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German Car Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News
Published on 10-30-2011 11:47 AM
Mercedes GP finished strong in the Inaugrual Indian Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher who started 11th on the grid finished in fifth place ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Schumacher at the start of the race was able to jump three to 8th by the end of the first lap and maintained a constant pace behind Rosberg. Before the second round of pitstops, Schumacher began to eat away at Rosberg's lead and brought the gap down to 1.5sec. While Nico pitted, Michael kept putting in his best lap times and after his stop, he emerged infront of Nico by 1.2 secs and maintained that gap to the end of the race.
...Published on 10-29-2011 10:27 PM
Audi has not announced an RS4 sedan for the B8 generation A4. That does not stop any of us from speculating however and theophiluschin decided to render what such a video would look like. This rendering comes surprisingly quickly on the heels of the facelifted B8 A4 pictures hitting the web. The rendering basically takes RS5 styling cues and applies them to the A4 which really is not all that different from what Audi did with the facelifted A4 anyway having used styling cues from the facelifted A5. Will we see an RS4 sedan this generation? Seems unlikely at this pint.
...Published on 10-29-2011 07:22 PM
Rosberg and Schumacher qualified in seventh and 12th places respectively today during qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit in New Delhi. For Rosberg he completed one run in each of the sessions to save tires for the race. He will have one set of primes and two sets of the soft option tires. Schumacher on the other hand had a difficult qualifying session, he had to switch to a set of super softs to make Q2 on his last lap. In Q2, he suffered from tyre vibrations and missed out on Q3 by 0.018s
...Published on 10-29-2011 07:18 PM
Green Hell was always about pushing the envelope of what’s possible in a street driven M3, and nearly two years ago when the car was first built it was fairly extreme by some standards. When the owner of Green Hell approached us this year to push that envelope even further we knew our luck was in once again, for we had again just completed our yearly pilgrimage to Germany and the Nurburgring, and could not have been more inspired or more motivated to approach the car with new energy and fresh ideas. For us, Green Hell as a Portfolio Project car would once again be a symbol of the human drive to push the envelope. The car represented our endless march toward a constantly moving vanishing point- the desire to be the best, to be the fastest. Even though Green Hell always was and always will be a mixed use street car and track day weapon, this drive to push the boundary is a true reflection of motorsport, in our view, and it is with this drive in mind that we tore into the M3....
Published on 10-28-2011 11:21 PM
This oil and air seperator can be used on stock cars to cars that are highly modified even with superchargers. What does it do? It reduces oil retention by the engine and reduces knock. Essentially, better for your motor assisting longevity and acting as a preventative measure. From Weistec, "As the excess crankcase pressure is vented through the PCV valve and into the intake manifold the engine will eventually draw in, not only air which is wanted, but also particles of aerated oil which creates instability in power due to the low octane level of oil."
...Published on 10-28-2011 07:47 PM
This is the type of stuff we like to see. While other sites are re-posting BMW press releases about production of the F30 3 series starting we are more interested in real world BMW performance comparisons. Renntech took an X5 M with only their tune to PBIR (Palm Beach International Raceway) to run on the strip versus a stock X5 M. The results are absolutely awesome with the tuned car running 12.09@113 and the stock car 12.72@107. That is 6 MPH and just over 6 tenth's with just a tune, impressive.
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Published on 10-28-2011 05:11 PM
CAR reports that Mercedes signed off on a new generation of engines which will downsize motors in models across the line. Expect to see many more four cylinder motors in models as well as see the V8's get smaller rather than larger. The real surprising news is that they intend to produce a turbocharged straight six cylinder for use in the larger cars by 2015. Kind of odd that Mercedes would go this route after last producing an I6 in 1997 while BMW is considering going to V6's. Things continue to seem to flip around.
...Published on 10-28-2011 04:40 PM
Audi is making rapid styling changes, seemingly almost too fast. The B8 A4 still seems fresh to us and did not really need a facelift in our opinion. Well, Audi decided to freshen it up for whatever reason and the styling mimics what they did on the facelifted RS5. The headlights are basically the same and unfortunately that makes the models blend together. The new headlights work much better on the A5 than on the A4. The facelifted A4 will be on sale June of next year in the USA as a 2013 model with a wagon available as well.
...Published on 10-27-2011 08:16 PM
Car and Driver has brought us the meat of what we want to see regarding the new F10 M5, the performance numbers. They tested it at 12.0@122 which is not bad. With proper rubber and conditions this is an easy 11 second car stock. This is roughly a 7 mph trap speed gain on the previous generation E60 M5 which had roughly a 7 mph trap speed gain on the E39 M5 it replaced. We had hoped the car would be closer to the ~125 range though especially with the DCT.
...Published on 10-27-2011 08:09 PM
0-60 Magazine put this video out of a Nissan GTR and a CLS63 AMG having some fun wearing their rubber down. It isn't really much of a surprise to anyone that the CLS63 AMG can break its tires loose pretty much at will and keep them spinning. It certainly does this in a much easier fashion than the all wheel drive GTR which just isn't able to slide the same way. Cool little video but what we really just wanted to see was the cars race. We don't understand why that was not done with which would have made for a far more interesting video.
