It looks like the Canadian market received lots of attention from Bimmer today. After the 335i M Performance Edition we announced earlier, BMW Canada then announced the M6 Gran Coupe Launch Edition. The model was built in cooperation with BMW Individual and marks the launch of the M6 Grand Coupe into the Canadian market.
The M6 Gran Coupe Launch Edition is finished in an exclusive Pure Metal Silver paint combined with two-tone upholstery for the interior. The seat centers, lower dashboard and door inserts are offered in Merino Silverstone, and the seat bolsters, center console, upper dashboard and carpeting are offered in black.
The front and rear seats, dashboard, and the upper door parts are wrapped in black leather with contrasting Silverstone stitching. The rest of the interior is trimmed in a deep luster of BMW Individual Piano Black. As a standard feature, the M6 Launch Edition comes with a Bang & Olufsen audio system.
Click past the jump to read more about the standard BMW M6 Gran Coupe.
BMW Canada has announced the launch of the 335i M Performance Edition. This version can be ordered in either a rear-wheel-drive or xDrive format and includes an array of M Performance components designed to enhance the styling and performance attributes of the 335i.
The 335i M Performance Edition receives a new M Performance Power Kit and M Performance Exhaust that increases the engine’s output to 326 horsepower and 332 pound-feet torque. As a result, the sedan will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.9 seconds – 0.5 seconds faster than the standard 335i.
BMW is also offering a full M Performance aerodynamics kit, including: black kidney grille; front and rear diffuser; side skirts; and 20-inch alloy wheels. The model can be ordered in four exterior colors: Laguna Seca Blue, Valencia Orange, Black Sapphire and Glacier Silver. For the interior, BMW offers either a Coral Red leather or Black leather trim combined with an exclusive Piano Black BMW Individual trim.
The 335i M Performance Edition is priced at $63,300 (rear-wheel-drive version) and $65,900 (xDrive version). The model will be produced in July and August of 2013 but all orders must be received no later than May 17, 2013.
Click past the jump to read more about the standard BMW 335i.
No doubt, the most impressive launch of the moment is the new Chevrolet SS and while most of you were pretty excited to get one, we have a bad news for all the Canadian residents: General Motors decided not to offer it to our friends up north. Why the company took such a drastic decision is still a mystery, but we are hoping to get an explanation pretty soon.
On the other hand, all the other recently announced models, like the ELR, Spark EV or Corvette Stingray will still be offered in there.
This news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Israel won’t be importing the SS either. This is not a choice made by GM, but rather a choice made by the country itself. Their reasoning for banning the SS is because the “SS” logo reminds them of the Nazis…
This is good news to us, as it just means more SS models for the U.S.!
In August 2012, Canadian tuner SR Auto Group unveiled their latest program for the Ferrari 458 Italia, dubbed "Project Ice Blade". Apparently, we used that word "latest" a little too prematurely because SR Auto Group has a new program for the Italian supercar.
Calling this one "Project Black Mist," SR Auto Group once again used aerodynamic parts from Italian tuner Novitec Rosso. With the help of the Novitec kit - it includes a front lip, a rear diffuser, and a rear aero spoiler - SR Auto Group managed to enhance the lines and curves of the Italian bad boy. From there, the paint was matched to the original exterior, which, as SR describes was the reason why the program was christened ’Black Mist.’
Rounding out the upgrades, as per usual, are a new set of wheels that SR picked themselves. In this case, the chased wheels are 21" (on the front) and 22" (on the rear) modern gloss black PUR NE1 Monoblock wheels.
Suffice to say, it’s another program that SR Auto Group can tuck under their belts. At this point, we’re just happy that they’ve been hitting these projects out of the park.
The Rental Car Rally sounds like a pretty fun thing to do, especially if you’ve got the time to do it. The event, which is a race from New York up to Montreal, isn’t exactly a straight-forward race. Instead, it’s got a little bit of the Amazing Race vibe going on with certain checkpoints racing teams have to go to in order to complete the race.
Last August, the latest Rental Car Rally was staged and the normal six-hour ride from New York to Montreal ended up far longer than the teams could have done without the checkpoints. But as explained by these beautiful ladies from Quebec - in the native language of French, no less - the teams had to stop at a number of locations, including an abandoned psychiatric hospital that "may have been haunted," a curiously-named theme park called the "Holy Land," and an old summer resort that allegedly only allows ghosts as its visitors.
Doesn’t sound like our kind of checkpoints.
With only rental cars allowed and a $500 prize in loose change waiting for the winners up in Montreal, the Rental Car Rally just might be the silliest race we’ve seen in a while.
