Archive for BMW

We may get to see turbocharged M cars from BMW soon, if an unnamed source cited by Automotive News is right. The next generation 2011 BMW M5 based on the new F10 car set to debut in 2010 may get its cylinders cut by 2 and replaced by two turbochargers, much like the 4.4 liter twin-turbocharged V8 found in the BMW X6 xDrive50i.

The current production version of the N63B44 produces 408hp between 5,500 to 6,400rpm and an M5-beating 600Nm of torque between 1,800 and 4,500rpm, but the insider reported that a variation of the N63B44 twin-turbocharged V8 under testing in BMW’s engineering labs producing over 536hp and even more ridiculous amounts of torque. They will still need to squeeze more out of the engine if they want to beat Audi in the horsepower game. Audi currently leads in the premium D-segment performance car race with its recently unveiled Audi RS6, sporting 580 horsepower and 650Nm of torque.

BMW may end up leaving the high revving 8,400rpm madness of normally aspirated engines only in the BMW M3 in the next generation of M cars, with the upcoming lightweight M-ish 1-Series getting a turbocharged motor as well, but for weight reasons.

But if this really happens, the M DCT has to be strengthened first to take on the far higher level of torque that turbocharged engines typically put out.

These are supposed to be leaked promotional shots of the 2009 BMW 7-Series due to be unveiled sometime this month. They were found on a random flickr account.

The whole Bangle design language seems to have stabilized somewhat, you can see this car taking cues from both the facelifted 5-Series (overall body shape and butterfly-wing rear lamps) and the X6, and the humongous hog-like kidney grille nostrils from the BMW CS Concept. The rear sports integrated exhaust tailpipes in the bumper.

On the interior you get to see a preview of the new iDrive interface. The iDrive screen seems to show a Google search page, which seems to indicate iDrive could now have a web browser. The iDrive knob is now placed next to the gear shifter. The gear shifter itself is the new shift-by-wire shifter first introduced in the X5, and is no longer mounted on the steering column.

Ten more photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Leaked 2009 BMW 7-Series Official Product Photos

BMW Credit (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd is now offering BMW Motor Insurance for both owners of new BMWs and aged ones. The new BMW Motor Insurance package is underwritten by Allianz General Insurance and guarantees that the buyer of a new BMW will be entitled to a brand new car if the car is stolen or totalled in an accident within the first 12 months from date of purchase.

Used BMWs purchased from authorised BMW dealers in a similiar predicament within the first 12 months will also receive a full insured value claim settlement with no market value adjustment. In the event of an accident, the owner can just give a customer support hotline a call and the car will be taken to the nearest authorised BMW service center. In the case of repairs, only BMW genuine parts will be used.

“The new comprehensive BMW Motor Insurance is all about peace-of-mind motoring. It is the only insurance supported by BMW, so customers are assured that when untoward incidents occur, their car will be handled by experienced professionals,” said Joe Hall, managing director for BMW Credit and Lease.

“Our customers’ investments are significant and we want to ensure that they have a truly premium ownership experience. A BMW customer now has a total one-stop experience at the dealership beginning with the most innovative finance packages and also insurance. In combination with BMW Service Inclusive and Repair (BSI+R), a BMW customer in Malaysia who purchases his vehicle from an authorised dealership has complete protection and peace of mind. BMW is the only brand in the segment to offer anything like it,” said BMW Group Malaysia’s newly appointed managing director Geoff Briscoe. Mr Briscoe replaces Mr Wolfgang Schlimme.

Some details has surfaced on the internet about the next generation BMW iDrive. First is something that has been already implemented on new 2009 European BMW models. These models will be getting hard drive based iDrive navigation systems, which should result in much faster navigation performance compared to the current DVD-based systems.

The downside is you will have to bring your BMW back to the service center to update the maps rather than just getting a DVD and replacing it in the DVD slot of your iDrive system, but I think this is far outweighed by the performance benefits of a hard-drive based navigation system, which is what Mercedes-Benz is using.

The other thing is something coming in the future: the possibility of customizing iDrive via a computer connected to iDrive via a USB-interface. According to Channel4, drivers will be able to configure customised screen-savers, menu themes, the sound clip used for seatbelt warnings and other sound alerts. Other new features include pre-heating of the seats or remote activation of air conditioning.

