Shortly after taking full rights to the brand, BMW has tweaked the ALPINA emblem. Welcome to the BMW ALPINA era.

CAR Magazine has the scoop on early talks of a collaboration between BMW and McLaren to develop a proper supercar for the Munich marque.

BMW is developing a mid-engined supercar with a V8 engine – and is in talks with McLaren to put the car into production. CAR can reveal that the top secret flagship is scheduled for a Frankfurt show unveiling in exactly two years’ time, if talks with Britain’s supercar specialists are successfully concluded.

Last time these two got together, they made McLaren F1 babies. Good times ahead if this story holds any water.

dailysportscar.com preview next years crop of new and revised GT3 sportscars.

Looks like 2016 is going to be another banner year for the ever expanding category.

Chris Harris peruses the latest metal at IAA Frankfurt, with a short intermission involving a quick blat around the Lauitzring in the updated 380bhp Mercedes-AMG A45.

That VW Kombi Ducati hauler...

16 glorious minutes of BMW M cars being hustled around the World's Greatest Public Tollway, just as they were designed to.

As good as it is, the producers seemed to have skipped over the E34 M5, forgot to film the E12 M535i having a crack, ditto the E36 M3. Shame on you. Hearing the E46 CSL being wound out might make up for it. Just a little bit.

via Road & Track

Marc VDS Racing Team gives the BMW Z4 GT3 the ultimate retirement present by winning the grueling 24 Hours of Spa.

BMW are set to replace the Z4 with an all new 6er based GT3 contender for the 2016 season.

A short video showing a prototype BMW 5er GT being outfitted in a fully cladded disguise.

Brutally ugly.

via BimmerFile

evo gets the scoop on what they're calling the "World’s most expensive BMW M1":

An incredibly rare and immaculate example of the BMW M1 is up for sale in Germany for £603,000 – close to double the value of most M1s on the market. The iconic supercar is one of just three painted in Polaris Silver and was originally commissioned by Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

via evo, Mint Classics

Legendary BMW tuner ALPINA looks back and celebrates fifty years of tuning and racing Bavaria's finest.

Gold foil this, titanium that, Lotus Elan indicators, tail lights from a bus, and Gordon Murray's favourite bracket. evo's Henry Catchpole sweats the details of the McLaren F1.

evo's Henry Catchpole pitches the classic McLaren F1 against its modern P1 iteration along the mighty D2 in the Var region of southeastern France.

Watch Roman Caresani overtake and oversteer his way around everything in his 1965 Porsche 911 around Spa.

(via Goodwood Road & Racing)

To my way of thinking, the 2002 is one of modern civilization's all-time best ways to get somewhere sitting down. It grabs you. You sit in magnificently-adjustable seats with great, tall windows all around you. You are comfortable and you can see in every direction. You start it. Willing and un-lumpy is how it feels. No rough idle, no zappy noises to indicate that the task you propose might be anything more than child's play for all those 114 Bavarian superhorses.

Car & Driver magazine reminds us of one of the greatest pieces of automotive prose ever written, a review of the BMW 2002 by David E. Davis, Jr. published in April 1968.

C&D also released a PDF reprint of the article.

This is the first lap of the 2014 Nurburgring 24h rennen, onboard Ring-Attack #303 BMW M235i Racing with the driver Jesse Krohn.

Nearly all of it at ten-tenths. So very fast.

A great little video from CarChat:

Don Dethlefsen of The WerkShop in Libertyville, Illinois talks about the the very first restoration his shop did of a fully optioned 1973 BMW 2002tii.

via @Coudal

#6 of 15 specially-commissioned lightweight models built for the Australian GT Championship.

This example looks very tidy and has relatively low KMs. Only blemish is the after-market sunroof, worth fixing for such a rare car.

Located in St Ives, NSW. Listed on Carsales for $65,000.

Great video of a super clean Model 73 2002tii being driven like it should be driven.

M8, E46 M3 Touring, an early X5M concept, and an M3 Compact for starters.

We'd love to read more about each of these one-off proof of concepts.

Petrolicious profile BMW's one and only supercar, the straight-six M88/1-powered M1.

Ultra rare in Australia BMW E46 3er wagon equipped with full M Sport package and a manual six-speed transmission. Unicorn.

Located in Artarmon, NSW. Listed on Carsales for $20,000.

Not only did this BMW E91 318i estate get an S65 heart transplant from an E90 M3, it was also received extensively modified bodywork to match its mechanical upgrades.

Crying shame that BMW in all their "niche within a niche" model strategies hasn't built an M3 estate to take on the likes of the Mercedes-AMG C63 and Audi RS4 fast estates.

Or "How to build a MINI in 12 minutes".

See also: previous generation MINI R56 production line.

via AUSmotive

First video of BMW Motorsport's new customer racing machine, the M235i Racing, in action.

BMW Motorsport is adding a new car to its customer racing range, which is spearheaded by the BMW Z4 GT3, in the form of the BMW M235i Racing. At a price of 59,500 Euros (plus VAT), this car helps to make motorsport affordable on an entry-level basis. Customer feedback has been very positive so far. No wonder, as the new car is a true beauty.

(Read more...)

Say what you want about electric vehicles, there's no denying the tech involved in the production of the new BMW i3 BEV and REEV is without peer.

BMW Classic promo video of an iconic Gordon Murray-designed BT52 being restored, shaken down on the track then taken up the hill at Goodwood by none other than Nelson Piquet.

Beautiful.

(See also)

'74 BMW 2002 Turbo restored to almost better-than-new condition using many extremely rare NOS parts.

(via Petrolicious)

*[NOS]: New Old Stock

Much anticipated match-up between two new premium hot hatches, care of Chris Harris for /DRIVE.

Take a complete though tired '73 BMW 2002 back to the metal, add a new interior, fabricate some flared guards.

What's not to love about this thread?

To replace a leaking VANOS unit. In his shop.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the McLaren F1 and then some. Split over at least four volumes, this latest one is up to 425 pages...

A long chat with Hans-Bruno Starke, head of body and trim for BMW M and Peter Schmidt, chassis development engineer, about development of the venerable E46 M3 CSL.