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German Car Blog, Performance, Tuning, Motorsport, and Modification News
Published on 11-04-2011 01:41 AM
Well, SEMA 2011 is over with for us. We have tons of photos and will be splitting our BMW, Audi, Porsche, and Mercedes coverage up along with some bonus coverage. The show overall was great and seemed busier than last year. The photo equipment from last year is much improved but some photos are dark due to mistakes choosing the correct settings on the camera and flash. We promise to improve, enjoy the photos and commentary.
...Published on 11-04-2011 12:02 AM
Well, SEMA 2011 is over with for us. We have tons of photos and will be splitting our BMW, Audi, Porsche, and Mercedes coverage up along with some bonus coverage. The show overall was great and seemed busier than last year. The photo equipment from last year is much improved but some photos are dark due to mistakes choosing the correct settings on the camera and flash. We promise to improve, enjoy the photos and commentary.
...Published on 11-02-2011 02:49 AM
Weistec has released their fixed seat brackets for W209 CLK's. There are BenzBoost members already running these brackets and it is likely they will be popular with CLK63 AMG Black Series owners. The brackets are laser cut and machine formed and will fit the Recaro seats offered in Europe for the Black Series as well as most Sparco DTM style seats. A great upgrade for track junkies with CLK's.
...Published on 11-01-2011 02:41 PM
Insideline published this news a little while ago and what every other site focused on was that Albert Biermann (head of M product development) stated BMW M would like to build their own car. That is great news as a dedicated M car built by M is something that we have been waiting for... well, for forever. What struck us was this quote by Biermann though, "It's about employing the right technology at the right time and we're on a steep learning curve with turbos. We're getting damn close to matching the response of a naturally aspirated engine but with much lower fuel consumption."
...Published on 11-01-2011 02:14 AM
Everyone keeps talking about the great Chinese economy. Well, it has not been so great for Audi in the past couple of years as 25% of their market share has eroded. Why? BMW and Mercedes are expanding and taking what was once Audi's momentum with them. Mercedes is up from 16% in 2009 to 22% in 2011. BMW is up to 25% from 21% in a similar window. The managing director of China Market Research Group can explain this a bit better, “Audi is seen as being a bit old-fashioned because of its association as being a government car. Wealthy consumers today want something sexier, more indulgent, which is why BMW and Mercedes have done well. Ten years ago, everyone wanted to be in government as that was seen as the ticket to wealth. Today, the new wealthy consumer doesn’t want to be associated with officialdom.”
...Published on 11-01-2011 01:55 AM
This news seems to be kind of out of left field and we do not think it should be taken all that seriously. This carbon fiber E-class is supposed to be 770 pounds lighter than the regular E-coupe. That would be quite the hefty weight reduction and it would come at exactly what price point? Auto Bild claims these carbon fiber based E-class cars will come in 2015 with the B-pillar removed as well due to increased rigidity. Sounds like science fiction to us as the current E will likely still be for sale in 2015 and such a radical weight reduction with carbon fiber on this particular model has not been announced by Mercedes Benz and would dramatically increase production costs. Don't read too much into the rumor.
...Published on 11-01-2011 01:32 AM
The new BMW twin turbo V8 and V12 motors are pretty sweet. Except when they catch on fire. This recall affects anyone with the N63 and S63 twin turbo V8's or the N74 twin turbo V12 which is used only in the 760 models. The reason for the recall is due to 102 engine water pump failures up to this point and 2 engine bay fires. There is an auxiliary pump used with these engines that helps cool the turbochargers and if it fails this will lead to dramatically increased temperatures. Owners will start being notified next month but why wait, call the dealer to schedule this water pump replacement immediately.
...Published on 10-31-2011 01:21 AM
Who is ECU Tuning Group? Well, we don't really know as they seem to be the new name/label of Singh Autosport as that is the name still included on the dyno sheet. Regardless, they are claiming huge gains on the Panamera Turbo of 129.75 horsepower and 95.88 pound-feet of torque. The dyno is a European Cartec dyno so it at least appears Singh is reselling or modifying a European Tune. When we see a graph from overseas from a tuner based in the US it does not leave us all that confident. Show us the dynojet, mustang, or dyno dynamics numbers to prove a car in the USA on our fuel has been tuned making these gains and then we'll talk.
...Published on 10-30-2011 03:36 PM
If you have a 535i and are looking for an aftermarket FMIC, you probably have run into the same thing I have. Lots of people said it fits, no one has direct experience though. After going thru quite a few other 535i owners experiences, I decided to try and take it on myself. I started not trusting what people were saying online (I know, shocker) and calling manufacturers directly. One of those was CP-E. As fortune would have it, I got the owner on the phone and I started asking him questions. They too said they sold one but had never fit one themselves and, well, same old story. Josh (the owner) did pique my interest by letting me know he had sold quite a few and never received a return, so he assumes they fit. This, and now knowing Josh a little better at this point, really rang true to me. So, even if it wasn't a "direct" fit, how bad could it be? I knew better then to DIY but, after seeing how it was done, I don't think it would be too bad.
...Published on 10-30-2011 11:47 AM
Mercedes GP finished strong in the Inaugrual Indian Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher who started 11th on the grid finished in fifth place ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Schumacher at the start of the race was able to jump three to 8th by the end of the first lap and maintained a constant pace behind Rosberg. Before the second round of pitstops, Schumacher began to eat away at Rosberg's lead and brought the gap down to 1.5sec. While Nico pitted, Michael kept putting in his best lap times and after his stop, he emerged infront of Nico by 1.2 secs and maintained that gap to the end of the race.
