German Car Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News

The new CLS has been receiving a lot of attention from the aftermarket regarding body upgrades. This is one that we just can't get into due to how overdone it is. Simply way too much junk tacked on with the vents in the front and rear fenders as well as the overlapping exhaust tips. The last time we saw a CLS that got this kind of reaction was the purple, red, and yellow CLS we spotted. There simply are much cleaner and better looking options for widebody kits with the new CLS. ...

VW Canada states that the Amarok pickup is being "evaluated" for the Canadian market. We hate to butt in here but there is a much bigger market than Canada that LOVES the pick up truck. There also is plenty of room in this sector as there is not a single mid-size diesel options we can think of. A fuel efficient mid-size with a diesel putting out 177 horses and 310 pound-feet of torque? What is there to debate really, this is a big hole in the market. ...

The Zagato coupe was revealed a few days ago at the prestigious Italian car show Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este and we now have a video to go along with the photos of the car. This is a concept from the famed Italian Zagato coachbuilder who teamed up with BMW. The body is entirely built by hand and we must say we would not mind if a new Z4 coupe came out looking just like this example especially considering it is about 400 pounds lighter than the Z4 with its heavy folding hard top. ...

The new Audi S3 is coming and is said to be getting the new 2.0 motor the EA888. Horsepower figures are said to be at the 276 mark which is a bit less than what the M135i and A25 AMG will be packing. It will likely take an RS3 to match up or supersede those models. Still, the car offers good power and great looks. Despite the model being 22mm longer, 21mm taller, and 201mm wider it is expected to weigh 176 pounds less than the outgoing model. Now that is progress! Expect the official reveal shortly. ...

The 981 Cayman is wrapping up final testing and we hope for the official reveal in the next couple months. A spy photographer captured it here wearing minimal camouflage. The Cayman will share the drivetrain of the new 981 Boxster so no surprises here. The Cayman S will have a 3.4 liter flat-6 with 315 horsepower (maybe a 5 HP boost) and the Cayman will have a 2.7 liter with 265 horsepower. Check out our renderings here to get an idea of what the finished product will look like.

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Here is another "special" edition M3 from BMW. We love limited edition models but this really is nothing more than an M3 with existing package and some matte paint. Almost amusing that BMW chose red, white, and blue paint schemes for these cars until we remembered the Union Jack influenced our own US flag colors. In addition to the matte paint the cars get a black interior with stitching to match the exterior, Alcantara wrapped steering wheels, and black rims. ...

We think it is very cool that Mercedes offers a Performance Package for 63 AMG cars with the new M157 twin turbo V8. It essentially just raises boost however for the expensive price of around $7300. One can do much better in the aftermarket for less money as seen here with OE Tuning's results on a new CLS63 AMG. The graphs below show a car without the performance package which hits 466 WHP and 461 WTQ. With the Performance Package it hits 501 WHP and 521 WTQ. And with a tune on both? 566 wheel horsepower and and 596 wheel torque. ...

Impressive naturally aspirated and stock internal work here on the S85 V10 by BimmerBoost vendor JAWS Motorsport. The car put down a baseline of 448 wheel horsepower on a DynoMite dyno with just intake scoops. From that baseline JAWS was able to hit 518 wheel horsepower with addition of their one piece plenum, Alpha-N tune with 8600 RPM limiter, and secondary cat delete. That is a gain of 70 horsepower at the wheels. ...

Make that six different winners in six different races this year. Red Bull's Mark Webber starting on pole position after Schumacher's 5 spot grid penalty claimed the win, holding off a hard charging Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes car. Michael Schumacher had to retire to the pits a few laps before the end of the race with fuel pressure problems. ...

The Techart Type I 991 aero program was released in February of this year and Techart has now added to their offering. The pieces have undergone wind tunnel testing as demonstrated in the photo below. The modest Techart front spoiler I for example reduces front lift by 5 kilograms at 87 miles per hour. Rear Spoiler II will add 17.5 kilograms of downforce at the same speed and 76 kilograms at the cars top speed. Each of the three new packages offers varying degrees of downforce and they can be mixed and matched. Photos of the pieces are below. ...

Sorry BMWUSA. We get what you are trying to sell us here but it did not really work as intended. Yes, we all understand the move to turbo motors in favor of fuel efficiency which you are attempting to convey does not come with a sacrifice (even though you have already told us it does). Why in the world is BMWUSA using the M3 GTS in this video when first of all, BMWUSA refuses to sell this car in the USA, and secondly, it uses the old high revving naturally aspirated formula M is moving away from supposedly in favor of Efficient Dynamics? ...

