Archive for Automotive Videos

The McLaren MP4-12C is not in the showrooms yet but McLaren Automotive is already embarking on getting as many buyers as possible interested in the car. They’ve produced a video called “Inside McLaren: developing the MP4-12C” which tracks the MP4-12C’s development process.

The video introduces to the viewer the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) and the MP4-12C test programme (presented by McLaren Automotive Technical Director Dick Glover), footage of extreme test conditions (presented by Chief Test Driver Chris Goodwin), more footage of the development process by various senior engineers, and footage of the 12C development cars on road and track in England and Germany, and extreme hot weather testing in Bahrain.

Dick Glover managed the development process involving 50 Testing and Development engineers and a total of 8 development cars. The result – a car priced at between £125,000 and £175,000 powered by a 3.8 liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine making over 600 horses and 587Nm of torque. It’s exterior looks may not look that exciting but the specs definitely sounds very appealing!

Watch the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: McLaren MP4-12C Development Process

There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the Lexus LF-A. The exterior may look a little soft and boring but I’m in love with the cool instrument panel. The rev meter can actually physically move around according to the display’s needs! You’ll see what I mean in the video after the jump. Trust the Japanese to come up with something as techno-funky as this – totally gimmicky but damn cool.

Click here to read the rest of Lexus LF-A has one really cool meter panel!

It’s finally going to be here – the new F10 BMW 5-Series Sedan! BMW has released a teaser video of the new F10 and they say the F10’s debut is ‘about to take place’. A November 23rd (at 8pm CET timezone) unveiling date and time has been set, pretty timely for buyers looking at a mid-size luxury sedan in Malaysia as the W212 E-Class is about to be launched in Malaysia. So if you look at the F10 and decide you like what you see maybe you want to wait until it’s launched in Malaysia to compare the two.

The teaser video uses the kinetic sculpture (metal balls hanging from fine threads) at the BMW Museum to show us the silhouette of the car. Most people are expecting a scaled down version of the F10 5-Series with sportier rectangular kidney grilles rather than the large ones on the F01/F02 7-Series or even the 5-Series Gran Turismo.

Personally this is one of the more exciting car launches for me, as an old 5-Series owner I’m very interested to see how my E39’s ‘grandchild’ will look like, as personally I didn’t like the E60’s design very much though it drove like a dream. And of course after the F10 unveiling is over and done with we can look forward to the next generation F10 M5.

Look after the jump for a video of the kinetic sculpture teaser. You can also view some past posts on the F10 5-Series GT.

Related Posts:
F10 BMW 5-Series spyshot snapped conveniently next to a 5-Series GT for comparison
F10 BMW 5-Series Sedan Interior videotaped!

Click here to read the rest of New BMW 5-Series set for November 23rd debut

This video is BMW’s ‘last kopek’ at leveraging its F1 involvement, as the BMW Sauber F1 Team is no more. The team has now been purchased by Qadbak Investments, a buyout that has actually caused some of the other F1 teams to have reservations because of apparent dodginess of the new owners. Anyway enjoy the video after the jump, as you probably won’t much BMW F1 videos after this one.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: BMW M Power says goodbye to F1

The Boxster Spyder is Porsche’s lightest car, at just 1,275kg. That’s probably just around 75kg heavier than my BMW E30 3-Series.

It is a tribute to the Spyder nameplate that’s been used on various cars in Porsche history such as the 550 Spyder and the RS Spyder. It will be the third variant in the Boxster range, joining the existing Boxster and Boxster S models.

The Porsche Boxster Spyder has two bulges on the single piece rear lid, something that the regular Boxster does not have. The bulges make it look rather Carrera GT-ish. It’s got the same engine as the Boxster S, a 3.4 liter boxer yet is lighter than the Boxster.

Power is up 10 horses from the Boxster S engine at 320hp, and when mated to the PDK double clutch transmission and equipped with the Sports Chrono Package, 0 to 100km/h takes 4.8 seconds.

What I’m curious about though is what makes the Boxster Spyder lighter than the Boxster and the Boxster S. They probably removed the folding mechanism for the soft top roof, which means it’s manual now. Porsche’s press kit does not mention what else is gone.

Look after the jump for a hi-res photo gallery and a video.

Click here to read the rest of Porsche adds Spyder variant to Boxster range

If you’ve been following the updates on the MEM Proton Team that currently runs a Proton Satria Neo Super 2000, you’d probably know by now that Alister McRae is currently piloting the car for both the IRC and the APRC. McRae is off to China for the APRC this morning to prepare for the race coming this weekend (14 to 15 November). There’s some new promo footage of the Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 that I managed to source from the guys at Proton R3 and in the video Alister McRae puts in a few words on what he thinks of the car. Watch the video after the jump, enjoy!

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: Satria Neo S2000 and Alister McRae

I don’t care much for the techno music in the second video, but the burning rubber and the dramatic effect in the first video is probably one of the better ways to sell a person a car such as the BMW M3 GTS. From the press release its implied that you can only have it with a 7-speed M DCT so that may turn off some people who absolutely must have a stick shift, but the thought of an extra 0.4 liters in that monster of an engine makes me drool. Watch the videos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Some new BMW M3 GTS promo footage shot where it belongs… on the race track!

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

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

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