...Published on 10-29-2011 10:27 PM
Audi has not announced an RS4 sedan for the B8 generation A4. That does not stop any of us from speculating however and theophiluschin decided to render what such a video would look like. This rendering comes surprisingly quickly on the heels of the facelifted B8 A4 pictures hitting the web. The rendering basically takes RS5 styling cues and applies them to the A4 which really is not all that different from what Audi did with the facelifted A4 anyway having used styling cues from the facelifted A5. Will we see an RS4 sedan this generation? Seems unlikely at this pint.
...Published on 10-29-2011 07:22 PM
Rosberg and Schumacher qualified in seventh and 12th places respectively today during qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit in New Delhi. For Rosberg he completed one run in each of the sessions to save tires for the race. He will have one set of primes and two sets of the soft option tires. Schumacher on the other hand had a difficult qualifying session, he had to switch to a set of super softs to make Q2 on his last lap. In Q2, he suffered from tyre vibrations and missed out on Q3 by 0.018s
...Published on 10-29-2011 07:18 PM
Green Hell was always about pushing the envelope of what’s possible in a street driven M3, and nearly two years ago when the car was first built it was fairly extreme by some standards. When the owner of Green Hell approached us this year to push that envelope even further we knew our luck was in once again, for we had again just completed our yearly pilgrimage to Germany and the Nurburgring, and could not have been more inspired or more motivated to approach the car with new energy and fresh ideas. For us, Green Hell as a Portfolio Project car would once again be a symbol of the human drive to push the envelope. The car represented our endless march toward a constantly moving vanishing point- the desire to be the best, to be the fastest. Even though Green Hell always was and always will be a mixed use street car and track day weapon, this drive to push the boundary is a true reflection of motorsport, in our view, and it is with this drive in mind that we tore into the M3....
Published on 10-28-2011 11:21 PM
This oil and air seperator can be used on stock cars to cars that are highly modified even with superchargers. What does it do? It reduces oil retention by the engine and reduces knock. Essentially, better for your motor assisting longevity and acting as a preventative measure. From Weistec, "As the excess crankcase pressure is vented through the PCV valve and into the intake manifold the engine will eventually draw in, not only air which is wanted, but also particles of aerated oil which creates instability in power due to the low octane level of oil."
...Published on 10-28-2011 07:47 PM
This is the type of stuff we like to see. While other sites are re-posting BMW press releases about production of the F30 3 series starting we are more interested in real world BMW performance comparisons. Renntech took an X5 M with only their tune to PBIR (Palm Beach International Raceway) to run on the strip versus a stock X5 M. The results are absolutely awesome with the tuned car running 12.09@113 and the stock car 12.72@107. That is 6 MPH and just over 6 tenth's with just a tune, impressive.
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Published on 10-28-2011 05:11 PM
CAR reports that Mercedes signed off on a new generation of engines which will downsize motors in models across the line. Expect to see many more four cylinder motors in models as well as see the V8's get smaller rather than larger. The real surprising news is that they intend to produce a turbocharged straight six cylinder for use in the larger cars by 2015. Kind of odd that Mercedes would go this route after last producing an I6 in 1997 while BMW is considering going to V6's. Things continue to seem to flip around.
...Published on 10-28-2011 04:40 PM
Audi is making rapid styling changes, seemingly almost too fast. The B8 A4 still seems fresh to us and did not really need a facelift in our opinion. Well, Audi decided to freshen it up for whatever reason and the styling mimics what they did on the facelifted RS5. The headlights are basically the same and unfortunately that makes the models blend together. The new headlights work much better on the A5 than on the A4. The facelifted A4 will be on sale June of next year in the USA as a 2013 model with a wagon available as well.
...Published on 10-27-2011 08:16 PM
Car and Driver has brought us the meat of what we want to see regarding the new F10 M5, the performance numbers. They tested it at 12.0@122 which is not bad. With proper rubber and conditions this is an easy 11 second car stock. This is roughly a 7 mph trap speed gain on the previous generation E60 M5 which had roughly a 7 mph trap speed gain on the E39 M5 it replaced. We had hoped the car would be closer to the ~125 range though especially with the DCT.
...Published on 10-27-2011 08:09 PM
0-60 Magazine put this video out of a Nissan GTR and a CLS63 AMG having some fun wearing their rubber down. It isn't really much of a surprise to anyone that the CLS63 AMG can break its tires loose pretty much at will and keep them spinning. It certainly does this in a much easier fashion than the all wheel drive GTR which just isn't able to slide the same way. Cool little video but what we really just wanted to see was the cars race. We don't understand why that was not done with which would have made for a far more interesting video.
...Published on 10-26-2011 07:20 PM
No surprise, everyone knows the new ML63 AMG is coming. Mercedes is choosing to reveal it at this years Los Angeles International Auto Show. The 2012 model will be dropping its naturally aspirated M156 6.2 liter V8 for the new turbocharged M157 twin turbo 5.5 liter unit. The performance package will surely be available for this car as well since the package is really nothing more than an ECU tune. BenzBoost will be at the show for the official reveal to bring you photos and details.
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