A more “functional” higher level of personalisation rather than just aesthetics will include being able to automatically tune to preferred radio stations are different times of a day, such as listening to the hitz.fm morning crew in the morning but another radio station on the way home in the evening. Different horn tones can be set for different situations - a friendlier tone for notifications and a more aggressive louder tone when you want to do the equivalent of flipping the bird when someone cuts into your lane in a dangerous manner.

Higher end models will have various variable settings via iDrive such as engine, suspension, transmission and level of power steering assistance. The new Volvo S80 has this feature where you can set how heavy the power steering is via the on-board computer.

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BMW M GmbH, the German automaker’s revered M division celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Coincidentally it also delivered its 300,000th M car to a customer this month, an alpine white BMW M3 Coupe (much like the car above), which it handed over to its owner at the BMW M plant in Regensburg, East Bavaria.

The BMW M division began in 1978, an evolution of BMW Motorsport GmbH which was established six years before that. The first M car was the BMW M1 (find out all about it here). The M1 was recently commemorated with the BMW M1 Hommage Concept. The current BMW M line-up consists of the M3 Sedan, M3 Coupe, M5 Sedan, M5 Touring, M6 Coupe, M6 Convertible, Z4 M Coupe and Z4 M Roadster.

M cars are also popular in Malaysia. “Since we began operations in 2003, the sales of M cars have been growing significantly on an annual basis. 2007 was our best year ever and we achieved a sales growth of 189% from the previous year. With the recent local release of the new M3 Coupe and M3 Sedan, we expect another good year for the M cars. In fact compared to the same period last year, we grew by 50%,” said BMW Group Malaysias Corporate Affairs Manager, Vijayaratnam Tharumartnam.

The following is a list of BMW M car prices in Malaysia OTR without insurance:

BMW M3 Sedan - RM713,800.00
BMW M3 Coupe - RM728,800.00
BMW M5 Sedan - RM898,000.00
BMW M6 Coupe - RM938,000.00
BMW Z4 M Coupe - RM539,800.00

Stories about BMW M Cars:
2009 BMW M3 Coupe
2009 BMW M3 Convertible
2009 BMW M3 Videos
2009 BMW M3 “Revolution” TV Commercial
The history of the BMW M3 - Part 1 (E30)
The history of the BMW M3 - Part 2 (E36)
The history of the BMW M3 - Part 3 (E46)
BMW M6 Test Drive Review on the Isle of Man

Click here to read the rest of BMW M GmbH 30th Anniversary

Now this is an interesting concept… a car with no sheet metal skin. The 2-seater BMW GINA’s dodgy name actually stands for “Geometry and functions In N Adaptations”, with N adaptations referring to the flexible outer skin of the car that is made out of cloth!

Under all that cloth is a special chassis structure which includes movable sub-frames to vary the outer layer of cloth according to the functionality needed. The cloth itself is a special highly durable and extremely expansion-resistant fabric material. The material remains dimensionally stable irrespective of the temperature and air humidity.

The cloth covers the structure seamlessly, and can adapt to various driving needs. For example, during the day when headlamps are not needed they are completely hidden away behind the cloth. The closed fabric cover over opens to the right and left of the BMW kidney grille and exposes the car’s headlamps. As for indicator lamps and rear brake lamps, they simply shine through the cloth.

The shape of the rear of the car can also be changed for different aerodynamic needs. A spoiler hidden under the cloth can be raised when needed, but still remains covered by the cloth. The rear just changes shape because the cloth now covers a raised spoiler.

The overall contours of the car morphs depending on how wide the kidney grilles at the front of the car is opened. The kidney grille size can be varied according to engine bay cooling requirements. The widening mechanism at the front of the car adds tension to the cloth on the rest of the body, and the result of this are character lines that change depending on the grille opening.

Will we ever see a car like this being made? What’s known is BMW designers have really thought out of the box when they thought up this concept. I think Chris Bangle himself can explain the GINA Concept better than I ever can, so watch a video of him explaining the BMW GINA Concept after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of BMW GINA Light Visionary Model Concept

BMW has played around with recovering heat energy from exhaust gas and turning it into usable energy before.

It involved using exhaust gas to heat up water to produce steam, which passes through an expansion unit that transfers kinetic energy to a crankshaft, which in turn helps power the engine. This was a concept called the BMW TurboSteamer, and was shown back in 2005.

BMW is now harvesting energy from exhaust gas to be turned into electricity instead of kinetic energy, thanks to new technology pioneered by NASA. The materials used by NASA in thermo-electric generation increases electricity generation to a maximum of 1kW, instead of previous limit of 0.2kW.

