BMW have announced on friday that they have reached an agreement with Peter Sauber regarding the sale of the BMW Sauber F1 team. However, the sale is subject to the team being granted a slot for the 2010 season. This means that the planned sale to Qadbak Investment Ltd. will not be completed.
As part of the agreement, personnel will be cut from 388 to 250 employees. Also, because of the restructuring of the team, further redundancies cannot be ruled out in the future.
BMW had previously bought the team from Sauber in 2005, who had founded the team in 1993.
“I am very relieved that we have found this solution,” said Peter Sauber. “It means we can keep the Hinwil location and the majority of workplaces. I am convinced that the new team has a very good future in Formula One, whose current transformation with new framework conditions will benefit the private teams. Our staff here are highly competent and motivated, and I look forward to taking on this new challenge together with them. I would like to thank BMW for four shared years that have in the main been very successful.”
Dr Klaus Draeger, member of the board of management of BMW AG with responsibility for development, added: “We are very happy with this solution. This fulfils the most important requirement for a successful future for the team. Our relationship with Peter Sauber has always been excellent and marked by absolute respect. We would like to express our thanks to Peter Sauber and the whole team for the excellent cooperation during the recent four years.”
There is something wrong with Jaguar. I can’t point out exactly what, but I can explain it by an example. See, you meet a girl when you were eighteen. She is all very pretty and perky. But thirty years later, when you meet the same girl, now an old woman, she has become the queen of gone horribly wrong aging. What will be actually going on in your mind at that point … “Ah, all those rumors of her about hard drinking and snorting the white powder were true after all!”
Scary Aging
The same is with jaguar. Jaguar used to be the epitome of British beauties. The everlasting prettiness of a Jaguar E-type sitting on your front porch for an example. But then she decided to go communist, gained some extra pounds and developed affection for quick money from retired dentists in Florida. Instead of becoming a cougar she became an ugly dying camel.
Dental Wagon - Ugly Duckling of British Motoring.
Now, Ian Callum and his professed love towards Jaguar, is trying to save her family reputation. I cannot discount Callum as just another car designer. He is a visionary, a genius, an artist. But somehow, all his hard work does not feel right. In my dream world if Callum had designed the new S class, it would have been a huge success. In the real world though, he is designing the new luxury barge from Jaguar called the XJ. It is all good looking and futuristic and a break away from the bad aging. Even then, it doesn’t help Jaguar a little bit.
Future is a bit too late!
The old pictures of an ugly Jaguar are still very vivid in people’s minds. So are the scary stories of doors coming off and engine refusing to budge to your desperate attempt at turning the keys. It all feels like, a brilliant plastic surgeon trying to hide away all those crow feet and wrinkles under a thin layer of aluminum shell. Nobody and their accounts manager will be willing to put that kind of cash into an expensive car like the XJ, especially if you look at the fact that it is from a company with the worst financial history.
Flowing Red Dress.
The other brilliant car from jaguar, the XFR is also in no good shape to rescue the company. First of all I will break the news about what is utmost wrong about the XFR. The car has electrical issues. There, I have said it. If you are paying truck load of cash for a car like this, you expect things to be all working perfectly well. That is not with the XFR. It is not that fumes come out of the dash board, but there is a little bit of histrionics on the Jags part. I don’t see it as normal behavior, even in a discounted people carrier. It is annoying, and very well disappointing. All those theatrical effects of the flipping air con vents and the throbbing red starter switch all feels like they are all conspiring as to when to have a mass strike on the factory floor. It disheartened my spirit a lot. Though the dealers were very kind and apologetic, and told me they have fixed the issue, it still nags my mind. Why, did Jaguar engineers spoil the plastic surgery and face lifting party with a loose connection. It just is impossible to explain. A good company like the Mercedes lost its entire market share because of shoddy electricals installed to save cost. So why would Jaguar too repeat the same mistake? Was there an old saying too, which goes on like this “Learn from others mistakes”?
Brilliant in Red!
As pretty as a flowing red dress!