...Published on 10-26-2011 07:20 PM
No surprise, everyone knows the new ML63 AMG is coming. Mercedes is choosing to reveal it at this years Los Angeles International Auto Show. The 2012 model will be dropping its naturally aspirated M156 6.2 liter V8 for the new turbocharged M157 twin turbo 5.5 liter unit. The performance package will surely be available for this car as well since the package is really nothing more than an ECU tune. BenzBoost will be at the show for the official reveal to bring you photos and details.
...Published on 10-26-2011 08:24 AM
All the German luxury auto makers are trying to squeeze as many niche models in as possible to up volume. Mercedes is no exception announcing they intend to add a new model at their Tuscaloosa US plant. The model is likely to be an MLC sport utility crossover which will target the BMW X6. Why would this likely be the case? Well, the X6 left Audi and Mercedes scrambling to come up with an answer. Secondly, the plant already produces ML, GL, and R class models making this crossover which would share its platform with the ML the most logical addition to the production capacity. We will know for sure soon.
...Published on 10-26-2011 08:04 AM
Everyone knows GM (General Motors) was the biggest automaker for decades. The mighty fell (and needed loans, from taxpayers) as Toyota passed them by. Volkswagen is currently up 13% on its 2010 global sales and 8.1 million is the estimate for its 2011 sales. In second place is General Motors with an estimate of 7.55 dropping off after having led the first half of 2011 which is fairly impressive in a down economy. Toyota is down about 9% at this point and likely to end up in third place falling behind GM and VW. Impressive work by the VW group.
...Published on 10-26-2011 07:24 AM
We were extremely impressed when just a couple days ago we saw the dyno numbers posted for the Horsepower Freaks Stage 5 E46 M3 turbo. There is not much a car making over 1,000 horsepower needs to worry about. An Acura Integra would likely be the least of the worries of a vehicle that powerful but guess again. BimmerBoost member @gringotegra's turbo Integra GSR definitely impressed us and was surprisingly fast vs. stout competition. This is a case of power to weight as the Integra at around 2500 pounds is almost 1 1/2 ton lighter than the E46 M3 it was racing. That definitely helps when the Acura is making around 300 wheel horsepower less.
...Published on 10-26-2011 04:50 AM
Unfortunately for Mercedes fans, Audi already pretty much wrapped up team and driver titles in the previous race. Jamie Green won the final race of the 2011 season in fairly dominant fashion finishing 7.6 seconds ahead of second place. Second place went to the 2011 champion, Audi's Martin Tomczyk who clearly is no slouch. Miguel Molina of Audi finished in third place to round out the podium. Better luck to Mercedes next year when BMW enters the fray for what will make for an exciting BMW vs. Audi vs. Mercedes 2012 season.
...Published on 10-26-2011 02:11 AM
If you read other sites (it's ok, we don't blame you, we do too) the major Audi news going around is that Audi is developing a new lighter and more powerful TT-RS. Well, we brought you news of this car back in March of this year. You may have realized the TT-RS for the USA had a slight horsepower bump versus its European counterpart. The leak from earlier in the year shows that the European version will be bumped up to the horsepower levels of the USA version from its current 335 BHP level.
...Published on 10-26-2011 01:07 AM
We like that Porsche covers just about everything. Their cars are amazing and their Porsche design studio produces some very cool and interesting (and expensive!) stuff. Case and point, this Johnnie Walker Blue Label private bar of which only 50 will be made for a cool $150k. The chiller can be purchased for just $375 and the cube for $770. Not cheap, but a heck of a lot less than $150k for what is an awesome way to display some prized liquor.
...Published on 10-25-2011 06:46 AM
A major congratulations is in order for Weistec who managed to pull off what many said would be impossible. CARB certification (California Air Resource Board) is extremely difficult due to the strict emission controls employed in the state. It is usually only large manufacturers making parts for domestics that have any luck with CARB certification using aftermarket superchargers (Magnusson, NOVI, Stillen) and we searched but could not find another modern example of a CARB certified aftermarket supercharger system for a Mercedes, BMW, or Audi. Not Dinan, not Renntech, not Active Autowerke, not VF-Engineering, not APR, not ESS, not Gintani, nobody producing superchargers for the aforementioned makes has achieved this on a platform produced in the last decade. That should put things in perspective.
...Published on 10-25-2011 06:00 AM
We aren't sure what there is to debate really, do it already. Albert Biermann (Head of M product development) told Insideline the following on the Z4 M, "There are days when it hurts not to have one, but there was no compelling business case at the time when the decision was taken." Uh, but there was a business case for the X5 M? The X6 M? The 550 GT? The X6 hybrid that was already canned? Yet the platform that has the potential to be the best drivers car in the BMW lineup that BMW Motorsport has already been racing doesn't make sense? Are you serious Biermann?
...Published on 10-25-2011 04:00 AM
The Buddh International Circuit, the newest addition to Formula One. This race is the first new race in four years (Singapore & Valencia 2008, Abu Dhabi 2009, Korea 2010). Formula One heads to new territory next week with the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, Round 17 of the 2011 World Championship, taking place at the Buddh International Circuit on the outskirts of New Delhi, on Sunday 30 October. Designed by acclaimed circuit designer Hermann Tilke, the circuit cost $188 million to build and features a 5.141km long track that incorporates 16 corners and runs in a Clockwise direction. ...
I have no idea where something like this belongs ... WTF?
Today, 09:57 AM