BMW Blog

Filed under: Euro, Plants/Manufacturing, BMW

Heavy fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar versus the Euro has made building vehicles in the U.S. a very attractive proposition for European automakers. BMW is looking to expand its U.S. operations by spending over $1B to increase capacity at its South Carolina plant, add more parts distribution centers, and expand its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey. The majority of the money, about $750M, will be spent on increasing production at its plant South Carolina plant from 160,000 units to 240,000 by 2012. The move makes abundant sense given the fact that the German automaker is taking a massive hit by shipping vehicles from higher cost Europe to the lower cost U.S.

BMW is spending $100M on expanding its headquarters and another $170M to increase parts distribution centers, which should be welcome news for BMW owners who can face high wait times for parts. BMW has been tearing up the sales charts in the U.S. for quite a while, and with an added $1B getting spent on facilities Stateside, it looks like the Germans want the good times to continue to roll.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req’d]

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[Source: Autoblog]

So I’m prepared for anything when I leave the apartment building I call my New York home (as opposed to my Detroit home, which is in Royal Oak). I can deal with the rats of unusual sizes, cockroaches as big as my fist and even the occasional manhole explosion. But I’m beginning to have a problem with the random shit raining down from the heavens every few days in New York City. First it was just one crane. Sure, it took out an entire building, but whatever, accidents happen. Then it was a second crane — only two dead — that’s not too bad. Now, it’s a giant chunk of the building I live in falling down on top of a BMW 3-Series parked out front. Like I said, I can deal with a lot. But when the buildings start attacking defenseless cars outside my pad, it’s time to start reevaluating the ability of a city to regulate itself and its construction business. Although they did leave a nice note on the car, we’re still totally telling the board to never use East Coast Restoration again.

[Source: Jalopnik: Bmw]

Filed under: Euro, Plants/Manufacturing, BMW

Heavy fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar versus the Euro has made building vehicles in the U.S. a very attractive proposition for European automakers. BMW is looking to expand its U.S. operations by spending over $1B to increase capacity at its South Carolina plant, add more parts distribution centers, and expand its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey. The majority of the money, about $750M, will be spent on increasing production at its plant South Carolina plant from 160,000 units to 240,000 by 2012. The move makes abundant sense given the fact that the German automaker is taking a massive hit by shipping vehicles from higher cost Europe to the lower cost U.S.

BMW is spending $100M on expanding its headquarters and another $170M to increase parts distribution centers, which should be welcome news for BMW owners who can face high wait times for parts. BMW has been tearing up the sales charts in the U.S. for quite a while, and with an added $1B getting spent on facilities Stateside, it looks like the Germans want the good times to continue to roll.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req’d]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

[Source: Autoblog]

So I’m prepared for anything when I leave the apartment building I call my New York home (as opposed to my Detroit home, which is in Royal Oak). I can deal with the rats of unusual sizes, cockroaches as big as my fist and even the occasional manhole explosion. But I’m beginning to have a problem with the random shit raining down from the heavens every few days in New York City. First it was just one crane. Sure, it took out an entire building, but whatever, accidents happen. Then it was a second crane — only two dead — that’s not too bad. Now, it’s a giant chunk of the building I live in falling down on top of a BMW 3-Series parked out front. Like I said, I can deal with a lot. But when the buildings start attacking defenseless cars outside my pad, it’s time to start reevaluating the ability of a city to regulate itself and its construction business. Although they did leave a nice note on the car, we’re still totally telling the board to never use East Coast Restoration again.

[Source: Jalopnik: Bmw]

Filed under: Euro, Plants/Manufacturing, BMW

Heavy fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar versus the Euro has made building vehicles in the U.S. a very attractive proposition for European automakers. BMW is looking to expand its U.S. operations by spending over $1B to increase capacity at its South Carolina plant, add more parts distribution centers, and expand its U.S. headquarters in New Jersey. The majority of the money, about $750M, will be spent on increasing production at its plant South Carolina plant from 160,000 units to 240,000 by 2012. The move makes abundant sense given the fact that the German automaker is taking a massive hit by shipping vehicles from higher cost Europe to the lower cost U.S.

BMW is spending $100M on expanding its headquarters and another $170M to increase parts distribution centers, which should be welcome news for BMW owners who can face high wait times for parts. BMW has been tearing up the sales charts in the U.S. for quite a while, and with an added $1B getting spent on facilities Stateside, it looks like the Germans want the good times to continue to roll.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req’d]

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[Source: Autoblog]

Filed under: Concept Cars, Convertibles, Videos, BMW

BMW GINA Light Visionary Model in motion

The automotive community has clearly been impressed with the GINA Light Visionary Model concept that BMW unveiled this week. The fabric-covered concept with its winking headlights, blinking gauges, mouth-like hood, and unique ability to shape shift by moving its metal-and-carbon-fiber skeleton via electro-hydraulic actuators is marvelously creative and practically ingenious at the same time. We around the Autoblog offices had a big discussion about the car after it was revealed and were amazed with the out-of-the-box ideas BMW is exploring, though some were doubtful that a fabric skin could ever be used for an actual production vehicle. While it was fun perusing the dozens and dozens of images that BMW handed out showing the GINA in various states of fold, the video above shows you exactly what the concept can do. Keep your eyes peeled for the headlight wink, disappearing gauges, pop-up head rests, a magic spoiler and much more. We reiterate, this thing is about as cool as concepts get. Thanks for the tip, Joe!

