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German Car Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News
Published on 08-20-2012 02:22 AM
Volkswagen is intent on proving their hybrid drivetrain is capable of some seriously impressive feats. Setting the production hybrid land speed record definitely qualifies. Volkswagen was able to hit a verified of 185.394 miles per hour which is the highest speed ever achieved by a production based hybrid. Aerodynamic changes were made within the class rules to help achieve this speed so we do not think a stock production car will be able to match it. Nevertheless, it is the same general body and 1.4 cylinder turbo TSI motor with 150 horsepower plus a 27 horse electric motor (although modified). ...Published on 08-19-2012 10:11 PM
BMW and Zagato decided to collaborate again on a design based on the Z4 following their well received Zagato Coupe from three months ago. Zagato is an Italian coachbuilder and the entire body and design were built by hand. The entire car was created in an impressive six week timespan. "Our success in finishing the car in such a short space of time shows what is possible when two successful companies pool their resources" stated Zagato. ...Published on 08-19-2012 09:51 PM
Mercedes AMG GP entered the 2012 season ready to mix with the top dogs of F1 and take that step to become a real championship contender after a lack luster season the year before. At the start of winter testing, they decided to use their upgraded ’11 W02 car in Jerez, as the ’12 car was still under development. The delay caused chatter among the teams thinking that the Merc team had something up its sleeve. Even though they used the update old car, the Mercedes team showed promise setting quick times. In Barcalona, Mercedes revealed their W03 car and continued to top the sheets with their double DRS system. The DRS stalled both front and rear wings when activated. The other teams tried to ban the system since they didn’t know how it worked, therefore they couldn’t copy it, but FIA ruled in favor of Mercedes. ...Published on 08-19-2012 12:11 AM
Congratulations to the BMW team for their American Le Mans victory today at Road America. BMW is still in second place behind Chevrolet in the manufacturer standings but the gap is narrowing with three races left in the season. The number 55 M3 GT driven by Bill Auberlen and J. Mueller was the winning car but the other M3, number 56, finished in 10th place. The full GT results are below and it will be interesting to see if BMW can pass Corvette Racing in the standings by the end of the season. ...Published on 08-18-2012 09:58 PM
We knew it was only a matter of time before Weistec took the M156 record. Not only did Weistec raise the bar for the M156 63 AMG motors with this record setting 1/4 mile pass, the overall fastest Mercedes record previously held by Renntech's SLR at 142 miles per hour was surpassed as well. The owner of the CLK63 Black Series (BenzBoost member ecampbell) managed 10.2@144 in California summer heat at the Auto Club Speedway in Pomona (Fontana) California. ...Published on 08-16-2012 09:11 PM
The 4.0 TFSI tuning market should really get going fairly soon. ABT is already showing us what the motor is capable of taking the Audi S8 from the stock 512 horsepower up to 612 horses for a gain of 100 horses. ABT does not state exactly what goes into this performance upgrade but we expect a tune, exhaust, and intake modifications. There is no dynograph and there are no performance comparison numbers to support the claimed power increase. Since it is ABT we do not doubt the claim but would like to see real support. Some European tuners just seem to expect us to take their word for it. ...Published on 08-16-2012 07:06 PM
Congratulations to Weistec Engineering as well as BenzBoost member ecampbell who provided this dynograph of his custom Weistec Engineering built supercharged CLK63 AMG Black Series. The car put down a very impressive 789 wheel horsepower which exceeds any other dynograph we have seen for this motor by a considerable amount. The car has a larger lysholm supercharger and also includes the Weistec forged pistons and rods. ...Published on 08-16-2012 02:53 AM
Here is a race that has caused some confusion on the boards and rightfully so. We have a Renntech tuned SL65 Black Series that is putting out 651 horsepower to the wheels. The GTR is believed to have 551 wheel horsepower from bolt on's with an AMS intake, exhaust, and tune. The Nissan GTR is essentially said to have an AMS Alpha-6 package which is capable of propelling it to a 10.6@130 in the 1/4 mile. ...Published on 08-16-2012 02:06 AM
JAWS Motorsport has been hard at work on their E46 M3 S54 supercharger kit. They recently posted details and performance numbers from their kit. On their Dynomite dyno they hit 529 wheel horsepower at 12 psi of boost. A stock SMG M3 with an aftermarket muffler hit 307 wheel horsepower on this same dyno. The M3 clearly gains a lot of horsepower with this kit but the proof is in the 60-130 mile per hour sprint of 8.79 seconds which is just phenomenal. ...Published on 08-14-2012 11:48 PM
Here we have two highly modified turbocharged 997's which take on a AMS Alpha 12 Nissan GTR. The first race has the Protomotive MKI 997 Turbo take on the GTR. The 997 Turbo launched better and manages to hold off the GTR until the 1/4 mile mark with the better elapsed time but after that it is over. The Protomotive car is no slouch trapping 141 miles per hour but the GTR hits 149 mph. It then pulls away through the mile where it traps an eye opening 215.9 MPH to the Porsche's 163. ...Published on 08-14-2012 09:10 PM