Then there is the XFR performance. Again I have to say this is a brilliant looking car. But it should have come out ten years before. Now, the BMW M5 has made all other performance sedans look like redundant experiments.There is no point in buying an XFR. It is cheaper than an M5, but again it is slower than an M5. The handling is brilliant, but not as brilliant as a BMW. The interiors of the Jag are well appointed and make you feel like you are in your childhood dream, but the BMW is a geek heaven. The suspension is never harsh on you on the XFR, so is the BMW- at least to an extent. I don’t see any compelling reason not to buy a M5 instead of an XFR. Yes the M5 is slightly odd looking, but so is the cheap looking grill on that XFR. Where did that mesh grill come from, the eighties? And, you know what, the Jag is not an indication of sophistication either. The communist period at the Jag, destroyed its reputation as a symbol of British tight upper lip. Now, driving a Jag only means, you have weird fetish towards all things dental. Jaguar has no place in this modern world dominated by the German behemoths and the Japanese slush wagons called the Lax-us. The Jaguar has a secret weapon though. And nobody cares about it.
Well appointed but histrionic.
Even the company is late in recognizing its potential. If you take a closer look at the XFR, you will be amazed by the difference. Though performance wise the Brit cat is a bit behind the curve as compared to an M5, it is the best car to own and use it on a daily basis as a high performance sedan. Do you know why? It is because; it is by far the most fuel efficient high performance sedan ever. It falls into a lower tax bracket, due to its lower emissions. On the road, at stop and go traffic, it feels much more comfortable than the M5 too. Also, the nosy pretentious Prius driving neighbor of yours will never get to know, you are driving an R version of the Jag. This is because there are minimal visual cues separating it from its slower siblings. The car has minimal branding of the R badge unlike the M5. If you are like me, a big fan of the badge delete program, then you will love the Jag. Take off that R lettering, and only an auto geek can spot you as a R driving enthusiast. For all other Jack, Dick and Sally it is just the run off the mill XF.
Supercharged Brit cat musical!
But, nobody, I mean nobody in this world, wants not to be ostentatious. If you have a Bentley, you will take it to the busiest street in the world. This means, you will have to suffer the bumps on that 20 inch low profile rollers, you will scrub the front bumper against the kerb, the ten year old hawker who doesn’t know what a Bentley is: draws a nice picture of your wife’s bottom on the silver chrome body work using the one rupee coin that you threw at him, you will stop the entire traffic of the city because you have to scold your brilliant and patient driver who is putting up with your stupidity of driving a huge arse Bentley on a crowded single lane.
Bavarian over engineering marvel.
Cat from Coventry.
The sad reality is, no matter how much prettier the XFR is than the M5, how much better it feels to drive on a busy street than the M5, it will never be a legend as the M5. It will be remembered in a few corners of the world as a car that also ran for the laurels of the best high performance sedan. People will remember only vaguely, like the Lancia Stratos. This Brit cat does have a few good points in its favor, but it is way too little to be rescued by them. The Jaguar also knows very well of this sad situation. The present economy is also not helping things very much for the British legend. The car is an understated performance monster. But the time that we live in, we need everything loud and bling. The recession has not taught anybody any lesson. The only lesson that the recession has taught if at all is, even if you are poor and your business is nose diving into the cesspool of brown, smelly things, your wife and your children are unwilling to compromise on the lifestyles that they are used to. They will leave you, if you give a bit of a hint about going bankrupt, allowing you to look at an even more expensive lawyer bill. And Sadly the Jag is never part of that lifestyle.
Fun in motion.
Verdict: If the XFR was a new Mercedes, people would have been ready to forgive the stupidity of Daimler. It is that good.
Por um descuido fotos oficiais caíram na internet (Fotos: 5post.com)
Não estava nos planos da BMW, mas ops! aconteceu. Um dia antes de apresentar oficialmente a nova geração do seu BMW Série 5 as imagens deste post caíram na internet. São imagens oficiais do lançamento mais esperado da BMW dos últimos anos.
Afinal de contas, o Série 5 é considerado a família carro chefe da marca alemã. Além disso, o novo Série 5 terá a missão de barrar as crescentes vendas do rival Merdedes-Benz Classe E.
Amanhã saberemos todas as informações e quem sabem mais imagens do novo carro da BMW. Mas, de toda a forma vale o gostinho na boca. Dá para dizer também que os engenheiros da marca de Munique não fizeram grandes alterações.
A frente, por exemplo, é bastante parecida com a do Série 5 GT, lançado há pouco tempo. O carro deve começar a ser vendido nos início de 2010 e chegar ao Brasil logo depois.
My parents are beginning to give me freedom. Well. i shant make use of it too much. They have been more understanding. Alhamdulliah. (: i think i love my parents more and more each day (:
Been supporting myself. But has not been working. WELL! haha. that is my life. mum has been topping up my car and cashcard im topping up myself. i cant always depend on mum as i don’t want to burden her more. I love you mum and dad (: tho things has change so much.
Well. i don’t know whether people are reading my blog, but im just updating.
