Auto Design

By Giancarlo Perini ©

The rush to conquer best design talents is faster and faster.

With the aesthetic appeal emerging as a key selling point for any new cars in a market that is becoming more and more sophisticated top brands compete also in the market of human resources. BMW is recovering one of “his own” stars that two years ago deserted to Mercedes-Benz. Read the rest of this entry »

by Giancarlo Perini ©

The name sounds very familiar and recalls the mid-ship supercar designed by Giugiaro that actually marked the birth of the M (for “Motorsport”) branch of BMW.  That was 32 years ago.

Comes January 2011 and a “second generation” M1 Coupé will makes its World premiere at North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. Read the rest of this entry »

By Giancarlo Perini ©

BMW, the world leader in premium cars will not be the first to join the EV mass market but it will certainly be among the best dressed when it joins the party late in 2013. The number plate of the first Megacity Vehicle to come off the new production lines – to be built in the meantime within the Leipzig (Saxony, Germany) plant – has already been announced at a ceremony attended by German Chancellor Mrs. Angela Merkel and other local authorities. The plate reads L MV 2013, L for Leipzig, MCV for Megacity Vehicle and 2013 for the year of the planned launch.

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BMW has release official pictures of its new 6 Serie Cabriolet. The superlative open air 2+2 sets new standard of beauty and elegance in its class. It will go on sale next year, before the 6 Series Coupé of which a “concept” was presented at the Paris Motor Show in October. More on this blog tomorrow. Here a selection of images.

by Giancarlo Perini (c)

You can look back at the Paris Motor Show, the latest top-ranking of the season from many different perspectives: business as usual or new perspective, sexy style or strict functionality, economic status or talks between car-makers to discuss new alliance and even a show within the show. Indeed this is what tiny British carmaker Lotus has done in Paris. By presenting as many as 5 new concept-cars and mock-ups (Elise, Elan and Esprit, Elite and Eterne) the company has attracted a lot of attention from the media and caused a series of serious of questions now waiting for an answer.

Read the rest of this entry »

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