[Source: BMW]

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[Source: Autoblog]

So I’m prepared for anything when I leave the apartment building I call my New York home (as opposed to my Detroit home, which is in Royal Oak). I can deal with the rats of unusual sizes, cockroaches as big as my fist and even the occasional manhole explosion. But I’m beginning to have a problem with the random shit raining down from the heavens every few days in New York City. First it was just one crane. Sure, it took out an entire building, but whatever, accidents happen. Then it was a second crane — only two dead — that’s not too bad. Now, it’s a giant chunk of the building I live in falling down on top of a BMW 3-Series parked out front. Like I said, I can deal with a lot. But when the buildings start attacking defenseless cars outside my pad, it’s time to start reevaluating the ability of a city to regulate itself and its construction business. Although they did leave a nice note on the car, we’re still totally telling the board to never use East Coast Restoration again.

[Source: Jalopnik: Bmw]

Filed under: Aftermarket, Tuners, Convertibles, Sports/GTs, BMW

Click above for high-res gallery of the G-Power M6 Hurricane

We were highly impressed with G-Power’s M5 Hurricane. After all, it’s twin-supercharged V10 produced nearly 50% more power than stock and it had a top speed of 211 mph, which G-Power claims to be faster than any other street legal Bimmer. With the BMW M6 packing the same 5.0-liter V10, it was only a matter of time before it received the same treatment. Behold the G-Power M6 Hurricane! While the twin blowers are set for lower boost, only 6 psi compared to the M5’s 10 psi, the M6 still produces a healthy 635 bhp @ 7300 rpm and 469 lb-ft torque @ 6300 rpm. This is good for a 4.5 second sprint to 60 mph and a top speed of nearly 200 mph. Not one to forget that appearance matters, G-Power also provides a new front and rear fascia, rocker panels, and carbon fiber rear diffuser along with 21-inch wheels that make room for a 15-inch brake system up front. M6 owners can drop off their car at G-Power’s German headquarters or can order a fully assembled car starting at a mere 183,000 Euros. Full details can be found in the press release after the jump.

[Source: G-Power]

Continue reading G-Power builds twin-supercharged M6 Hurricane drop-top

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[Source: Autoblog]

So I’m prepared for anything when I leave the apartment building I call my New York home (as opposed to my Detroit home, which is in Royal Oak). I can deal with the rats of unusual sizes, cockroaches as big as my fist and even the occasional manhole explosion. But I’m beginning to have a problem with the random shit raining down from the heavens every few days in New York City. First it was just one crane. Sure, it took out an entire building, but whatever, accidents happen. Then it was a second crane — only two dead — that’s not too bad. Now, it’s a giant chunk of the building I live in falling down on top of a BMW 3-Series parked out front. Like I said, I can deal with a lot. But when the buildings start attacking defenseless cars outside my pad, it’s time to start reevaluating the ability of a city to regulate itself and its construction business. Although they did leave a nice note on the car, we’re still totally telling the board to never use East Coast Restoration again.

[Source: Jalopnik: Bmw]

Gas prices? Pshaw! Who cares? It’s Deutschland tuning day today on Jalopnik apparently as G-Power’s just revealed the successor to their G-Power M5 Hurricane with the G-Power M6 Hurricane Convertible. While the M5 got the big 730 HP BI-Kompressor, G-Power’s used some kind of radical German-Power technique they’re calling “softcharging” to provide 635 HP for the drop-top. That’s still up from the 507 HP in the “standard” 5.0-liter V10 under the hood of the “base” model M6. Full power details in the press release below the jump, and all this can be yours for a mere 183,000€ ($285,387). Yes, the “base” M6 is included. Well, after the Neiman Marcus M6 sold out in 92 seconds, we guess it makes sense to up the price on an up-charged version — you know, supply and demand.

FAST: G-POWER M6 HURRICANE Convertible with 635hp

One of the world’s fastest and most powerful convertibles is made by G-POWER. 635hp and 635 Nm torque; these are the attributes of the latest G-POWER development for the BMW M6.

Being a straight offshoot from the legendary G-POWER M5 HURRICANE BI-Kompressor system with 730hp, the G-POWER BI-Kompressor system EVOI is a less radical alternative to achieve the desired increase in power output for all current V10 engines coming from the M-GmbH.

Thanks to the so called G-POWER “softcharging” technique, featuring a relative boost of 0,4 bar, the additional stress and wear for the engine and drivetrain is kept to a minimum, despite of the impressive increase in power output. Especially the acceleration performance in mid range, a weak point of the fast-revving concept favored by the engineers of the M-GmbH, underlines the dominance of the G-POWER BI-Kompressor system. Equipped with the G-POWER BI-Kompressor EVOI system the BMW M6 is finally capable of that superior performance characteristic most customers would have expected from the beginning.

Acceleration performance benefits from the perfect performance characteristic of the G-POWER equipped V10 engine accordingly. With a sprint time from rest to 100 km/h of 4.6 seconds and to 200 km/h in 11,9 seconds the 2-ton convertible accelerates like a true sports car. The 300-km/h barrier is shattered after 34,5 seconds from standstill. Contrary to the production car the G-POWER M6 HURRICANE convertible is not limited electronically to a top speed of 250 km/h but to 320 km/h. The determining factors therefore are weight, tyres and most important the soft top of the M6 convertible.

The G-POWER M6 HURRICANE convertible is available as a fully converted car starting at 183,000 Euros. Any existing M6 - sedan and wagon - can also be upgraded with the G-POWER BI-Kompressor system EVOI along with numerous items from the extensive G-POWER tuning accessories lineup. For M6 coupé drivers only is the 730 hp version of the G-POWER BI-Kompressor system available as well.

[Source: Jalopnik: Bmw]