Andy Priaulx (GB) and Colin Turkington (GB) scored BMW’s second one-two in the 2010 FIA World Touring Car Championship in Brands Hatch (GB). In the 12th round of the season, Priaulx crossed the line after 16 laps 0.399 seconds ahead of BMW privateer Turkington of Team ebay Motors, claiming his fourth victory of the season. It was the triple world champion’s 16th career win in WTCC. No other driver has scored more wins than Priaulx. His fellow BMW Team RBM driver, Augusto Farfus (BR), dropped back to 13th following a collision with Chevrolet’s Alain Menu (CH), but managed to improve back to eighth over the course of the race.
Like clockwork BMW is giving us a preview of the M Sport package for it’s latest vehicle; the X3. The package includes a few unique options such as 19″ M wheels, M steering wheel, anthracite headliner, and M aerokit. Along with that BMW also throws in all the sport package suspension tuning and goodies. Look for it to be available in the US next summer.
Official Release: Dynamic and compelling, the M Sports package drives the sporty nature of the BMW X3 to even greater heights. The rich Carbon Black metallic paint finish and powerful 19-inch M light-weight alloy wheel rims set the tone, while the sports suspension tuning delivers the experience.
More Driving tools: the M multifunction leather steering wheel and variable sports steering. The M gear selection lever boasts particularly short throws. In the BMW xDrive35i with standard eight-speed automatic transmission Steptronic, the M leather steering wheel also features gearshift paddles. The sporty suspension settings give you stiffer dampers and deliver precise feedback.
The headlines released by BMW read pretty well; “Business performance better than expected. BMW Group expects sales volumes in 2010 to rise by around 10% to over 1.4 million units. Full-year EBIT margin of over 5% expected for the Automobiles segment. Financial Services segment aiming for earnings considerably above last year return on equity of over 18% achievable in 2010,” but we look forward to seeing the final release on August 3rd and going over the numbers ourselves; examining which models have driven the improvement. Still it seems the market is trying to turn a corner, and with this year having a couple key introductions, the new X3, 5 series, and MINI Countryman, it would seem BMW has every reason to be optimistic.
The 1M is (almost) revealed, so it’s time for us to start disecting the most highly anticipated M car in years. And to start off with, is it even a real M car? With a light reworked engine, can we really consider this an M car in the tradition of the E30 M3 as BMW likes to suggest? We think yes but it’s a question we’ll here more and more as the release date (Q2 of 2011) approaches.
We also spend some time on the new X3 and a number of 2011 model year changes for the US market. Enjoy!
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With the press introduction of the M3 GTS the fine folks at M have released a series of clips demonstrating the car’s abilities, a few sound bites from the GTS project manager and a look back at the last 25 years of the M3. However instead of making you wade through them all we’ve edited each together to create something of a cohesive video. Enjoy.
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We believe in the old school BMW ownership experience. We believe in garage nights with a six pack and some friends. We believe in 2002s, in E30 M3s and E34 540s with the 6 speed. We believe in progress in both design and engineering but we haven't lost sight of what made the brand and its products great all those years ago. And yes, we believe in the manual transmission.
We long for the days of the wave and for the days of roll-up windows. Yet we love the gadgets on the inside and the xenons on the outside.
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Sections: Motorsport | Official News Jul 18th, 2010 1 Comment 