Nothing silly about these hot French-Canadians, though.
The Scion FR-S has been in the news a lot lately. Recently, the Japanese sports coupe became the subject of an aerodynamic design build contest hosted by US-based tuner Stillen encouraging designers to come up with their unique body kits for FR-S.
Looks like Stillen’s not the only who’s about to do work on the FR-S. Our friends over at Fox Marketing also announced that they’re building a new FR-S project car and they’re bringing the entire gang along with them.
While Fox Marketing will collaborate with Yonaka Motorsports in overseeing the entire project, they’re enlisting a couple of their tuner buddies to take care of specific parts of the build, including BASF Refinish, which will be in charge of providing new clothes for the sports car. Meanwhile, WP Pro Brakes will be in charge of, well, the brakes, while Forgestar will be supplying the wheels. Other tuners that will be involved in the project include APR Performance, Takata Racing, and Toyo Tires.
The entire build will take place in Canada and while our only vestige of evidence is this rendering, we’re looking forward to seeing how the entire project plays out.
The Gumball 3000 is back for its 13th rendition in 2012 and it guarantees to be just as wild and crazy as it has always been. The 2012 Gumball 3000, for those that do not know, is a roughly 3,000-mile rally that begins in New York, heads into Canada, and eventually ends up in Los Angeles, all while hitting five check points between New York and L.A.
At each checkpoint, the entire group gets together and throws one massive party with the key party coming at the very end in L.A. Though the Gumball 3000 is touted as a race, it is more of a leisurely drive that features a wide array of celebrities and all types of awesome cars, from the downright powerful and sexy to the economical and environmentally friendly.
This year’s Gumball 3000 is set to kickoff on Friday at noon and is in no way lacking celebrity appearances and tons of flashy rides.
Click past the jump to read more about the Gumball 3000, as well as the cars and celebrities making appearances.
Many years ago, I was a lowly sales person at a Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep dealership in Florida. As a sales person, you got to test drive nearly every new car and every trim level of every new car, as they came in. It was the only way to really get a feel for each car. There were only a few vehicles that we were forbidden to touch. Those vehicles were the Dodge Viper and the Ram 1500 SRT-10, because those were considered collectibles and the extra mileage could reduce their value – plus they knew what we would do with them.
This is pretty much standard procedure at every single car dealership, including Mercedes. The Mercedes C63 AMC Coupe Black Series is much like the Viper and SRT-10 Ram were for Dodge, simply untouchable. Apparently a few technicians at Star Motors in Ottawa, Canada did not get that memo.
They took one of the 30 models of the Black Series available in Canada out on an 8:11 joyride through Ottawa. It would be one thing if they just drove it around to look cool and brought it back to the shop safely. Nope, these techs decided to see what this AMG coupe could do on multiple occasions.
At one point, the driver mentions that in manual mode, the car does not automatically up shift. The passenger didn’t believe him, so the guy proceeds to take the car up to redline in first gear and keep it there for about five seconds. This car can certainly handle that, but as all new car techs should know, these things require a break-in period before seeing that sort of stress.
Thankfully, the snoops over at MBWorld.com recognized the dealership, and alerted officials at Mercedes-Benz Canada. Mercedes is currently attempting to track down the owner of this thrashed upon vehicle to let him or her know the scoop on the car. Whether or not Mercedes will compensate the owner with anything is not known
All we can hope is that these techs got what was coming to them by the car gods!
Very few vehicles can match up against the mighty Ferrari Enzo and hold their own against the Italian supercar. So to give the Enzo an even more interesting challenge, ZR Auto and the Canadian Forces are teaming up for the 2012 Race the Base event at CFB Cold Lake in Alberta, Canada.
Considered as the ultimate speed weekend for auto enthusiasts, Race the Base will feature the fastest street-legal cars in the world participating in some of the most extreme competitions spread out in five different categories, including fastest standing mile, ultimate top speed, road course challenge, a wet drift challenge, and a sure to be entertaining freestyle donut challenge.
In addition to that, one of the highlight events of Race the Base 2012 - the event is scheduled on August 24-25, 2012 - will be a race between the Ferrari Enzo and a CF-18 Hornet. For those that don’t know, a CF-18 Hornet is a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) fighter aircraft, based on the American McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter). It is powered by two General Electric F404-GE-400 turbofans producing 16,000 lb-ft each.
We’ll be very interested to see how that race plays out and if we had a horse in this race, we’d be very weary putting some wood down on the Enzo, no matter how awesome it is.
Check out the preview video of Race the Base 2012!