Wow, this part sure came quickly. Craving a carbon fiber roof for your F10 M5 which does not have one from the factory unlike the new F12 M6? Challenge Engineering has you covered with their carbon fiber replacement panel that weighs only 11.5 pounds. Details were not provided on the weight savings but we would guess it will save close to 30 pounds at a high point in the car which will improve handling. ...Published on 08-14-2012 08:41 PM
Never heard of Anibal Automotive Design? Neither have we. Their website has no info and these pictures come from their Facebook page without any additional details such as the materials used or cost. Regardless, this is a very interesting take on the R230 SL unlike any other we have seen. The widebody is done exceptionally well with great looking fender flares and sideskirts. Where the design falls apart is the hood that attempts to make the headlight look more aggressive by cutting a sharper edge as well as the hood which attempts to mimic the McLaren SLR. ...Published on 08-14-2012 04:41 AM
Yep, we're suckers for a good time lapse supercharger kit install video. Just 10 days ago we posted an Active Autowerke supercharger kit install time lapse and it's great to see a similar video for a different M3 kit to compare. Much more goes into an installation such as this than most people realize. VS Motorsports was able to complete this install in 5-6 hours but it will take someone with less experience likely double this amount. ...Published on 08-14-2012 04:22 AM
Car and Driver rendered the new W212 E-Class facelift which is coming next year. Mercedes will be changing the headlights, grill, front bumper, rear lights, rear bumper, and fenders. The interior will also get updates that make it more ubiquitous with the other high end cars. We reported on the headlight switch in March of this year and the decision still does not make sense to us. ...Published on 08-14-2012 12:11 AM
What you see in the video below is a dash cam that captures a 997 GT3 speeding on the streets in Russia. The GT3 appears to lose control approaching an intersection and swerves into oncoming traffic hitting a Daewoo Nexia which is not more than a small and cheap commuter vehicle. The Porsche owner was able to walk away but the Daewoo owner was not so fortunate as the accident cost him his life and left his wife a widow and their two children without a father. ...Published on 08-13-2012 11:11 PM
BMW introduced the N63TU (technical update) motor with the 6 Series Gran Coupe. The N63B44TU gets its power boost from the addition of Valvetronic (variable valve timing system which replaces the conventional throttle butterfly) and new tuning. As expected, this updated motor will be going into all N63 vehicles such as the 550i, 550GT, 650i, and 750i. Curiously absent are the X5 and X6. Why BMW would continue to give them the standard N63 when they are replacing this motor in all other models we have no clue. ...Published on 08-13-2012 10:03 PM
BMW in the new F30 3 Series offers a start/stop features to conserve fuel. This feature is enabled by default every the time the car is started but can be turned off by drivers with a button. Apparently this feature has infuriated some owners who want it disabled permanently. BMW is giving dealers permissions to enable a last user mode which will remember if the driver had the feature turned off and not require it being disabled again. ...Audi offers 50 unit limited R8 Exclusive Selection Editions for the USA - Pointless special edition?
Published on 08-13-2012 08:51 PM
We do not really see why Audi is offering this Exclusive Selection R8 for the US market. We already had the R8 GT's which were much better offerings providing lower weight and more power for higher performance. These Exclusive Selection cars don't get lightweight parts or more power, just a matte grey paint job (grey for the V8, Ibis white for the V10) and some black accents. Oh, there also is some nice interior stitching with carbon pieces and wheels are borrowed from the E-Tron. Yawn. ...Published on 08-13-2012 06:05 PM
For those unfamiliar Megaupload was a file uploading service that offered online file storage. The owner is Kim Dotcom who is known as Kimble. He has been convicted of insider trading, hacking, and embezzlement. Megaupload made him a lot of money becoming the 13th most popular site on the internet and in certain estimates was said to be responsible for 4% of all internet traffic. Issues arose when disputes over copyrighted material being hosted were brought forward. Suffice it to say, the authorities shut him down quickly once the big corporations felt Megaupload was giving their piece of the pie away for free. ...Published on 08-13-2012 02:53 AM
Here is the first intake setup available for the new F10 M5. Coming from Gruppe M and made out of carbon fiber this is not going to be cheap as Gruppe M intakes usually aren't. What you get for the $3500+ price (estimated) is great looking pieces with grille ducts to route more air. The gains are 16 horsepower and 30 pound-feet of torque at the crank. The question becomes is it worth the cost? ...
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