Audi BMW

Throughout the week we’ve been covering the ground covered by the BMW Performance Driving School/ United BMW of Roswell X6 M driven by Mike Renner, Tom Lappin and Steve Maguire in the 2010 One Lap of America.

The X6 M has been performing quite well over the course of the week – yesterday reaching as high as 18th place overall and that’s an incredible result for a 5,000+ lbs SUV(SAC for those keeping track!).

However, during their on-hand interviews at Mid Ohio, Steve took the opportunity to speak with the seemingly endless number of drivers competing in One Lap of America BMW’s. In the video below, Steve talks with a handful of the fellow BMW drivers and how they’re progressing through One Lap.

Some of the BMW’s we’ve seen in scanning through the list of entrants stretch across decades of BMW history as we’ve listed below:

- E90 BMW M3’s

- E36 M3’s

-  Z3 M Coupe (Clown shoe!)

- E90/92 335i’s

-E46 325i’s and 328i’s

-  E30 325iS

- MINI Cooper S

As you can see from the list above and the Entrant List, there are BMWs spanning over many models and decades being represented in the 2010 One Lap of America.  The cars represent nearly every class available for One Lap of America – from Mid Priced Sedans to the Small Bore SSGT1 class to SUV/Truck to Luxury Sedan class. The list reveals that it doesn’t seem that any other brand is as well-represented as BMW and across such a wide range of classes – it would seem that the Joy of Driving is alive and wheel across the United States!

From listening to the interviews of the fellow BMW drivers it seems that the M3 is quite the popular weapon of choice and from looking at the leaderboards thus far there are a number of BMW’s that have taken the lead in their respective class. We wanted to take the opportunity to recognize the many BMW’s through Steve’s pictures from the week of One Lap of America thus far.

For the third year in a row, MINI is honored to be named as one of the Top 10 Green Cars for 2010 by Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com. The MINI Cooper has been named to the list every year since its inception in 2008, a nod to the brand’s commitment to being environmentally friendly.

“MINI drives support a sustainable economy – they take the resources they need and leave some for the next generation,” said Jim McDowell, Vice President, MINI USA. “The original Mini was born during an oil crisis, and we work to remain true to the original MINI brand values in every vehicle we build today. We are honored to be named by kbb.com as a 2010 Top 10 Green Car, and are grateful for their recognition of our commitment to the environment.”

According to kbb.com, in being considered for the green Top 10, each vehicle was required to offer fuel economy and CO2 emissions superior to the bulk of vehicles in its class, and at the same time provide all the safety, creature comforts and driving enjoyment that would make it pleasant to own.

In talking about the MINI Cooper being named to the list, the kbb.com editors said, “The famously responsive and eager little MINI Cooper is roomier and more livable than many imagine, and just as fun as anyone could expect. The fact that it also delivers impeccable fuel economy is simply the cherry on top of one of our favorite automotive sundaes.”
MINI, along with BMW Group as a whole, is committed to minimizing the automotive industry’s effect on the environment. This overall effort by MINI, known as MINIMALISM, can be witnessed in everything from current vehicle and engine designs, to manufacturing processes and active research about alternative energy.

MINI vehicles achieve a fuel economy rating of up to 37 mpg (highway) while delivering a fun driving experience with sporty engine performance and responsive, go-kart handling. As the brand grows, the promise of combined fuel efficiency and driving fun will remain. In fact, MINI’s newest vehicle, the MINI Countryman, will be available to US customers in February 2011 and is expected to offer the best fuel economy in its segment.

For more information about the 2010 Top 10 Green Cars from Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com, visit www.kbb.com/GreenCars2010.

[Source: MINI ]

Judging by the latest sales numbers, Audi is clearly shaping up to become BMW’s biggest competitor in the premium cars segment, especially in Europe. So it comes with no surprise that the two companies are competing head-to-head in many segments. The last addition to the Audi family, the entry-level A1 model, is targeting the same customer demographic as BMW’s highly profitable MINI brand.

Audi labels the A1 as the first and only small premium car, but with many parts shared between the A1 and its “brothers” VW Polo and Seat Ibiza, one needs to wonder what is the message passed on by the Ingolstadt-based company.

Both cars are unmistakably appealing and while the MINI has the advantage of having behind a very loyal customer base, the Audi A1, on the other hand, brings to the table their latest design language and a larger appeal to the younger demographic.

Price wise, both models are competitive on the European market, the Audi A1 is priced at € 34,690, € 35,900 respectively for the MINI Cooper.

One area where the Audi usually shines is the interior design and quality of materials, but the A1 breaks this myth with plenty of plastic materials and hard plastic components. One can argue that it’s an entry level model that needs to be priced competitively and we can certainly agree with that statement.

The exterior design remains one sensitive and subjective area, and to avoid any “fanboyism” labeling, we will use our right to stay silent on this. But one point to take home is that the two exterior design languages are essentially quite distinct and as we mentioned earlier, the Audi A1 caters to a younger demographic, more adventurous and fond of a flashier design, while on the other hand, the MINI features the same classy, yet appealing and intriguing design that made the British brand one of the best investments ever made by BMW.

[Photos by BimmerToday ]

Wall Street Journal publishes one of the most comprehensive and insightful reviews of the MINI brand that we have seen in a long time. Over the last years, BMW has reiterated over and over again that the MINI acquisition has been one of the best decision ever made by the brand.

In 1999, they assumed control over the MINI brand following the departure of BMW’s CEO, Bernd Pischetsrieder. When BMW divested itself of Range Rover in 2000, the Munich-based automaker elected to retain the MINI project, and to move the planned production site of the car from Rover’s Longbridge plant (the former production plant of the traditional Mini) to BMW’s Oxford plant in Cowley, Oxford, United Kingdom (what was historically the Pressed Steel Company body plant).

