Auto Design

Bertone has announced that the dream car they have designed over the Maserati chassis shared by the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione will be named Pandion. The choice is consequent with Bertone’s tradition of naming their spectacular show car with animal names, such as the Alfa Romeo Testudo, Canguro, Carabo and Delfino. Read the rest of this entry »

BMW has proudly unveiled its all-new 5 series sedan at the company’s “Project Haus” next its FIZ (the Innovation and research centre). The new sedan is positively the most dynamic and sporty evolution of the upper middle class BMW series now at its 6th generation since 1972 and after mote than 5.555.555 units sold. At the same time, it is the most elegant, although not as modern in its design as its forward looking predecessor.

Banking on the “master plan” that concern the 5, 6 and 7 series model ranges, the new sedan, introduce a series of technical innovations and features offered so far in the new 7 series and the 5 series GT. Its architecture take advantage of the family progress and gets longer, wider but lower with a drag coefficient and frontal area that maintains the aerodynamic of its predecessor while making significant advances in dynamic efficiency. The wheelbase is as much as 80 mm. longer, with some 60 mm. resulting from moving the front axles forward, and 20 mm. going to the rear seats.

The new BMW 5 series Sedan will go on sale in Germany on March 20 and is due to reach the U.S.A. market by June 2010.

More news on the design of the BMW 5 Series in a couple of days.

Following the launch of the latest itineration of the 3 series sedan, BMW is ready to deliver the “derivatives” coupé, cabrio and Touring that share the new design and a new version of the 2.0 litre four cylinder diesel engine in 85 kW tuning that reaches a record setting 4.1 litre for 100 kilometres fuel consumption rate. The achievement is celebrated with the label of “BMW 320d EfficientDynamics Edition”.

Design refinements cover the body work all around and mainly the front and rear lamps. With the 2010 model range, all engines of the 3 series meet with the BMW Euro 5 emission standards, with the 2.0 litre four cylinder engine, 105 kW engine of the 318i, now available also with the coupé and cabrio.

Photo Gallery

Photo Gallery Cabrio

With its new 5 Series Sedan, in Munich, BMW also presentation some of the equipment and process it applies through the development of the entire project and, primarily of the new car design.

The presentation was hosted by Dr. Klaus Draeger who introduced a number of top members of his very large team. Each of them had a chances to explain how they work and how the fantastic world of digital design and virtual reality allow them to work.

Computer do not replace the creativity and judgement of the designers and engineers but greatly help them to communicate among themselves and to jointly check out every single detail and thus improve quality.

In addition BMW displaied what they call the “feas cub” the master mode that serves as a reference for the tooling and quality check of the new model. Unlike at all other car companies, BMW build a single model that integrated both the exterior and interior model, thus actually reproduce with the utmost precision the future car as well as the feelings and perceptions of the real car.

Here and in our gallery a large series of images from the unique presentation of the 2010 BMW 5 Series Sedan.

our gallery

BMW has proudly unveiled its all-new 5 series sedan at the company’s “Project Haus” next its FIZ (the Innovation and research centre). The new sedan is positively the most dynamic and sporty evolution of the upper middle class BMW series now at its 6^th generation since 1972 and after mote than 5.555.555 units sold. At the same time, it is the most elegant, although not as modern in its design as its forward looking predecessor.

Banking on the “master plan” that concern the 5, 6 and 7 series model ranges, the new sedan, introduce a series of technical innovations and features offered so far in the new 7 series and the 5 series GT. Its architecture take advantage of the family progress and gets longer, wider but lower with a drag coefficient and frontal area that maintains the aerodynamic of its predecessor while making significant advances in dynamic efficiency.

The wheelbase is as much as 80 mm. longer, with some 60 mm. resulting from moving the front axles forward, and 20 mm. going to the rear seats.

The new BMW 5 series Sedan will go on sale in Germany on March 20 and is due to reach the U.S.A. market by June 2010.

More news on the design of the BMW 5 Series in a couple of days.

see all images

The first application of the innovative BMW Active Hybrid technology is being introduced first in the luxury BMW X6. The integration of electric drive and energy recuperation and storage system adds some € 26,500 to the list price and, although the system does actually save fuel, it is not for economy reasons that buyers will choose the high performance BMW Active Hybrid X6. Read the rest of this entry »

SOMETHING TO RUSH TO FRANKFURT FOR.

Shortly after I posted my early preview of the upcoming IAA in Frankfurt, the news of the spectacular and very promising VISION EFFICIENT DYNAMIC concept by BMW came in.

The news radically changed my perspective because everybody will now be willing to look deeply into the BMW show-car (an exciting catalogue of trend setting design ideas) and what is underneath. It clearly is a major development of the BMW M1 Hommage unveiled last year at the Villa D’Este Concorso d’Eleganza.

BMW is not being conservative in stating the potential of their ActiveHybrid technology and what sort of performance (in absolute terms, including use of energy) they are looking at for the near future. Read the rest of this entry »

PEUGEOT RCZ

Back from holidays, I am facing great difficulties sitting back to my desk and go through the news to report, possibly in a sensible order. The sun is hot, the wind is fresh,  the sky is blue, the air is clean. Outside. What am I doing in my hole with a keypad and a monitor challenging me?

In addition, there is too much to report but nothing new to make “the news”. It is business as usual. Read the rest of this entry »

€170 million invested into facilities aiming at top Aerodynamic Efficiency.

North American parts suppliers consider BMW AG the best automaker for adopting innovations into vehicles, according to an Automotive News study compiled with J.D. Power and Associates. Read the rest of this entry »

Its mission is simply to be the most rational, functional, comfortable, luxurious and yet emotional, sexy and charismatic car of the next decade. To do so, the very best of BMW as experienced with  recent luxury and premium cars is combined in the all-new BMW 5 Series GT (famous acronym for Grand Turismo, as you well know) when its make its world-premiere at the IAA in Frankfurt next September.BMW is preparing the public for the acceptance of a radically new car, a car that has many technical innovations to offer but that will be more or less successful according to the acceptance of its body concept and architecture as well for its coupé-like styling. Most probably it will not be love at first sight, but give the new Gran Turismo version of the next 5 Series generation a year or two and it will be the car that everybody will want in his/her garage. Read the rest of this entry »