The Golf R is definitely a cool little hatch that attempts to fill the void left by the absence of the R32. The car has a 2.0 liter turbocharged inline-4 with a horsepower boost to 256. It also gets all wheel drive and a 6-speed manual. The 3407 pound curb weight is not terrible and the all wheel drive is not a huge weight penalty adding roughly 100 pounds. 14.4@97.2 by Insideline for the manual version is certainly respectable but a DSG would be quicker. We wish VW would offer the trans in the USA with the Golf R already. ...

A very impressive result for a naturally aspirated M156. This W204 C63 AMG features the Renntech C74 widebody kit. In addition the vehicle has prototype Renntech camshafts, Renntech ported cylinder heads, long tube headers, a prototype intake manifold, race exhaust, built transmission, limited slip diff, weight loss (unknown to what extent), and a Renntech race tune. This is a very strong result for a naturally aspirated M156 especially at PBIR (Palm Beach International Raceway). Video of the run is below and we expect this work in progress to get even faster. ...

Automobile magazine posted a very interesting article on the BMW i sub-brand. Automobile says the brand is on very thin ice due to its sheer size. It is the idea of the car being drastically changed requiring tremendous commitment of resources. The i3 for example having a carbon fiber body shell, aluminum chassis, lithium-ion batteries, and a rear mounted electric motor that to justify the entry-level $45,000 price tag will need to sell about 100,000 units. That is a very big bet on an expensive all electric car that is not going to be near as fun to drive as a 335i. Do not get us started on how much better BMW's real cars would be with weight dropped thanks to carbon fiber body shells. ...

Porsche is honoring the 60th Anniversary of the very first Porsche Club with a limited edition Porsche 991 Club Coupe. This a very limited edition with only 12 being made 1 of which will stay with Porsche. That means Porsche Club members will have a very hard time getting one of the remaining 11 and only have until July 16 to register for the chance to purchase, good luck with that. Each owner will have their name engraved on the door sill of the car which is a nice touch. What about pricing? 142,831 Euros meaning this likely will not be coming to the USA like the previous Club Coupe. ...

Audi made an amazing documentary called Truth in 24 released in 2009 highlighting the preparation for the 24 Hours of Lemans in 2008. This is the sequel appropriately titled Truth in 24 II. The sequel features Audi's 10th Le Mans victory coming last year in 2011. The 2011 race was tumultuous and emotional with two of the Audi cars retiring due to incredible accidents. Audi of America uploaded the full documentary to their YouTube account and it is well worth watching for any automotive enthusiast or Motorsport fan. Thank you Audi, check out the documentary below which captures all the ups and downs ultimately culminating with the triumph of victory. ...

The seven time world champion Michael Schumacher claimed his 69th pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix with a 1:14.301, just 0.08 seconds ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber. However due to the 5 grid spot penalty handed to him after the Spanish grand prix, Michael will start from 6th spot. Fellow Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg took third. Mclaren's Lewis Hamilton starts behind them followed by Romain Grosjean, and Fernando Alonso. Ferrrari's Massa will start seventh breaking into Q3 for the first time this year, followed by Renault's Kimi Raikkonen. Williams driver Pastor Maldonado starts 9th. The current world champion Sebastain Vettel will start in 10th place, who struggled throughout qualifying and opted not to run in Q3 to save a set of tires for the race. To everyone's suprise, Mclaren Mercedes driver Jensen Button failed to make it into the final qualifying session and will start in 13th place. ...

The BMW 1M in stock form is much slower than the previous generation E63 BMW M6 especially up top. The appeal of the 1M with its N54 engine partially is the modability of the turbo motor. This video is surprising as with it being a roll on race the circumstances favor the strength of the M6. However, the 1M jumps out to a fairly significant lead. It seemed to get on the gas quicker as well as being in a meatier part of the power band to start the race immediately pulling. The M6 does eventually run it down and pass as expected but it does take it a while to do so, check it out below. ...

A debate has been raging on the BenzBoost forums and we decided it was finally time to put together information on these two cars to help sort out the video below. There are three races and the SLS gets the jump in the first two. In the first race the SLS is lined up ahead and gets on the gas first pulling. In the second video a mix-up in the honks has the SLS jump again leading the 458 to have to run it down which it can not. The third race is the cleanest with the SLS still pulling away and rather quickly. ...