guides

One of the best ways to showcase your technical expertise and convince buyers to buy your cars is to build a hypercar. Mercedes-AMG did it, Aston Martin too. Heck, Volkswagen AG has the best of them all - the Bugatti Veyron and the Chiron. I can only imagine that somewhere in BMW headquarters in Munchen, the board of directors and investors sat together and discussed the hypercar idea.

After all, back in 2017, when Mercedes-AMG showcased the F1 inspired Project One, BMW M boss Dirk Hacker said:

“We would like to do a standalone car, and we could do it – but today there is no requirement from the market to do it. As a company, we are more focused on future mobility than digitization than building a hypercar, to be honest, but if we came to the decision to do a super sports car, then we could do that.”

Apparently, the market still isn’t favorable for the development of the BMW hypercar, but that does not stop us from the brainstorming of what that proposed hypercar could be. I am giving you ten different things BMW hypercar needs to succeed.

When BMW rolled the 2002 Turbo towards the tail end of 1973, in the middle of the fuel crisis, everybody viewed it as insanity. Still, as years rolled by, the classic adage that said ’there’s no replacement for displacement’ seemed to hold true for at least some manufacturers. However, ever stringent pollution regulations and the need for increased efficiency pushed carmakers to embrace forced induction more broadly and strangled naturally aspirated engines one by one. Nowadays, big players such as BMW don’t even offer a naturally aspirated engine across their entire lineups and even Ferrari is all but ditching the engines that made the Prancing Horse legendary through their expertly honed soundtrack.

It’s not necessarily that naturally aspirated engines are going to go extinct in a matter of a handful of years but it’s clear that the performance levels achieved by turbocharged or supercharged units simply can’t be matched by a naturally aspirated engine. On top of that, an engine that uses forced induction is more economical due to its smaller capacity and friendlier with the environment which - in the eyes of everyone but some purists - is a win-win situation. While we love turbochargers and superchargers, we thought we’d take a look at some of the history’s best naturally aspirated engines at a time when fewer and fewer manufacturers still offer them - at least in performance cars. We assure you they are proper bangers!

As of 2020, there are around 50 different electric cars available on the market, with more than half of them built by mainstream automakers, including Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Tesla, and Volkswagen. And that’s a massive number compared to the early 2010s when only a handful of EVs were available. If we roll back to the 1990s, when only a handful of companies were working on EVs, we can see that the electric car market has evolved at an impressive rate in less than three decades. But who took the world’s request to create green cars seriously and built working battery-powered vehicles in the 1990s? Let’s find out in the list below.

The world is moving towards electrification faster than we can digest. While many of us are looking forward to clean mobility, some enthusiasts and purists are dreading it and want to enjoy internal combustion engines while they last. Automakers have been reducing the number of cylinders under the hood in the name of “efficiency” for a long time now, but that didn’t mean V-8s weren’t in demand. But, with major strides being done in electrification technology lately, the demise of V-8s will be sooner than expected.

However, many vehicles are being offered now with V-8 engine options. This is pretty much against the tide, but very welcoming, to say the least. So, the question here is, are automakers trying to use V-8s as an emotional bait to lure in customers and build a loyal base heading into the future, or is this the last hurrah before V-8s finally slip into oblivion?

The Volkswagen Golf GTI is considered the forefather of the hot hatch segment. The first Golf GTI was introduced in June 1976 and has been going strong ever since. Nowadays, the Golf GTI is in its eighth generation and is still one of the best all-around performers in the segment. It’s also sold both in Europe and North America, which is not something that can be said for all the cars on the list. With that being said, the modern hot hatch scene is as dynamic as ever and many new contenders for the best hot hatch title. Here are some of the best alternatives that aim to de-throne the GTI.

In March 2020, BMW unveiled its new logo, a flat, minimalistic version of the one it has been using since 1997. While the new design offers a cleaner version that strays away from the old-looking 3D effects and shadows, it is just the latest version of a logo that has been around since 1917 and one that triggered many controversies regarding its origin.

Maserati is one of the oldest and most coveted Italian car brands ever. Although they’ve had their ups and downs, the motorsport success of Maserati cars has helped spawn some great road cars, too. Among them was the Bora, which actually has its 50th anniversary this year. The Maserati Bora may not be as celebrated as other models of the brand, but it’s one of the most significant Maserati cars to have been produced. For its 50th birthday, we are giving you some interesting facts about the Bora.

Porsche is known for continuously bringing race-bred technology into its road cars. The Stuttgart-based manufacturer that has been perfecting the rear-engine formula for over five decades now is also famous for its homologation specials, road-worthy counterparts built by Porsche to race thoroughbred competition machinery in production-based classes of sports car racing. 20 years ago, Porsche introduced the latest model that would spawn a myriad of racing versions: the Porsche 911 GT3, a track-oriented 911 that could be used as a daily driver (if you dared). It came at the same time as the not-for-the-purist 996 generation but, in spite of this, can you now imagine a world without the 911 GT3 in it?

