric motors. The electric motors turn and push the pad onto the disc. The use of a wedge means braking power is multiplied with minimal energy expenditure (about one tenth of hydraulic brakes), through the principle of self-energization. The faster you are going, the stronger the brake force is going to be. The lack of a physical connection between brake pedal and brakes also makes this a brake by wire system by default. Sensors measuring wheel speed about a hundred times a second can adjust brake forces and wedge position to a high degree of accuracy, somewhat like ABS and stability control rolled into one.

Test results have been amazing so far. An Audi A6 fitted with the Electronic Wedge Brake system was put to the test comparing against another A6 with conventional brakes. The braking distance required from 100 km/h to 0 km/h was reduced by half in the EWB-equipped A6!

However, all brake by wire systems make you wonder what would happen if somehow power supply were to be disrupted. Something simple like the battery going flat because the engine’s alternator malfunctioned. To take care of this, the EWB is specified to be connected to two power supplies, a main one and a backup one with a secondary battery.

This is a good advancement in braking technology. The first car with EWD is expected to debut by 2010, and it will most likely be a German marque. Might be Audi since they were testing with Audis. More photos and a video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Siemens Electronic Wedge Brake (EWB)

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer has confirmed that it’s upcoming sporty crossover SUV model that has already been spotted going around on tests everywhere will indeed be called the BMW X6. Spyshots have shown a heavily disguised unit going around, but even under heavy padding the sexy sloping roofline towards the rear is very apparent. I wonder how it will affect rear headroom though.

Source

In my updates on the Porsche Panamera, I will usually mention two competitors, the CLS and the Aston Martin Rapide. But then I realise I haven’t actually posted anything about the Rapide have I? Basically, the Aston Martin Rapide is a 4-door coupe concept that’s set to go into production, expected to account for between 1,000 to 2,000 units annually. This will bring Aston Martin’s yearly production up to 7,000 units.

Aston Martin is pretty much an independant automaker now, but Ford still retains a 8% stake. More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Aston Martin Rapide 4-door Coupe

Bentley is considering expanding it’s engine line-up to something more than the current petrol guzzlers, either hybrids or turbodiesels. I personally think the Volkswagen Group’s V12 TDI turbodiesel found in the Audi Q7 is perfect for usage in a Bentley, or perhaps the V10 TDI from the top of the line oil burner Touareg, but then that’s just me. Shouldn’t be an issue for Volkswagen to supply it to Bentley, considering they own Bentley.

Just a recap, the V12 twin turbodiesel in the Q7 makes over 500 horsepower (510 to be exact) and pushes out a massive 1,000Nm of torque from as low as 1,750rpm. Yes, you read right. A thousand newton meters. From an engine speed just over idle. Yet fuel consumption is rated at 20mpg, or 11.9 liters per 100 kilometers, hardly anything at Prius-levels, but considering the amount of power it makes, I would like one please!