Paul Tan on the Automotive Industry
It’s the first BMW M5 ever to come with not just one, but two turbochargers, and it’s coming to Malaysia very soon! BMW Malaysia has just sent out an electronic mailer to its customer base that the F10 M5 will be launched on March 10, 2012.
The most recent M car launched in Malaysia was the X6 M, with a massive price tag of RM1,188,800. The last generation E60 M5 was sold for about RM888k – how much will the new M5 be priced at? I’d expect nothing less than a million ringgit!
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Last year, Khairul Izwan was among very few lucky motoring enthusiasts who got the chance to experience the Nurburgring, or also known as the “Green Hell” with a BMW M3 which pumps out 414 hp and 400 Nm of torque from its 4.0 litre V8 power house. “Awesome” was an understatement when Khairul shared his ultimate driving experience.
This year, Castrol Malaysia is bringing back the Castrol EDGE Experience Nurburgring: The Sequel, in which one “strong” Malaysian will be flown to the legendary track in an all-expense-paid driving experience of a lifetime. Before that happens, let’s take a moment and talk about the challenges of driving a powerful piece of machine such as the BMW M3 at one of the world’s most demanding tracks.
The 22.8 kilometer-long Nurburgring is widely considered as the most challenging track in the world with up to 160 corners. The track is used for both motorsport and for vehicle testing by many vehicle manufacturers. These car manufacturers rely on the track’s various characteristics which include high speed straights and turns, slow to medium speed corners and undulations to test the driveability of their cars.
Due to the high G-forces and the extreme pressures exerted to various parts of the car such as the suspension, the transmission and most critically the engine, driving at the Nurburgring takes a huge toll on the car and on the driver as well. Compared to other tracks, the Nurburgring has more and longer straights for one to negotiate. At such straight sections of the track, the car will be spending a lot of time at its top speed, with the driver’s foot on the accelerator pedal as though his or her life is dependent on it 
This means that during this time, the engine, which in this case is a 4.0 liter V8 will be working at its rev limits for a longer time. Imagine driving an M3 at up to 8,000 revs for approximately 30 seconds? You can hear the beautiful engine note as the engine is working very hard to deliver all of its horsepower to the rear wheels! (minus the transmission loss of course).
In such gruelling conditions, the choice of engine oil is crucial, whereby the oil acts as a lubricant for the moving parts of the engine. At such extreme engine speeds, the engine is running at high temperature and the oil has to continuously adapt and respond to the engine’s needs.
The BMW M3 which was used at the Nurburgring last year had Castrol EDGE in its engine, allowing the engine to consistently maintain its reliability and maximise performance. Certain parts of the engine such as the cam and its followers can receive pressure of up to 10,000 kilograms per square cm and that is equivalent to the pressure of being approximately 100,000 meters below sea level!
Now the new Castrol EDGE is engineered with Titanium Fluid Strength Technology™ which continuously responds and adapts to the engine’s different need under various extreme driving conditions, including pushing the BMW M3 in and out of every corner of the Nurburgring. This new technology minimizes metal to metal contact and maximizes engine performance at the same time.
No doubt Castrol EDGE’s unique adaptive strength is designed to perform under the most extreme pressure giving drivers the confidence and freedom to push the engine closer to its limits. Now you have the chance to experience the performance of both the Castrol EDGE and the BMW M3 at the best place in the world that you can possibly do it, the “Green Hell”! To put yourself in the running to win this ultimate driving experience and other cool prizes, click here now!
Auto Bavaria is celebrating CNY this weekend at all of its branches and at Auto Bavaria Sg. Besi, there will be activities including Chinese Caligraphy and a Lion Dance, apart from extended test drive sessions which will allow guests to test drive their preferred BMW models on an extended course, up to Putrajaya and back.
Models available for test drives include the all-new 520i which is powered a Munich’s 2.0 litre TwinPower Turbo engine. Other models include the 528i, 520d, 323i and more. There is also a special 0% financing package for the 3-Series range and special deals on limited pre-registered units of the BMW X1, 5-Series and the BMW X3.
