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

Well seems they keep changing their minds about whether should or should not produce this car. In January, we reported Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller stated the roadster was delayed indefinitely. Now reports are coming out that Mueller is stating the car is back on the table and will be produced. Porsche supposedly held a focus group last month regarding the car and it swayed them toward producing it. The only thing stopping them is the worry about the brand image. We like that Porsche is being cautious and not just throwing in as many models as they can like everyone else. ...

The M6 Gran Coupe is rendered here courtesy of Theophiluschin. Yes, the car is coming as it has been spotted testing and we should see a reveal by the end of the year. So if in the market for an M5 should someone wait for this instead? Well, it is likely going to be much more expensive as 6 cylinder 640i Gran Coupe starts at $76,895. It may be a little lighter than the M5 though as the 640i weighs 4191 pounds. Really, once the bigger brakes, wheels, and motor are added it seems the weight will be a wash. It definitely will look sportier though, check out the renderings below. ...

There was little word from Mercedes on whether they would produce another SL65 AMG or not. The current SL63 with the performance package easily exceeds the previous generation SL600 and is likely more than a match for the previous generation SL65 AMG (Black Series excluded). So it appears the V12 twin turbo M275 will be making another appearance but will it get any significant upgrades? If not, it almost seems redundant with the existence of the new twin turbo V8 with the performance package especially considering it will be more expensive. ...

With the major German luxury players all having turbo direct injected four cylinder motors in their entry level cars it was only a matter of time before we got this comparison. Finally, an N20, 2.0T, and M271 battle royal thanks to Insideline who continues to do the best comparisons in the industry (until they let GermanBoost start testing cars). So who comes out on top? Well, read below to find out. ...

The new Boxster certainly is impressive, inside and out. Everyone has been commenting mostly on the design but with a sub 8 minute run we can now discuss the incredible performance as well. The performance increase on the Nurburgring for the new Boxster is substantial gaining 12 seconds on the previous generation 987 Boxster despite only having 5 more horses. Incredible? Absolutely, especially considering this time is only 18 seconds off the new (and much more powerful) 991 Porsche 911 Carrera S. ...

It is a good time to be an executive as the Volkswagen Group. $23 million is a lot of dough and we can argue about if it is warranted. Martin Winterkorn is the CEO and his 2011 salary was about $12 million. His 2012 salary? Almost double at $23 million thanks to bonuses and incentives. Winterkorn sure is making an incentive laden contract look good and we would love to know the deals as to what bonuses he gets for what goals. Regardless, all board members have earned a 94.2% pay increase since 2010, wow. ...

This is our second set of US performance numbers for the new M5. Car and Driver put up numbers last year and hit 12.0@122. MotorTrend got it into the 11's with a 11.9@120 mph run. Certainly not bad but not exactly blazing performance these days either especially considering MotorTrend hit 12.5@115 in a 6 speed manual previous generation E60 M5. That car was already a heavy 4100 pounds and this new M5 is almost 300 pounds heavier. ...

Renntech moves the M157 bar yet again with a dyno run of 627 wheel horsepower on 93 octane setting a new M157 record. This comes less than a month after Renntech was the first (and only) tuner to break the 600 wheel horsepower mark on the M157. Renntech now hopes to clear the 700 wheel barrier and the next steps for the M157 are billet turbo upgrades and transmission upgrades. Renntech is aiming to have these ready by the end of the year. Congratulations to Renntech for raising the bar yet again. ...

Last month we reported that the Mercedes AMG brand was a likely buyer for Italian motorcycle produce Ducati. AMG is a logical choice as they would like to have competition for BMW Motorrad. In an interesting twist, Audi is entering the Ducati sweestakes. Why Audi and not VW? Well, technically the brand would be under the VW halo but Audi has a motorcycle history. Also, clearly Audi wants to compete with BMW's bikes as well. Is this simply a move to drive the price up beyond what AMG is willing to pay for it? The price is now rumored to be over the billion dollar range. We'll see who wins or blinks first. ...

