After launching a twin pair of turbocharge M SUVs with automatic transmissions, BMW M has gone back to its roots with a new car called the BMW M3 GTS, which it says has pure M genes. The specs list certain looks pretty drool-worthy, the kind that gets you excited even thinking about it.

See, the M3 is a fast car. It’s a really, really fast car, especially once the high-revving V8 gets up to its prime revolutions, you get kicked back into your seat quite violently and the engine screams along to extract a peak of 414hp from its 4.0 liters of capacity. But that’s not enough for the GTS – BMW has upped the displacement from 4.0 liters to 4.4 liters, so the engine makes 450 horses now, mated to a 7-speed M DCT twin clutch transmission with remapped transmission logic.

BMW has dropped some weight here and there from various parts of the car, including the use of lighter seats, a titanium rear silencer, removal of the air conditioning system (like the E46 M3 CSL), etc. BMW has also added rollover protection mounts at the B-column, a fire extinguisher, and a battery master emergency shut-off switch which shows the car’s true race intentions, as if the large rear wing wasn’t enough.

The large wing is functional, as is the adjustable front splitter. While the car is moving, the pressure which builds up in front of the vehicle above the panel of the front splitter which is parallel to the ground is much greater than in the free stream of air below it. This creates downforce.

No doubt many were disappointed when BMW announced they were not going to make a new CSL but they certainly made up for it with this new GTS. The price of the M3 GTS is expected to be 115,000 Euros in Germany, including 19% VAT. The cars will be built to order and the first will roll out in May 2010. It will initially only be available in Germany but other countries will be possible from summer 2010 onwards.

Click here to read the rest of New BMW M3 GTS with larger 4.4L V8

Click for enlarged image

Perodua held a media test drive for the new Perodua D46T MPV this morning somewhere in Putrajaya. I’ve tried it out and will share my findings with you after the MPV’s launch (due to embargo reasons), which is expected to be on the 23rd of November 2009. Showrooms will officially start taking bookings earlier, from the 13th of November 2009 onwards. Stay tuned for an update on the new Perodua D46T MPV on the 23rd of November 2009 at 5.00pm sharp.

MV Agusta F4 Tamburini

It looks like MV Agusta is on the market again. The company has been exchanging hands for quite abit recently. It was first ‘resurrected’ by Cagiva after it purchased the rights to the name in 1991. The first ‘modern’ MV Agusta rolled off the factory in 1997. In 1999, the group was restructured and MV Agusta became the main brand replacing Cagiva.

It got into heavy debt and was purchased by Proton end-2004. Then came the famous 1 Euro sale to GEVI SpA. The company then sold its Husqvarna brand to BMW, leaving the group with only MV Agusta and Cagiva brands. In 2008, Harley Davidson bought the group for 70 million Euros.

And here we are today, with bike sales sluggish in the US (Harley Davidson worldwide net income declined 84.1% in Q3 this year compared to the last quarter), Harley Davidson has decided to leave the sports bike market to focus on the typical Harley kind of heavy and noise hog, in a ‘back to basics’ kind of move. Harley also announced that its Buell brandname will be discontinued. The company says the kind of profit it gets from a sale of an MV Agusta or a Buell is far less than that of a relatively low-tech Harley Davidson.

So who will be next in line to own MV Agusta?

The cracked-glaze-vase look special one-off Ferrari 599 China was auctioned off for a final price of 1.2 million Euros, which translates to just over 6 million ringgit. The car was auctioned off at a gala dinner organised by Ferrari at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing.

The cracked glaze paintwork by Chinese artist Lu Hao was inspired by Song Dynasty Ge Kiln pottery patterns. There are more Chinese-inspired features inside including a jade-encrusted start button and rev counter numbers written in Xiao Zhuan script. There is nothing technically special about the car except the fact that it comes standard with the HGTE package.

The buyer is a Chinese but was unnamed in Ferrari’s press release. The money will go to the Tsinghua University’s Department of Automotive Engineering. Top students from the department will be sent to study at Italy’s Politechnico di Milano University and then do an internship at Ferrari’s factory.

Click here to read the rest of Cracked vase Ferrari auctioned for RM 6 million

Perodua’s Datuk Syed Hafiz will not be renewing his contract at the end of the year. Replacing him as the top man at Perodua will be another UMW man – Tuan Haji Aminar Rashid Salleh, who currently heads the Strategic Marketing Group at UMW Toyota.

49 year old Aminar is a familiar face for me as he is usually the one who gives product presentations at Toyota car launches. He has been in the UMW group since 1992. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering. I don’t have any kind of ‘insider’ details but I don’t expect anything much to change with the way Perodua is run.

BMW has released a new BMW TV app for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. It’s available free at the iPhone store. Basically you can view BMW TV videos from the app, but it’s not like you couldn’t do that already via the iPhone/iPod Touch’s YouTube app and the BMW YouTube Channel. Watch a video about the app after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of BMW TV now available at the App Store

It’s finally done – after persistent and intense rumours over the past few days Toyota has officially released a statement saying they would be withdrawing from F1 at the end of the 2009 season, which is basically right now with immediate effect.

Click here to read the rest of Toyota officially announces F1 departure

Kia has already started dabbling in motorsports in Europe but the car above is part of its US motorsports program which it unveiled at the 2009 SEMA tuner car show. Two Kia Forte Koups built together with the Kinetic Group will be racing in the 2010 GRAND-AM KONI Sports Car Challenge Series in the Street Tuner (ST) class.

The ST class uses race cars based on production vehicles and uses weight and intake restrictions to maintain a level playing field for all entrants. The two Kia cars will be piloted by Nic Jonsson, Andy Lally, Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood.

We probably won’t see Mercedes-Benz Malaysia offering the E-Class Wagon here in Malaysia but for wagon lovers you’ll probably enjoy these videos.

Click here to read the rest of 3 promo footages of the W212 E-Class Wagon

Toyota F1’s race at the Abu Dhabi GP is apparently their last, as strong and intense rumours point to a Toyota board meeting to be held on the 15th of November to come to a conclusion that the company should leave the sport. We could actually know the outcome as early as 8th November 2009.

If Toyota really leaves the sport, this would open a grid position for then new Qadbak Sauber team, the team that used to be the BMW Sauber F1 Team. Toyota was supplying F1 engines to Williams this year but Williams will go with Cosworth engines next year.

Another Japanese company also announced it would be leaving F1 recently. Tyre supplier Bridgestone has announced it will leave at the end of next year’s season to focus its resources on other development. Bridgestone has been the sole supplier of F1 tyres for the past 2 years, and have been a supplier since 1997.

As for Kobayashi who was standing in for Timo Glock who has a back injury, the promising driver says he would most probably have to go back to Japan to work for his father’s sushi restaurant. Maybe he can build the business and then recruit all the chop shop owners here that will be out of a job soon.