For more information, please feel free to contact Auto Bavaria Sg. Besi at 03-9223 3200. Have a good weekend everyone
Think BMW, and the first model that usually comes to mind – for most folk – is the 3 Series. Ubiquitous, the model has been at the forefront of things from the get-go, and while the brand has evolved its lineup to incorporate a host of new segment models from the ‘easy-to-figure three-model’ range of the past to the ‘just how many of them are there, really’ of today, the 3er has been very much the standard bearer for the brand, the one by which it has been defined, and association measured. Since 1975, five generations and more than 12.51 million units sold attest to that.
So when a full-model replacement comes about to continue the flag-waving, there’s plenty of bated breath, as well as the inevitable questions. How will it shape up? Will it turn things on its head? Does it change the game, again?
The answer is very nicely, yes and yes. Things haven’t exactly been easy for the 3er in recent times – the grip it has had in the entry-level premium sedan segment has been forcibly relaxed by competition that has studied and learnt from the benchmark, and done so very well. Arguably, the outgoing E90 didn’t help itself – from a design point of view, it was a little too safe, especially from the rear at the start of its life-cycle, almost as if the idea of changing things too much coming in from the E46 would alienate the buyer.
It also didn’t help that on the whole, the E90 felt like it was carrying a bit too much weight arriving at middle-age, and while undoubtedly there are a great many existing generation owners who might argue against this view, I’ve always felt the E90 to be too heavy-set – not ponderous – for its own good from a performance point of view. Simply put, a very able machine, but darker in character than its predecessors, missing that sense of overall sharpness, or that sprightly step, if you will.
Enter the F30, the sixth-generation incarnation of the type. It doesn’t just restore parity in the playing field, but takes the game a few steps further infield, and by all accounts should accomplish far more than the last one did in staying ahead of the chasing pack.
Full story after the jump.
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Here’s what BMW’s 2012 DTM challenger looks like in full livery. This livery features the green of Castrol EDGE, Castrol’s flagship motor oil, and the blue of Aral Ultimate high-performance fuel. Other visible brands include Bosch, Hankook, Sonax, Dekra and Puma. Suspension makers Sachs and H&R are present, too.
“For many years we have put our faith in high-performance Castrol lubricants, and have celebrated countless successes together on the racetrack. For that reason, everyone here at BMW Motorsport is delighted that we are able to build on this established partnership in the DTM. Castrol EDGE and Aral Ultimate are high-performance brands, which suit our DTM project perfectly,” said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt.
This won’t be the only look for the M3 DTM, though. One of the six BMW entries will run in this Castrol EDGE look, so expect to see the traditional BMW corporate livery of the past 20 years on the other cars.
The driver lineup looks as good, with DTM champion Martin Tomczyk and long-time Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler joining regular factory drivers Andy Priaulx, Augusto Farfus, Joey Hand and Dirk Muller. Schnitzer, RBM and RMG are the three teams.
The German tin top race series flags off at Hockenheim at the end of April.
The E71 BMW X6 has been updated with a facelift for the 2012 model year, helping keep BMW’s amalgamation of a coupe and an SUV looking fresh mid way point in its lifecycle, which for a BMW is typically 7 years.
First launched in 2008, the mid-life facelift or “Life Cycle Impulse” as BMW likes to call it is right on time! Externally, BMW has updated the X6 with the usual new bumpers, headlamps and tail lamps as well as new alloy wheel designs.
The headlamp is now of course lit up with white corona rings, but what’s interesting is that now there’s the option of adaptive LED headlamps, which are fully powered by LED technology – not just the corona rings which act as daytime running lights, which by the way now have the flat bottom design that first debuted on the F30 3-er.
The light sources for low and high beam light are LED units positioned on a horizontal bar at its centre, feeding their light into the reflectors in front. In the facelifted top of the line BMW X6 M, adaptive LED headlights are fitted as standard.
The tail lamps are also lit up by LED, and the styling is designed to be horizontally aligned and to stretch far out to the sides, emphasising the width of the vehicle.
There’s also something interesting – an optional engine bonnet with a powerdome. This feature is not available for order in Germany – not sure why though!
An M Sport kit will be available for the X6, which includes 20-inch M light alloy wheels in double spoke design and bi-colour finish with mixed tyres, adaptive LED headlamps, BMW Individual high-gloss Shadow Line, black surrounds for the fog lights and M door sill cover strips, sports seats with electrical adjustment and memory function, M-specific Alcantara/Nappa leather combination in black with M-style welt and contrast stitching, M leather steering wheel with shift paddles, M driver footrest, stainless steel pedals, interior strips in Aluminium Flywheel black and the BMW Individual roof liner in anthracite.
