BMW to bring X6 M, X1, 5 Series GT to Auto Expo 2010

BMW HQ

The Auto Expo 2010, which goes on from January 5 to 11 next year in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, will be packed with new models from BMW. The German brand will show new cars as well as its existing line-up in its booth next year. Apart from the currently running BMW models, the Indians will have the first look of the 400 bhp, twin-turbo direct-injected 4.4-liter V8 550i Gran Turismo. The new compact SUV BMW X1 will also make an appearance along with the new 760Li with 535bhp twin-turbo, 6.0-liter, V12 engine. Besides all this, the new BMW X6 M with the 4.4-liter, 555 bhp V8 engine will also be among the exhibits.

[Via http://gratiscarconnect.wordpress.com]

F1 News Round-Up (11/12/09)

Hi guys, here is my round of the F1 news for this week.

So let’s start with the teams’ then, good news for BMW, Peter Sauber has brought back the team and has replaced Toyota for the starting grid for the 2010 season. Also a team back in action is Renault, all we know at the moment is that the buyers has brought 75% of the team and are keeping the name the team name as Renault. Thanks to Pete and the unknown buyer so all the team keeps their jobs. The newly formed Virgin Racing has set to launch their project Next Tuesday. That really early, very early for a new team, let’s see what happened. Finally, Brawn GP has changed its name to Mercedes, but still run with Brawn line-up of the best brains.

For the track news now, and I said this is my last post that the British has been saved for 17 years at Silverstone, I so want to be their but they won’t be any tickets left when I do finally get a job! Also Silverstone has broke a record, which is the most even tickets sold in 24 hours, they have sold 6,500 tickets making a whopping £1.2 million, not bad for a circuit that has just about to start work on a new part of the track! Also, the Canadian Grand Prix is back from its one year break. It great place to race and a lot of crashes, that should be interesting with 26 cars going round J.

So, the drivers market is still wide open and they is a name at Mercedes with Schumacher written on the car, yes, Schumacher looks like he is coming out of retirement and going to have a seat next to Nico. It will be interesting if he does return; all we got to do is wait and see. Lastly, Lotus is looking at Trulli is looking likely to become the main driver. But what about Kamui Kobayashi, he had 2 amazing races and hasn’t been confirmed yet to any team yet, someone please sign him up

Because of the increase of the number of teams, there is a new points system in place. It is now 1st get 25 points, 2nd gets 20 points and 3rd get 15 points. The remaining 7 places are covered by the old points 10, 8, 6, 5, 3, 2 and 1. I don’t see why they have that, why not the easy 10 for a win, 9 for 2nd and 8 for 3rd and so on to 1 for 10th.

And finally … the FIA has now said at every race, there will be an experience F1 driver to help make the decisions of racing incidents, thanks you Jean Todt to try and make fair racing back to the track. But now, I can see a lot of teams trying to pay them out to fix the results, not naming any teams (RENAULT) … sorry.

So that the F1 news round-up and keep an eye out for Chad’s post coming this weekend. See ya all later and have a good weekend!

[Via http://f1racingmad.wordpress.com]

Greenville, SC Rated One of the Best Bang for the Buck Cities

We all know that most of the country has been hit hard by the recession and housing prices seem to have been one of the most effected by the recent downturn.  As different cities saw housing prices increase at varying degree, we are also noticing that some cities are recovering better than others. 

Liberty Bridge at Falls Park in Greenville, SC

Forbes magazine recently posted an article Best Bang for the Buck Cities.  It ranked the top 100 metropolitan areas by housing prices, jobs, travel time, foreclosures and other key categories.  Near the top of the list was Greenville, SC coming in at number 20.  The Upstate has been a growing area for years, but it never saw the skyrocketing housing prices like other parts of the country.  Instead the market has grown at a steady  rate  therefore, the surrounding areas did not experience the large decline that most of the country experienced. 

There are several factors that have contributed to these mild market fluctuations.  Interestingly, one of the main reasons is the prices of the auto industry in the Upstate.  BMW is expanding their plant in Greer, SC and the Michelin headquarters are located there as well.  Greenville is one of the few cities that have been helped by its dependence on the auto industry. 

Additionally, but not discussed in the article, Greenville is seeing quite a bit of people relocating from other areas.  They are moving from as close as North Carolina or Florida and as far away as California.  They are choosing to move for various reasons including job transfer, family, a lower cost of living, or just looking for a great place to retire. 