Am looking forward meeting aunt serena. she is so cool! how i wished i had an aunty like that. haha. & i wouldnt wanna get married alot of times. its sooo hard andd tired can? hahaha
Well. my goal is to wash my car once a week tho its the monsoon season. So black seh the car. Carwash no use also. waste money! haha & mum puji already saed i learn how to save money. weeee! & she don’t accept my money because she saed its not enough for me. HAHA. now the only thing i do is top up car and cash card. eat in school den off home. shopping? BARELY! thats not so me can? HAHA
well. today just came back from a midnight movie. A christmas carol. with someone. well. thanks for spending the night watching movie with me! (: its was a freaky show can? i had no one to ask except you. HAHA (:
& i’m in contact with this guy. well. known him for a yr but recently contacting. its a financial consultant guy who asked me to join his scheme. but i didnt because that time i didnt have enough to save up. Well that time i went to meet my sec lover because he had an op. so i was under his block with some of my classmates frm hyss. i called that financial guy. i told him i was beside his block and i just reached. he saed he just too. but i told him i didnt see him driving in. he told me he changed car. So i asked him ” eh! u changeed into VW eh?” he saed ” errr. no la. another car. BMW series 3.” i was like ” WTF! no kidding??” he saed ” go find my car” & i went to find. COOL LA HIS CAR! hahahaha! & soon we met up at imm. went groceries shopping with me but he was busy with his bluetooth set. HAHA. just bought kn. didnt managed to ride in his new ride because i brought my car along. HAHA. well. i have no idea when is the next time imma gonna see him! hopefully soon. BUT he is busy with his work. so im not gonna disturb him. (:
Well. i shall end here! imma gonna help dad fix our electricity in the house. its down ! hahaha! GOoood nigghtt!! (:
Il existe maintes manières de se créer, entretenir ou améliorer une réputation sur le Web. YouTube fait partie de ces nouveaux vecteurs…pour le meilleur et pour le pire. Ce fou du volant n’a donc rien trouvé de mieux que de se filmer en train de rouler à 317 km/h sur l’autoroute, narguant du même coup quelques policiers qui ne vont rien voir du triste exploit…
L’homme se filme. Son visage apparaît à plusieurs reprises comme celle du passager d’ailleurs… son prénom est par ailleurs cité. La marque de la voiture et le lieu sont assez reconnaissables. Alors que va-t-il se passer ? Les 2 hommes se feront-ils arrêtés comme ce motard qui s’est filmé à 210 km/h en Grande Bretagne ? Les paris sont lancés.
At a time when major car manufacturers in the country are working on low cost cars, the expensive luxury vehicles, priced over Rs 15 lakh and going up to Rs 50 lakh and including sport utility vehicles and luxury sedans, are catching the fancy of car enthusiasts in India. So much is the demand that new products are overselling and the numbers have far exceeded the earlier estimates signaling a huge growth potential in the segment in India. This comes at a time when the once traditional markets, the US and Europe, for bigger and luxury cars, are fast moving towards small and fuel efficient vehicles. For instance, BMW India has sold 63 units of X6 since its launch in July and another six units of Z4 in October and these new products are helping the company exceed its earlier set target of 3,000 units in India in 2009 against 2,908 units in 2008. In no other emerging market, BMW has taken leadership position in such a short time and this comes on the back of strong product line up, market expansion andbrand building, Abhay Dange, spokesperson, BMW India, said. While tese are the high-end luxury cars priced around Rs 50 lakh, the demand for cars in the lower end of the segment like the Volkswagen Passat (around Rs 24 lakh), Toyota Fortuner (around Rs 20 lakh) and Honda CR-V (around Rs 22 lakh) is also reaching the levels that were beyond expectations. Toyota Fortuner, which was launched in August, saw a backlog of 3,100 units that were to be delivered in seven months as Toyota Kirloskar Motor could assemble 550 Fortuners a month. Volkswagen India may end up selling more Passats as against earlier target of 1,000 units.
The new BMW WTF or X6 M, as they would probably prefer it to be called, has been upgraded. No. Not made over, upgraded.
The UberDouche Coupe M now has had its power boosted by 42 horses in the twin-turbo xDrive50i model. It even comes with a “special” body kit and rolls on twenties.
Oh yeah. You get extra badges that say “M” everywhere too.
So, there you have it. It’s faster. It’s heavier. It’s more expensive.
A German tuner Lumma Design has released a new performance tuning package for the BMW M5 E60 that also included G-Power upgrade kit to the M-badged version of the BMW 5-series.