Where were you in 1999 when Porsche unveiled the 996.1-generation Porsche 911 GT3? Well, you probably weren’t at the Geneva Auto Show where Porsche took the wraps of what was, in essence, the road-legal version of the newest Porsche 911 Cup car that would compete in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and later in the Porsche Supercup sharing the bill with the Formula 1 World Championship. The first 911 GT3 looked a bit tame but, as years rolled by, it evolved, growing bigger, more aggressive, and more insane and overshadowed with ease the 911 GT2, a model we originally thought it’d replace before Porsche decided to continue making GT2 models, somewhat as even more extreme versions of the 911. This is the story of the GT3, a model more famous than all of the track-focused 911s that have come before it, even the Carrera RS 2.7 of 1973.

If I were to write about the history of cars, a single chapter wouldn’t be enough to talk about the Japanese car industry’s impact in shaping that history. I’d need a few chapters to properly encapsulate what Japan’s car history means to the larger history of the automotive world. From humble beginnings to global domination, Japan’s car scene has given so much to the auto world. That includes some of the most iconic car models to ever hit the ground. These ten models are classics in the basic sense of the term “classic.” More importantly, these ten models are classics because they’ve earned the right to be called one, whether it’s through sheer popularity or long-lasting impact in the business.

Italy is the purveyor of the modern supercar and home to some of the world’s most famous and lusted after cars. We all love and know our Ferraris, Lamborghinis, or Maseratis but Italy is also about Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Lancia, all of which have been behind some truly iconic cars as well as some that should’ve broken through but, instead, have remained stuck in the doldrums of automotive history - even recent history. Here’s a list of some less well-know Italian sports cars.

Alpina’s knack for tweaking BMWs has its roots in the early 1960s, when Burkard Bovensiepen wanted to make his BMW 1500 go faster and developed a Weber dual carburettor system. Since then, Alpina’s road to tuning excellence took the trajectory of a steady upward curve sprinkled with rad builds that didn’t just offer more power or more torque, but a complete package of tweaks that complemented the extra oomph. We’ll be looking at some of them in the following lines.

America loves pickups, but with an F-150 costing up to $80,000, it’s easy to see why maybe some people would want something cheaper. Much cheaper. So keep reading to find out everything you need to know about the upcoming Ford Baby-Bronco based Maverick - a pickup that will start at just $20,000.

Electrification is happening whether you like it or not, but the government is trying to make the deal sweeter for you. In the States, there is a federal tax credit of $7,500 capped for 200,000 EVs for every automaker. Until now, Tesla and GM have surpassed that cap and you can’t get the credit if you purchase EVs from this brand. However, a new Bill from the Biden Administration could change that.

Aston Martin is one of the oldest and most emblematic manufacturers to ever exist. Over the years, they’ve had glorious racing history, as well as iconic models. That said, for one reason or another, some models are more memorable than others. When we talk about the Aston Martin Virage, most people remember the 1989-2000 model, also known as the Vantage V-8. In 2011, the name Virage was brought back, by utilizing the brand’s distinctive modern design. This is everything you need to know about the second-generation Aston Martin Virage.

Aerodynamics is one of the most exploited areas within the high-performance vehicle industry. Yet it is not easy to judge just how much of it you need, particularly in a road going car. Most car fans will be aware of its importance. However, for a non-engineer, the term “aerodynamic load” can be diffuse and hard to quantify. This is what you need to know about it.

The story of Alpina began in 1962, when a young engineering student named Burkard Bovensiepen mounted a Weber dual carburettor to his BMW 1500. The carburettor system was manufactured in Burkard father’s precision component factory and the way it changed the performance of the 1500 caught a lot of attention from a lot of people. The rest, as they say, is history.

Power, as they say, is nothing without control, and it is that control as well as the enjoyment derived from having it that is the criteria for this list. Having fun in a car with lots of horsepower is far easier than doing it with, say, no more than 200 ponies; engineers have their work cut out for them when making these cars fast since they don’t have the luxury of neck-snapping horsepower and acceleration as wow factor.

But such fun, low-horsepower cars do exist. The kind of cars which may not be super impressive in a straight line, but make up for that by being superbly rounded in the handling department. Where the drive from the wheels goes is also not important here, as the list posted after the jump contains cars whose power goes to the front, the rear, and to all four wheels as well.

These cars will put a smile on your face; they’ve got character, and they also allow you to drive them close to their limit and revel in the entire breadth of their performance. And, even if you exceed their limits and plant them in a ditch, the repair costs will also be noticeably lower than those associated with really serious performance machines.

If you’ve landed here, and are somewhere between your late 20s and early 40s, then there’s a good chance that you or someone you know had a Ferrari F40 poster hanging on the bedroom wall. The F40 was introduced in 1987 and celebrated Ferrari’s 40th-anniversary while, at the same time, ultimately serving as the last vehicle to be launched by Mr. Enzo Ferrari himself. So, what made the Ferrari F40 so special? Well, there’s a lot more to it than you ever realized.