The Mustang 5.0 is being compared to the M3 pretty frequently although these are not cross shopped cars. Understandable as the M3 is the benchmark and has been since 2008. The Mustang is a great performance value as it has and should be. Well, this 2012 M3 is stock except for a rear section exhaust but it is a dual clutch. The Mustang has an off-road H-pipe (meaning no cats), intake, tune, and exhaust. ...

Mansory body work is not subtle and that is absolutely fine by us as long as the result is good. In this case, the result is definitely good. Obvious changes are the carbon fiber front clip, rear, grill, and hood as well as the widened fenders. Where we feel the kit goes a bit too far is the LED lights in the front bumper and the rear exhaust with the odd rectangular tips. However one feels about the tips and LED's, this certainly is an aggressive body package for the new CLS. ...

The original RUF CTR3 is a 700 horsepower car using a 3.8 liter twin turbo flat-6. One way to look at the car is the ultimate evolution of a 911 stretching it out and making it mid-engine which is where Porsche themselves is slowly taking the 911. The new CTR3 Clubsport model raises the bar with 750 horsepower out of the 3.8 twin turbo six cylinder along with a new carbon fiber aerodynamics package. If a 911 Turbo and a Cayman made love, this would be the offspring. ...

We really like the things APR does. One thing we do not like about them though is the dyno's that they post which show crank figures. Would it really kill them to show us the numbers at the wheels as it should be? Regardless, on 93 octane fuel their baseline horsepower number for the TT-RS is 375 and after the tune on the same fuel the number is 414. Torque figures are boosted from 365 to 430. This tune is available for all TT-RS models, North American cars need to send their ECU in. ...

Just how much faster is the new 991 Carrera S with PDK versus the previous generation 997 Carrera S with PDK? Well, considerably quicker and faster. The drag race video below shows a great comparison between the two cars with the White 997 taking on the Grey 991. The video is well done and clearly shows the difference but there is one major problem. No timeslips for the runs which is a huge disappointment. The runs were done at PBIR before the track was open. ...

Everybody has been talking about and posting this M5 from AC Schtnizer although we do not see the big deal. Ok, so they gave it a matte blue finish, cool. They give it some body pieces, cool. They gave it a minor tune to bump up the horsepower slightly, cool. If this did not have the AC Schnitzer name nobody would even care. We would like to see some big horsepower numbers and some real tuning prowess pushing the edge rather than just a paintjob and some add on body parts. It's time for these Euro tuners to stop living off their names and start really doing interesting things. See Brabus for an example of a European German tuner who is worth the attention they get. ...

We all love cars. For some of us that love came for different reasons. However, many of us had our fathers influence in this respect. Why not keep that tradition going and pass the car gene down with the new SLS Little Edition and have your kid be the king of playground? It's a push along with four wheels and is a very well done mini-recreation. And admit it, if you weren't too big to ride one you would want it too. Get it from Mercedes-Benz for $127. ...

Supersprint makes a quality product for a variety of German vehicles. It does not come cheap but we are glad they make these parts or else we would not have options such as this. The photos below are from the development manifolds and are not the final version. What we want to see is pricing information as well as a dyno to show the gains. Looking at the factory part versus what Supersprint is doing, it looks like there is room to improve upon the factory design considerably. We will update you when we get more information.

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So, anyone used to the idea of a 4 Series yet? Because we sure aren't. This is the upcoming F32 4 Series, likely a 435i. Just as a reminder, the new naming conventions are as follows. The new 3 Series Sedan is F30, the wagon is F31, the F33 is the convertible version of the 4 Coupe, the F34 is the 3 Series GT, and the F35 is the 4 Series Gran Coupe. Thank you BMW for screwing everything up and complicating the model lines needlessly. ...

You all knew the GL63 AMG was coming as we posted spy photos of it testing as early as May of last year. Well, the final design was leaked early by spy photographers at Autoevolution and it looks absolutely great. The design is very similar to the new ML63 AMG although the grill on the GL63 AMG looks better. There is unfortunately no clear shot of the rear as the car was covered up in an attempt to prevent a leak... oops. ...