German Car Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News

Car Planet Racing in Cheshire, England was facing the same problem as so many of our customers – how do we turn an OBD-II chassis into a full race car without sacrificing engine functionality? They had an E92 BMW M3 from which they wanted maximum lightness and simplicity. But the electronics architecture of the chassis made this impossible. They wanted full control of their engine tuning as well but was constrained by the heavy and complicated BMW electronics system. The solution? Call Apex Speed Technology! ...

Yet another great mile drag race video from the Russians over at dragtimes.info. This time two Switzer cars square off, a 997.1 Turbo with the R800 package and a Nissan GT-R with the R850 package. The Switzer R850 GTR package is $35990 and good for 191 in the mile according to Switzer. The R800 997.1 turbo package is said to be good for 700 whp and it retails for $26990. Surprising to see the Porsche take it although it is lighter. If it was a PDK Turbo, would have been a larger gap. ...

This is kind of an odd comparison as the cars are not exactly direct rivals. The CLS and A7 are a natural comparison but not when it is the CLS500 vs. the supercharged V6 A7. The S7 is going to be the car that competes with the CLS550 since it will also have a turbocharged V8. The Jaguar XJ isn't a 4 door coupe and is more of an A8 and S-class competitor. So, the cars are not really positioned against each other all that well but they end up picking the CLS550 which was also the fastest car. The Audi was the best handling. ...

You should know by now BMW is returning to DTM racing. They will be racing an M3 which will have a 4.0 liter V8 (coincidence the road car features the same style of motor? Nope) which will be putting out about 480 horsepower depending on the restrictors used. BMW last raced in DTM from 1984-1992. The last victory coming in October, 1992 on the Hockenheim with an E30 M3 Evo. Two decades was far too long of a break, we look forward to seeing the new M3 DTM car in action. ...

Maybe we are a bit sensitive since we are a BMW Enthusiast site. We like to see innovation and BMW has been one of the best at introducing technologies or designs that eventually others in the industry copy. We just wish they would focus like they once did on introducing innovations and technologies designed to enhance the driving experience instead of trying to score environmental kudos. The only person at BMW who had the courage to question the direction where BMW was heading was BMWNA head Jim O'Donnel who was forced to apologize for daring to question the electric strategy. Watch the vid and see how our beloved BMW is changing before your eyes. ...

Been itching for an upgrade to your SLS AMG? Of course you have. Some may say $8,200 is a lot of money and well, they are right. These headers have 200 cell cats built into them which explains part of the cost. Honestly, hard to justify $8,200 on headers considering the 63 AMG header market but the SLS is a lower production vehicle than say a C63 with a much higher price tag. The headers are also ceramic coated. Gains are claimed as +20 horsepower but we would like to see a dyno. ...

You should know by now Porsche is working on a Cajun entry level SUV. It is going to be available in 3-door form and we think a 5-door should be only natural as well. It will likely take after the Land Rover Evoque in that sense. Autocar claims these images were leaked from sources inside Porsche. The SUV will be based on the Q5 platform and should appear in about 2 years. Take a look and see what you think of the styling. ...

This is a pretty interesting project that no doubt is not going to be easy. The owner, Bryan Whitmore, sourced Advanced Technologies, HT Motorsport and EFI Express to complete swapping in the C5 RS6 twin turbo 4.2 liter V8 into his 2007 B7 RS4. The motor is fully built featuring JE Pistons, IE rods, and other hardware from ARP. He is aiming for 700 horsepower at all 4 wheels. We wish him luck! ...

The car is our 2011 135i w/ DCT, JB4 (Stage2), AR 4" downpipe, and WW quick install meth kit. I have an N55 Helix IC for it but have not had time to install it yet, hopefully soon! The car is using the same Shell 91 octane + NOS octane booster it's been on for the past 3k miles. Temps were in the low 70s. For today's meth testing I wound up having to run 100% duty cycle most of the power band. Meaning the JB4 is working the wastegate as much as it can be worked. And even in that trim it struggled to hold 17psi @ 5000rpm and 13psi @ 6000rpm. ...