The end result of a moderate housing increase, a strong international presence, and a lower cost of living is that Greenville and the surrounding areas appear to be weathering the storm quite nicely with blues skies ahead.

To get more information about the area, contact Mike Cloys at mcloys@arcbuildersinc.com or 864-567-1648.

[Via http://arcbuilders.wordpress.com]

Cool Woodie Wagon

Sometimes the rides posted in Doing It Wrong are really doing it right. Like this woodie Bimmer wagon. I dig it. One more pic after the jump (and note that this thing is a 3-door).

[Via http://blog.cardomain.com]

This is Our Winter Wonderland

Winter is here in Chicagoland.  Temperatures dropped rapidly- last weekend it was nearly 50 degrees and today it is 28 degrees.  Brrrrrrrr!!!  The cold definitely hits you as soon as you walk outside.  And since this is just the start of winter, we are in the “adjustment” stage where we all have to get used to the colder climate.  We know we are finally adapted when 40 degrees outside feels warm and not cold.  Well, we are not quite at that point yet!  We actually had snow flurries yesterday though.  Nothing that you see once it touched the ground, but it was definitely coming down for a while.  There is another threat of snow just days away, and do you know what that means for us?

Snow tires. 
Wiper blades. 
Another set of snow tires. 
And another. 
Another wiper blade replacement. 
More snow tires. 
And more snow tires. 
More wiper blades. 
And again, more snow tires. 
I think you get the picture.

It has been pure craziness with tires and wipers.  We have been mounting so many tires and installing so many wiper blades.  We have been getting a lot of shipments of tires that customers have ordered and had shipped to our shop for the installation (after all, we ARE a TireRack.com “Recommended Installer!”).  Not only are the tires constantly being shipped to our shop, but we also have many sets of our customers’ tires stored upstairs.  We offer free tire storage to all of our customers because we know that many of them switch their tires and/or wheels from summer to winter.  The salt that gets put down on our Chicago streets will eat away at the nice summer wheels that are on a lot of our customers’ vehicles.  Thus, when winter comes along, they know it is time to take their expensive wheels off and replace them with the stock wheels.  As far as tires go, well,  during the summer, a good portion of our customers like to have performance or all-season tires on their vehicles.  But come winter time, they need to be swapped with winter tires.  In Chicago, having winter tires on from December through the end of March is pretty much mandatory if you want to avoid sliding off the road into a ditch or guard rail (or another car for that matter).

So, our phone has been ringing off the hook with customers wanting to have their tires swapped or installed.  In our back room, there are piles of new tires that are stacking up from customer’s orders through Tire Rack.  Empty boxed that previously held wiper blades are strewn throughout our garbage containers.  Used tires belonging to customers are still upstairs, however, now it is their summer tires sitting there rather than their winter tires. 

Ahhhh… winter in Chicagoland.   It has arrived.  (Against my will, might I add.)

This is OUR winter wonderland!

[Via http://rennology.wordpress.com]

Toys Bright and Shiny at LA Auto Show Ferrari, Maserati Missing in action

It’s no secret that these are interesting times in the automobile business. There’s the bailout of GM and Chrysler, of course, as well as the recall debacle Toyota is facing. Then there’s the L.A. Auto Show, which runs Dec. 4-13 for the public but opened for the media Dec. 2 for a two-day preview as it does every year. Talk about a recall. The keynote speaker kicking off the show in front of the press Dec. 2 was scheduled to be General Motors’ CEO Fritz Henderson. Oops. Henderson suddenly and dramatically exited the company the day before, leaving old industry hand Bob Lutz to step in for him. It probably wasn’t the first time Lutz, a former Marine, had been dropped into a war zone.

 There is also the matter of the missing superstars.  Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Bentley are conspicuous no-shows this year, erasing a good portion of the glitz from this edition. Thankfully,  Aston-Martin and Rolls-Royce are on hand to uphold the outrageous upper stratosphere of the car game, but the three missing marques also means a significant reduction in the car babes hired every year to purr over the upscale product. Which brings up another point. Viper, along with parent Chrysler itself, may not be around for next year’s show.

 Also present is Saab, which is being shopped by GM as if it were a regifting situation and may not be here in a year either. No matter.

The show, spread over the vast expanse of the Los Angeles Convention Center, provides pretty much the same dose of hype and gearhead ecstasy as every year. There is the usual dose of debuts, cars unveiled with a showbiz flourish.