This electricity can be stored for later use the same way BMW uses electricity regained from its EfficientDynamics brake energy recovery.

Related Posts:
BMW TurboSteamer

BMW Malaysia launched the E92 M3 Coupe in December last year with a manual transmission, but for those who prefer a junior M5 with 4 doors and clutch-less shifting, they have just introduced the E90 BMW M3 Sedan here in Malaysia.

From the front, the BMW M3 Sedan looks nothing like its non-M siblings. From A-pillar forward onwards it uses the E92 M3 Coupes nose, which features a more aggressive kidney grille and headlamps. It rides on large M light alloy Double-spoke 260 M style alloy wheels wrapped with 245/40 R18 tyres at the front and 265/40 R18 rear tyres.

Under the car’s hood is the new 4.0 liter V8 engine in the M3 Coupe which produces 414 horsepower at 8,300rpm and 400Nm of torque from a relatively low 3,900rpm considering the car’s very wide rev range. 340Nm is constantly available across the whole rev range up to 6,500rpm. The M3 Sedan also gets what is probably BMW’s most widely implemented EfficientDynamics feature, Brake Energy Regeneration.

Clutchless shifting is via BMW’s new M Double-Clutch Transmission, or M DCT. This is BMW’s first twin-clutch transmission in a production vehicle, featuring 7 gear ratios that is computer-shifted according to 6 Drivelogic programs.

The programs vary from setting 1 which provides maximum shifting comfort up to setting 6 for maximum performance. Drivelogic programs vary the speed at which one clutch engages and the other disengages.

The interior features electrically adjustable M seats, a multifunction M leather steering wheel with the M Drive button and Carbon Stucture Leather interior trims, and “Novillo” leather seats in special colours. Also standard is BMW Individual headliner in Antracite. The Carbon Structure Leather trim is quite a nice touch as instead of brushed aluminium or wood trim, you get leather trim. You can see this in the photo available after the jump.

The E90 BMW M3 Sedan with the 7-speed M DCT carries a premium price of RM713,800, compared to the E92 M3 Coupe with 6-speed manual’s price tag of RM668,800. The best part is… its 4.0 liter road tax is now RM200 cheaper!

Related Posts:
E93 BMW M3 Coupe launched in Malaysia
Production 2009 BMW M3 Coupe Details
New E92 BMW M3 Videos
The New BMW M3 V8 Engine Specifications
BMW M3 New Promotional Video
BMW M DCT - BMW’s new twin clutch gearbox
BMW unveils new BMW M3 Sedan
UK allocation for BMW M3 snapped up
E92 BMW M3 V8: first drive impressions
The History of the BMW M3 Part 1 - E30 M3
The History of the BMW M3 Part 2 - E36 M3
The History of the BMW M3 Part 3 - E46 M3

Click here to read the rest of BMW Malaysia launches the M3 Sedan

Automotive News reports that the upcoming MINI “Crossman” SUV will come in two variants - one using the 175 horsepower turbocharged direct injected 1.6 liter engine from the Cooper S, and the other using a diesel engine from the MINI Cooper D.

The same report mentions that the BMW X1 will come in 3.0 liter normally aspirated and 3.0 liter twin turbocharged variants (from the 130i and 135i respectively), as well as two diesel engines which include the new twin turbocharged inline-4 in the 123d. The two new compact SUVs will appear in concept form at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The “Crossman” will be in near-to-production form, while the X1 will appear as an early concept.

BMW has confirmed that the BMW X1 will be produced at its Leipzig plant in Germany, though an expected product launch is not finalized yet. Producing the X1 at that plant makes sense as the plant makes the 3-Series and 1-Series, and since the X1 is based largely on the 1-Series with some components from the 3-Series, component logistics would be easier.

The availability of a compact all-wheel drive system for the BMW X1 will also likely result in the BMW 1-Series gaining the option for all-wheel drive sometime in the future, which would be useful to help reign in the BMW 135i’s horsepower and torque.

It is also quite possible for the upcoming MINI Crossman (MINI SUV, name still unconfirmed) to be based on this BMW X1. If this happens, the X1 might be one of the first BMWs to debut with a longitudinally installed version of the BMW-PSA 1.6 liter engine, which is firmly in the company’s future plans as announced earlier by BMW.