In 2006, BMW’s M division formed a partnership to provide the official safety cars for the MotoGP championship. Last year, a BMW 1-Series M Coupe was the official safety car at the Indianapolis MotoGP, but this year this role will be reserved for the brand new BMW M6 Coupe.
The new BMW M6 Safety Car will make its first public debut during this weekend’s (May 19-20, 2012) Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race in Germany, a warm up for the upcoming M Festival’s M Corso event.
BMW hasn’t revealed any details on their brand new M6 Coupe Safety Car, but we believe it will get the same treatment as all the previous safety models. This treatment will include plenty of carbon fiber elements to make it lighter, an adjustable rear wing for improved downforce, a rollover cage, and new front racing bucket seats. There will also be a special exterior finish and lots of LED lights.
More details about the new M6 Coupe MotoGP Safety Car will be revealed during the weekend. Stay tuned!
It’s no secret that things are going to change significantly in BMW ’s future line-up. For example, the future 1-Series will only include a hatchback version, while the coupe and convertible versions will be sold as a 2-Series. And, as many rumors suggest, the top version of the next 2-Series will be the M2. It will arrive one year after the standard model, so expect to see it sometime before the 2015 model year.
The future BMW M2 will be built on the new F21 platform and will be powered by a 3.0-liter six-cylinder turbo delivering about 350 HP. Rumors say that the new tri-turbo engine might also find its way under the hood of the upcoming model. Whichever engine is picked, it will be mated to an all-new DCT semi-automatic transmission. Also, like most of the upcoming BMW models, the M2 will feature the intense use of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic.
Give us your thoughts on the future BMW M2 by hitting us up in the comments section below!
Volkswagen will be headed to the upcoming Wörthersee event with a pretty cool concept car designed and built for the street. The new Polo WRC Street Concept is based on the Polo R WRC announced last year and was designed as a preview version of an extremely sporty small series due to be launched in late 2013.
The new Polo WRC Street will feature a highly unique and distinctive design language distinguished by a rear spoiler, a diffuser, a sports suspension, and an inscription with R-WRC logos. Volkswagen will adopt the same white exterior paint combined with blue and gray elements as seen on the rally car.
Under the hood, the VW Polo WRC Street Concept gets a 2.0 liter TSI engine that delivers an impressive 220 HP and produces motorsport-like performance. Of course, Volkswagen wanted to keep the performance figures a secret until the car’s official debut, so we’ll just have to wait until then to find out!
Turn 10 Studios is preparing the next chapter in the Forza Motorsport history books with a new Horizon version. Forza Horizon will debut in Fall 2012 for the Xbox 360, and we already have an insight into the game with the box cover and first screenshot of the future game.
No other details have been provided, but the screenshot reveals that the new generation SRT Viper will be a part of the action when the game hits the shelves. The company has also announced that the new Forza Horizon will ditch simulated racing in favor of arcade action in order to one-up other famous racing games currently on the market.
"Forza Horizon combines the automotive thrills that Forza fans expect with a gorgeous open-road world that begs to be explored. "Our goal is to turn gamers into car lovers, and car lovers into gamers," Forza 4 director Dan Greenawalt said. "This is part of our DNA. That’s why we’ve been working on this series for more than 10 years. Our goal is to take people who play Skyrim and Call of Duty and make them in racing game players. That is why I come to work every day."
In the 1960s two of the big three, Chevrolet and Ford, each had their own secret weapons in the form of racecar drivers turned muscle car builders. Ford had the recently deceased Carroll Shelby modifying Mustangs for SCCA use and sale, whereas Chevy had the late Don Yenko modifying a wide array of their muscle cars, the most popular being the Camaro. Yenko also ran multiple Chevy dealerships where the bulk of his creations were sold.
In 1967 and 1968, Yenko was dropping 427 cubic-inch monsters from Corvettes into Camaro bodies and creating some of the most powerful Camaros of the era. One of Yenko’s crowning achievements came in 1969 when Yenko was tired of selling Camaros with limited warranties because of his modifications and convinced Chevy to add a 427-equipped Camaro to its special equipment ordering system, known as COPO.
This addition of the 427-equipped Camaro to COPO made it possible for Yenko to sell these cars with the GM-standard 5-year or 50,000-mile warranty. Yenko ordered a grand total of 198 of the Camaro 427s available from COPO. The total number of COPO Camaros produced and sold is unknown, but has been rumored as anywhere from 500 to 1,000.
With exception of the 427 jammed into the engine compartment, the Camaro 427s came from COPO with almost nothing identifying them as a special model; they even came with the old dog dish hubcaps on steel wheels. Yenko made sure to order his from COPO with 15-inch rally wheels, a front stabilizer bar, and a 140 mph speedometer. The rest of the customization was all Yenko’s doing.
Needless to say, these COPO-ordered 1969 Yenko Camaros are tough to come by, but Legendary Motorcar Company got its hands on one and had it up for auction on Ebay.
Click past the jump to read more about this COPO-ordered 1969 Yenko Camaro.