Among those shown for the first time anywhere are the Cadillac CTS coupe, renewed Dodge Viper and Toyota Sienna. Thirty-one other models are on view for the first time in North America, including ones from Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Jaguar, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz. Porsche, aloof as always in its own space apart from the rest of the carmakers, rolled out its brand new Boxster Spyder, calling it nothing less than a “world premiere.” In-from-Germany executive Christian Dau termed the minimalist convertible “the perfect Porsche,” so focused on performance that routine niceties such as air conditioning, cupholders and even interior handles were left out to save weight. Dau said it would cost just over $62,000 when it goes on sale in February. The media obediently swarmed until the car was obscured in the crush. Yep, a Hollywood premiere all right.

There is the usual contingent of improbable “concept” cars, most of which will never be produced, at least in this form. BMW’s see-through Vision, Subaru’s flighty double-wide gull-wing sedan, and Chevy’s Leno (yes, Jay) Camaro fall in this category. They’re amazing to look at, but would you want to drive one? One you might want to drive, if you were a big-time DJ, is the Sciion XB DJ 2.0 by Five Axis concept. This is a car tricked out with a 2,000-watt sound system, massive fold-out speakers and a DJ mixing deck. It’s like a Death Star for tailgate parties. Meanwhile, the ordinary transportation that provides the car business with most of its cash money is largely ignored. The new VW Beetle convertible and the nice little Toyota Yaris generated no heat and featured no draped car babes.

The unveiling of the Ford Fiesta was the exception. Pitched with what seemed near-desperation to the texting demographic, it enjoyed a great deal of attention. To show off its youth market chops, the introduction included such phrases as “tweet-up” and “growing the buzz.” Hey, with talk like that, how can you say no?

 The LA Auto Show is Dec. 4-13. Weekday hours are 11 am-10pm, 9 am-10pm Saturday, 9 am-8 pm Sunday. Adult admission is $12, with $2 discount coupons and $10 e tickets available on the web site www.laautoshow.com.  Convention Center parking is $12.

[Via http://dickpietschmann.wordpress.com]

Young Drivers test - day 2 - BMW

Day two – Wednesday

Weather conditions: dry in the morning, some light drizzle in the afternoon

Temperature Air: 13 – 19 °C, Track: 13 – 22 °C

Number of drivers participating: 12 from 9 teams

Fastest lap overall: Gary Paffett (McLaren Mercedes) 1:18.718 min

Circuit length: 4.428 km

Esteban Gutierrez (MX)

Chassis / engine: BMW Sauber F1.09-07 / BMW 86/9

Test kilometres today: 301 (68 laps)

Fastest lap: 1:20.190 min

Programme:

To ensure a fair comparison, the BMW Sauber F1 Team today started with the same programme for Esteban Gutierrez as it did yesterday with Alexander Rossi. In the morning Esteban familiarized himself with the car and the track. After the lunch break the team made set-up changes for Esteban to evaluate. The focus was on mechanical set-up changes and the engineers were very happy with the feedback from the 18-year-old driver from Mexico. Due to some light drizzle the afternoon’s programme had to be adapted several times, but the track conditions never allowed intermediates or wet tyres to be run as it remained far too dry. The team also stuck to its rule not to send out one of the youngsters with an extra-low fuel load. Unfortunately Esteban had to stop an hour early because of a hydraulic leak.

Esteban Gutierrez said: “It was a very positive day for me. The main idea was to live that experience, to enjoy the day and to learn. This very high professional level means you have to be very calm and use your intelligence. Due to the hydraulic problem in the afternoon I was unable to make use of two more sets of fresh tyres, but on the other hand I had five sets, which of course is more than I ever had before on one day! I really thank the team for this much appreciated opportunity. I learned a lot for the day when I can hopefully jump into a Formula One car again. In the end, with the grip level getting higher, my neck was a bit stiff and it was good to evaluate my own physical condition. The extra training I did paid off.”

What comes next:

Thursday will be the third and final day of Formula One’s joint junior tests. After two youngsters from Formula BMW have been at the wheel of the BMW Sauber F1.09 for the third day, it is the turn of crowned Formula Renault 3.5 series champion Bertrand Baguette from Belgium. As a reward for his 2009 success (5 wins) he already had his first taste of Formula One on Tuesday in Jerez, where he was driving for the Renault F1 Team. Bertrand Baguette was born on 23 February 1986 in Verviers (BE).

[Via http://f1photos.wordpress.com]