Over the years, the U.S. has become the biggest MINI market with more MINIs sold here than anywhere in the world. The new MINI Countryman joins the BMW X-family in conquering all the niches in the SAV/SUV segment.

Here is an excerpt from this excellent Wall Street Journal article:

For its part, Mini has been going against conventional wisdom ever since its risky introduction to the U.S.

“It was like a mission for me,” says Jack Pitney, who was BMW’s North American corporate communications chief at the time. “Here was the most successful car in U.K. history, with an uninterrupted production run of 40 years. It needed to be on our roads.” The numbers were against him. “All the classical research said there was no market,” Pitney says. “The Mini brand had less than 1 percent recognition in the U.S.”

His pitch to BMW was that the Mini shouldn’t be marketed as a tiny British hatchback, but instead as a small European sports car with retro flair. Finally, the company gave the North American office a pittance to launch with: around 1/20th of BMW’s North American marketing budget. Still, Pitney promised big, telling his superiors he could move 20,000 cars easily. (BMW’s Z3 roadster—its most successful sports car ever—sold 19,600 the year it hit the market.) “We thought we were hanging it way out there. American cars were getting bigger—the Hummer H2 was just coming out—and here we were bringing the smallest car to the market and charging a premium for it,” Pitney says. Without the budget for TV spots or glossy magazine ads, Pitney put everything into emphasizing the car’s human scale. “We bought two Ford Excursions, mounted Minis on top of them, and drove them around New York City.” Then they put a Mini in the stands at baseball stadiums to create the impression that the car was watching the game with fans. (Their people sometimes take this anthropomorphism to a nauseating extreme—as when they refer to buying a car as an adoption.)

Continued here

Romero Britto is a Brazilian neo-pop wall decorator, painter, serigrapher, and sculptor. He combines stereotyped elements of cubism, pop art and graffiti painting in his work.
Previously, he’s lent his pop art to a Volvo V50, Audi RS4, and even a Bentley Continental, but this time, he takes a shot at a 2002 MINI Cooper.

The art work was created for Norman Braman, art collector and a BMW dealer in South Florida. Braman brought the MINI Cooper out into the sunshine as part the dealer’s premium car showcase during the Festival of Speed in downtown Miami.

The end-result of his art work would make jealous even the famous BMW art cars designers and we love the creativity of these artists.

[Source: MotoBullet ]

Romero Britto is a Brazilian neo-pop wall decorator, painter, serigrapher, and sculptor. He combines stereotyped elements of cubism, pop art and graffiti painting in his work.
Previously, he’s lent his pop art to a Volvo V50, Audi RS4, and even a Bentley Continental, but this time, he takes a shot at a 2002 MINI Cooper.

The art work was created for Norman Braman, art collector and a BMW dealer in South Florida. Braman brought the MINI Cooper out into the sunshine as part the dealer’s premium car showcase during the Festival of Speed in downtown Miami.

The end-result of his art work would make jealous even the famous BMW art cars designers and we love the creativity of these artists.

[Source: MotoBullet ]

BusinessWeek came up with an interesting Top 25 of Most Iconic Cars introduced in the past 20 years. Even though this Top 25 wasn’t compiled by us - so no bias here-, the BMW brand is very well represented with three models: two bimmers and one MINI.

Several U.S. based automakers are featured also, but more exclusive brands as Bugatti, Aston Martin and Lotus are present as well. Of course, as with any top, the list of cars showed here is debatable and many other vehicles could have and should have been featured as well, but let’s go with they put together and we can debate further on that.

As expected, the highest volume seller BMW, the 3 Series, made the cut and it ranks without a doubt among the most iconic cars we have ever seen. The first 3 Series named E21 was introduced in May 1975 and the most recent redesign launched in 2005.

Next on our list is the BMW Z8, the super roadster that had a short production lifespan, but which has a great impact on the BMW brand image. The Z8 Roadster was produced under the name E52 from 2000 until 2003 and was designed by Henrik Fisker. There were 5,703 Z8s built, approximately half of which were exported to the United States.

To stay within the BMW Group,  let’s see which MINI models are being featured in this top. First, we have the MINI Cooper which was originally designed and built by British Motors in the 1960s. When production of the classic Mini ceased in 2000, BMW (the new owner of the brand) announced the successor to the Mini – which is sometimes refereed to as the “New MINI”. The brand name for the new car is MINI (written in capital letters). The new model launched in 2001 and was designed by Frank Stephenson.

Mercedes-Benz is present with its super duper high-end car, SLR McLaren, a vehicle designed by Gordon Murray and introduced in 2003. The SLR is a joint project between MB and the racing manufacturer McLaren, therefore some Formula 1 design details are included in the street version of this vehicle.

Since we’re in the area of exclusive and expensive street vehicle, let’s take a look at the Bugatti Veyron. The car was introduced in 2005, designed by Hartmut Warkuss, and as BW points out, it made the top since at time it held the record of the world’s most expensive and fastest car. Top sped: 250 mph.

Moving towards the U.S. automakers, the Ford’s icon, Mustang is nominated as well. The new redesigned was launched in 2005, with a “mixture of retro and futuristic design elements”.

The Hummer H2 needs to further introduction and all of us that live in the U.S. are quite familiar with the Hummer b rand. As BW points out, “The H2 became an emblem of American gas-guzzling excess by virtue of its size and unforgiving aesthetic.” and we couldn’t agree more. The H2 was introduced in 2002 and was designed by Wayne Cherry.

Other representative cars in the past 20 years are the new VW Beetle, Jeep Wrangler, Porsche 911, Bentley Continental GT, Chrysler 300 or surprisingly, the Tata Nano.  You can see the complete Top 25 Most Iconic Cars in the past 20 years at BusinessWeek.