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Technically, Ferrari debuted in 1929, but its official debut is recognized as 1947, the year that Ferrari began manufacturing street-legal vehicles. The 2007 model year marked the 60th anniversary of Ferrari’s street machine building life and the automaker wanted to make it a special one.
Instead of doing what many automakers do (see: Ford) by slapping “60th Anniversary” badges on every car that year, Ferrari chose to build 60 completely unique cars for the 2007 model year. To accomplish this, Ferrari took its existing 612 Scaglietti and modified it to create the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti Sessanta.
As we said, only 60 of these cars were ever built, so they are rather rare. Add in the fact that this bad boy was a whopping $424,480 in 2007 and you can tell that these cars were built for the true collector. If you are a true collector of Ferrari’s and would like to own one that very well may be the Ferrari to own in the next 20 to 30 years, this Sessanta is a safe bet.
F.C. Kerbeck, a dealer of luxury vehicles, is now offering you the opportunity to own one of these rare machines, as they have one up for sale in their showroom and on Ebay.
Click past the jump to read our full review on this vehicle.
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A few days ago Audi has unveiled a pretty cool video presenting Audi R8 drifting as a tribute to their 500,000 German Facebook fans. Today the company has unveiled another video presenting the details behind the making of the first video.
The car was driven by Dindo Capello who talks about this impressive experience. He considers that the most difficult part was making the "5:"
"In the past, it would have been impossible to something like that without preparing the car for the event but now, with a Audi road car, you can do it."
The Audi R8 is powered by a 5.2 liter V10 engine that delivers 518 HP and 391 lb-ft of torque. The engine is mated to a seven-speed dual clutch S-tronic gearbox and sprints the car from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and up to a top speed of 197 mph.
A lot of high-performance automakers have taken to spec-racing to show off their pride and joy exotics without having to worry about any sort of regulations. Racing series like these allows these exotics to be on their unchained best.
One automaker that has taken this route is Maserati, which is in the process of beginning the third season of the Trofeo World Series. Similar to what sister company Ferrari does on the Challenge Series, the Trofeo World Series features a field of specially prepared versions of the GranTurismo coupe, which has been upgraded with a new aerodynamic bodykit that not only reduces its overall weight, but does so to make it more competitive and race-ready.
According to Maserati, the GranTurismo racers are far better than their 2011 counterparts, having showed its improved performance in test sessions: 2.5 seconds a lap faster than the 2011 models.
All the cars that will compete in the Trofeo World Series have been made track-ready by a dedicated team of technicians, ensuring that all the drivers competing will be racing one a one-spec racing field.
Another new wrinkle for the 2012 Trofeo World Series is the inclusion of new legs in the calendar, including the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California and the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China, among others.
Anybody looking to bring the heat in the Trofeo series will need to pay €110,000 (about $140,117 at the current rates), excluding the race entry and test fees. For the four European stages, the price of admission is €70,000 (About $89,166 at the current rates), excluding fees, while private teams who want to bring their own cars will need to pay €35,000, excluding fees, for the entire championship and €25,000 (about $44,583 at the current rates), excluding fees, for the European legs only.
For all of the press and hype surrounding the Toyota GT 86 and the Subaru BRZ, not a lot of people know or have given love to the third model of the bunch, the Scion FR-S.
All that’s about to change because the Scion FR-S has arrived. For those that have shed rivers of tears when they found out that neither the GT 86 nor the BRZ were headed Stateside, news that the FR-S will arrive in America is tantamount to a post Thanksgiving blessing.
Now, we’ve actually seen a concept version of the FR-S - called the FR-S Concept - at the New York Auto Show, so it really didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of us that the sports coupe was coming to the US, but seeing the concept and seeing the production version are two different things.
It doesn’t even matter that we’re not getting the GT 86 and the BRZ. We have the FR-S, and just like a child that comes to us, we’re going to shower it with as much love as we can possibly give.
UPDATE 05/16/2012: Scion has unveiled a cool commercial for their new FR-S sports car announcing its dealer debut for June 1st, 2012. Called simply "Sport is back" the commercial reveals the "evil" part of the FR-S. Enjoy!
Find out more about the Scion FR-S after the jump.
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Seat will be attending the legendary Wörthersee event with another extensive display: the Spanish company plans to unveil some very cool concept cars as well as a bunch of vehicles that can already be ordered. Once such vehicle is the Leon Super Copa - a model inspired by its sibling racer from the WTCC and priced at 63,000 euro, or about $80,000 at the current exchange rates.
The new Leon Super Copa is powered by an uprated version of the 2.0-liter TSI engine from the Leon Cupra R. The engine delivers a total of 300 HP and a peak torque of 250 lbs-ft, sprinting the car up to a top speed of 155 mph. The engine’s output travels through a six-speed DSG transmission and mechanically locking differential to the front wheels.
The Seat Leon Super Copa features a special grey paint finish, while the mirror casings, wheels, and roll cage highlight the vehicle in a fluorescent orange.