As far as the updated interior goes, I wish they had also updated the meter cluster with a Black Panel style display that all the new higher end BMWs have. The X6 continues with a meter cluster that feels “last generation”. The same goes to the steering wheel – while all the new BMWs have rocker switches and thumb scrollers, the X6 facelift makes do with regular buttons.
The existing engines remain the same – the X6 xDrive50i makes 407hp, the X6 xDrive35i does 306hp, and the oil burner xDrive40d and xDrive30d make 306hp and 245hp respectively. No details about the X6 M yet, but there’s a new model called the X6 M50d which we’ll go into detail later.
The M50d is classified as a BMW M Performance car, which is one rung below a pure BMW M car on the ladder, and uses a total of three turbochargers to force air into a 3.0 liter six cylinder diesel to make 381 horsepower and an insane 740Nm of torque, taking the X6 M50d to 100km/h in just 5.3 seconds while consuming only 7.7L/100km on average. All engines including the M50d use an 8-speed auto transmission, except the X6 M which uses a 6-speed.
It is a new year and it is time for yet another exciting round of the Castrol EDGE Experience Nurburgring! Just like the first edition last year, this sequel will see one lucky grand prize winner head to the legendary Nurburgring race track in Germany to enjoy the ultimate driving experience with the BMW M3, which uses Castrol EDGE with Titanium Fluid Strength Technology™.
Now engineered with Titanium Fluid Strength Technology™, the new and improved Castrol EDGE is the strongest and most advanced performance oil yet from Castrol. It is up to 40% stronger than a leading competitor and stronger for up to 35% longer. The new Castrol EDGE is able to withstand high pressures of up to 10,000 kg per square cm. That’s hard to picture, so try thinking of the pressure exerted by two elephants standing on top of a stiletto!
To take part in this 2- stage contest is pretty simple. All you need to do is to head to Castrol Malaysia’s Facebook page and click on the Castrol EDGE Experience Nurburgring: The Sequel application. Here you will have to complete as many laps as possible in a virtual BMW M3, on a virtual Nurburgring! There is a trick to winning as well, enlisting your friend’s help on Facebook will help boost your distance. This simply means that the more you and your friends play, the higher your chance of winning.
There will also be Pit Stops during the virtual race where you will face three challenging questions. This stage of the contest which starts today, ends on 27th February 2012. From here, the Top 20 will get the chance to battle it out at the grounds of the MAEPS Motorsport Park in a BMW.
Here, the top 20 finalists will undergo a defensive driver training and battle it out in a BMW in the ultimate test of driving skills at the exclusive Castrol EDGE Experience Nurburgring event. We will select one grand prize winner who will get the opportunity to push a BMW M3 around all 72 corners at more than 200km/hour at the iconic Nurburgring track.
The 2nd place winner will get to enjoy the Castrol EDGE Experience Nurburgring at the comfort of his or her own home with a Castrol EDGE-branded Apiga AP1 Professional Racing Simulator Cockpit which comes complete with a steering wheel, pedals, Sony Playstation 3 console, Gran Turismo 5 and a 40-inch Sony Bravia television, cool huh!
The 3rd place winner will walk home with a Tag Heuer Kimi Raikkonen F1 watch while 4th and 5th places will get an iPhone 4S 16GB and a Microsoft Xbox Kinect 360 respectively. That’s not all folks! 6th to 10th places will walk home with a pair of Oakley Hijinx shades while 11th to 20th places will get an iPod Shuffle 2GB. Now that’s a lot of attractive prizes to be given away – if only we were eligible! Hurry up and show who’s the strongest before the contest ends!
We’ve already seen patent filing drawings of the 3-door version of the new F20 1-Series, so this isn’t really much of a surprise, but here are spyshots of the 3-door BMW 1-Series from our usual European spyshot contributor SB-Medien.
The model here is said to be a 135i, and its equipped with the F20′s M-Sport package. The 135i with nearly 320 horsepower to the rear wheels will be the hottest 1-Series hatchback as of now because we don’t know if BMW is planning a 1 M for the hatches or not.