The new M278 twin turbo V8 powered Mercedes vehicles are going to have a lot of the previous generation 63 AMG owners scratching their heads when they can't pull away from them at a stoplight. The new 550 models are just about as fast as the previous M156 based 6.2 liter naturally aspirated V8's. Case and point, Car and Driver hit 12.8@112 in the 2012 CLS550. In the 2007 CLS63 AMG, they hit 12.6@114. Oh, the new CLS550 is also lighter by almost 200 pounds than the previous generation W219 CLS63 AMG. ...

A month ago we brought you CLS550 M278 twin turbo dyno results. That dyno was from a rear wheel drive car. Insideline did a dyno test of the 4Matic CL550 and the results are similar yet higher than the the numbers OE Tuning hit in the rear wheel drive CLS550. Since the 2011 CL550 is all wheel drive, Insideline could not use their usual dynojet and instead used GMG's AWD Mustang dyno. ...

Cayenne sales increased 37% during the first 6 months of this year. Suffice it to say, the new Cayenne is a huge hit to the point Porsche can not meet demand. The factory will be re-tooled a bit and production will increase by up to 20% in an attempt to try to meet demand. Delivery times have stretched to over 1 year in certain markets. The Porsche chief of sales Bernhard Maier stated, "We're now looking into ways we can expand production capacity to be able to serve our customers more quickly." ...

We have been sitting on this story for quite some time but can no longer sit by and not say anything. For a while now, BimmerBoost had been the primary source of single turbo information coming from the user unfor who recently changed his username. His thread was one of the most viewed and rightfully so as N54 people want single turbo information. Things just started to get more and more odd as bold claims came from unfor such as posting a 10 second flat timeslip claiming it was from MIR with a Garrett professional driver and odd dyno charts that looked nothing like what an N54 motor should look like. We hate to tell you this folks, but his performance claims were all lies. ...

Here is the facelifted Audi A5. Frankly, we didn't think the car needed a facelift but the results are impressive and keep the model fresh. The changes to the headlights should be apparent to everyone and the front and rear fascias are modified as well. The most important changes are that the S5 will ditch the 4.2 V8 in favor of the 3.0 TFSI supercharged V6 from the S4. Don't go get in a hurry to order, these changes are for Europe only for now and the lineup remains unchanged in the USA for at least the rest of the year. That also means the DSG trans in all the Quattro cars may not carry over. ...

No secret Audi is trying to expand as fast as possible to catch and pass BMW. In order for that to happen, a plant in the US is a necessity. Audi CEO Rupert Stadler confirmed a North American plant will be built. During an interview with the Automotive News he stated, "It is totally clear that we need new production capacity in the U.S., the question only is when." What will be rolling off the lines? SUV's mostly, likely the upcoming Audi Q6. ...

I think we all knew a front engine GT car was inevitable. Reports are circling the web that Porsche is preparing for the 928. A modified Panamera platform would underpin the car which would likely share all drivetrain components with the Panamera which already shares its engines with the Cayenne. The car won't show up until the next generation Panamera does which likely means 2015 at the very earliest. ...

These are almost becoming common, aren't they? We must say, we really like what LS1tech members are doing with these motors. From putting them into Porsche 911's to BMW 3 series', these motors seem to be finding their way into everything. We don't think that is a bad thing. Hard to beat the LS V8 series for weight, reliability, power, and cost. Check out the build pictures and videos below. ...

Anyone else bummed out about this? Yes, the Q3 is a tiny little SUV and apparently the Audi brass thinks it is too small for the US market. We consider this a downer since Audi teased a high performance version of the Q3 which is destined for production. For performance enthusiasts, it would have been a nice entry level performance SUV option. Audi still tends to withhold a good amount of models from the American public which we hoped was a trend that would change after the TT-RS. Oh well, hopefully we still get a performance version of the Q5. ...

This is part 2 of the BenzBoost visit to Weistec Engineering (Part I here). I was fortunate to be able to sample the supercharger installed on BenzBoost member ecampbell's car. As posted previously, the car hit 551 whp on a dynojet and I was told by Steve that the car is a bit stronger now but has not yet been re-dyno'd. The car has been upgraded to the Stage 2 setup which includes their fuel system upgrades. It also runs through through a catless exhaust, features the Weistec heads, and Hennessey headers. ...