BMW Group Malaysia, in a press briefing this morning, announced that 2011 was a record breaking year for them in terms of sales. The company sold a total of 5,604 vehicles last year, consisting of 5,003 BMWs, 301 MINIs and 300 Motorrad bikes. This surpasses the sales figure of 2010 by 24%, making Malaysia one of the fastest growing markets in the entire BMW Group network.
At the event this morning at Pavilion KL, Briscoe, together with Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir, unveiled the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics Concept Car, which will be on show at the posh mall till this Sunday. The futuristic concept car is featured in Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, where it is driven by saviour of the world Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise.
The BMW Vision EfficientDynamics is quite a sight, but it’s not coming to your neighbourhood BMW showroom anytime soon. What is coming are BMW’s ActiveHybrid models, in F30 3-Series and F10 5-Series form, sometime this year. But don’t expect cut price BMWs – these models are powered by 3.0-litre turbo engines, and will not enjoy the tax breaks given to hybrids from Toyota and Honda.
If you didn’t know, BMW’s ActiveHybrid models aren’t all out eco cars, they pack in plenty of performance. We’ve covered them it detail already – click here and here for more on the ActiveHybrid 3 and ActiveHybrid 5. We’ve also driven the ActiveHybrid 7, click here to read the review.
Hybrids aside, BMW Group Malaysia is without doubt the biggest proponent of diesel engines in Malaysia, and it will continue to bring in ‘d’ models. They say that diesels now account for 15-20% of total sales in Malaysia, which is encouraging, but to increase that number, the company is hoping that the Government will do its part in this matter.
“The Malaysian government’s long stated intention of introducing Euro IV spec for fuel for instance is a critical step towards the country’s evolution into an actual green tech advocate, and it’s our hope that greater emphasis will be given towards the alternative engine technologies that are readily available today in the discussion of the second review of the National Automotive Policy scheduled for this year,” said Geoffrey Briscoe, MD of BMW Group Malaysia.
“It is vital that while we pursue new alternatives to achieve sustainability, attention is also given to improve on existing tech such as Advanced Petrol and Diesel engines which run on the lower sulphur content Euro IV spec fuel, as well as the introduction of incentives for all hybrid tech including those for hybrid vehicles above 2,000 cc, as these engines can prove to be more efficient than their smaller counterparts,” urged Briscoe.
If this wish list comes true, BMW won’t be the only party benefiting, but Malaysian car buyers as well.
BMW M GmbH is unveiling a new product range that will bear their M brand. Slotted in between regular BMWs that are mildly spiced up with the M Sports kit and full fledged M cars like the M3 and M5, the new product range will be known as BMW M Performance Automobiles.
“We are targeting our efforts at customers looking for more emotionality and more performance, but who don’t want to forgo the everyday usability of their cars. The new product line-up will be a range that includes a wide variety of model series, as well as both petrol and diesel-engined variants,” said Dr Friedrich Nitschke, President of BMW M GmbH.
BMW M even hinted at the new naming scheme – it referenced the old 1980 BMW M535i, which accompanied the full fledged BMW M5 in the E28 model range. The M535i used a M30B35 that made 211 horsepower, while the M5′s S38B35 made 260 horses. Back in March 2010, we heard that BMW filed a series of new trademarks that included the term M50d – this would likely be used on a tuned up diesel (rumoured tri-turbo) X5/X6 that was part of this new M Performance Automobiles range.
The new range will be presented to the public at the Geneva International Motor Show 2012 this year, from the 8th of March to the 18th of March – that and the rest of the Geneva unveils should keep us very busy in the first quarter of the year of the Dragon!
“M Purists” will undoubtedly make a fuss about this, but BMW M doesn’t seem to care much and continues to evolve with the times – they’ve gone ahead and added all wheel drive, SUVs, torque converter automatic transmissions, and turbochargers. All of this has resulted in products that has no doubt made their CFO very happy with the bank balances. They might as well add oil burners to the list as well, after all someone’s gotta compete with Audi’s V10 and V12 TDIs right?
Watch the first video in this story for an interview with the BMW M head honcho where he talks about the new model range, and check out the second video which features what we’re assuming is a white BMW X5 M50d – you can hear a little of how it sounds like in the video.