As result a car that uses all 730 horsepower of a bi-compressor V10 to spread a limit speed of over 367 km/h (228 mph). The 700 Nm of torque helps the car go 0-100 km/h time in 4.2 seconds, feat 200 km/h in just ten seconds. 300 km/h is achieved in 29.5 seconds.
Read more (details and photos)!!
The companies petition this is the “most energetic engine” ever seen on a “highway-lawful BMW.” It is surely an enormous development over Lumma’s CLR 500 RS released in 2007. That car saw a “measly” 560 horsepower.
Lumma Design’s own six-piston front, four-piston rear caliper brakes are worn along with drilled 405mm discs. Ultralight, three-portion pretend 10×21 and 12Jx21 wheels at the nose and tail look great on the 45mm lowered car.
The style package includes carbon fiber boot and bonnet, and the matter is also worn for the door handles, admission sills, fenders, and mirror caps. Designers also replaced the exhaust system. Inside, carbon integrity, leather, and suede is worn gratuitously. Hopefully, the paint scheme selected inside is customizable, as something more faint than the contrasting red, fair, dusk grey would probably feel more appropriate.
Raikkonen did give Ferrari a win, at Spa, after fending off…Fisichella! On that occasion, however, the Italian was still with Force India, whose Mercedes-powered car showed remarkable form on circuits where low downforce was required. Adrian Sutil proved very fast but wild and accident prone in the other car, but only Raikkonen’s KERS prevented Fisichella from staging a huge upset victory in Belgium. Fisi’s replacement, the underrated Vitantonio Liuzzi, was headed for a podium finish behind the Brawns at Monza when his car broke a driveshaft.
It was also at Spa that yet another scandal was unveiled. In Hungary Renault had been lucky to escape suspension when, only a week after former world champion John Surtees’ 19 year-old son Henry had been killed by an errant wheel in a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch, the French team’s pit crew released Fernando Alonso from a pit stop knowing that the right front wheel had been improperly secured. It came off, and the stewards of the meeting fined them the maximum possible, US$50,000, and suspended them from Valencia.
Renault won their appeal against exclusion, but soon it became clear that they were being investigated for fixing the result of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix following allegations from former driver Nelson Piquet, sacked in July, that he had been told to crash deliberately there to give Alonso the safety car intervention that helped him through to victory. Subsequently, team principal Flavio Briatore was banned indefinitely from the sport, and technical chief Pat Symonds for five years.
Meanwhile, as Renault struggled on and off the track, Toyota’s performances picked up after a mid-season slump. Timo Glock was an excellent second to Hamilton in Singapore, a result that Jarno Trulli repeated on their home ground at Suzuka. That left them fifth overall, which was respectable, while a late-season charge from BMW Sauber, who had introduced a significant aerodynamic and technical upgrade for Singapore, benefited from a second place by Kubica in Brazil and Nick Heidfeld’s fifth in Abu Dhabi to jump ahead of Williams by one and a half points into sixth. The British team had its most consistent season of late, showing well on all but the low-downforce tracks, and would have gone better still had the Toyota engine had competitive horsepower.
Renault were a humbled eighth after one of their toughest-ever seasons yielded just one podium for Alonso, ironically enough in Singapore. Force India might have finished only ninth, but they showed they have the potential to run at or near the front, but Toro Rosso, in 10th overall, showed only flashes of speed with their Red Bull RB5 lookalike STR4. Sebastien Buemi looked good at times, while rookie Jamie Alguersuari replaced Sebastian Bourdais from Hungary onwards.
When Glock crashed in Japan in what would become history’s longest-ever qualifying session, he was subsequently replaced for the final two races by GP2 driver Kamui Kobayashi, who did enough with a ninth and a sixth place finish to make himself unofficial ‘Rookie of the Year’ ahead of Buemi. There were suspicions all along that he had been placed in Glock’s seat by a team that knew they were on borrowed time, and shortly after Bridgestone had announced after Abu Dhabi that they were quitting at the end of 2010, Toyota duly said they were going too, as of now. Like Honda and BMW, they blamed the economic climate and made compelling arguments why they had to stop spending so much on Formula One racing.
That in theory could clear the way for Peter Sauber and his new partner Qadbak to join the four new teams who are due to assemble on the grid in 2010: Lotus, US F1 Team, Manor and Campos Meta.
As yet some key driver placements have yet to be settled, notably whether Button stays with Brawn, and where, if anywhere, Raikkonen goes. The odds favour the second McLaren seat, but you never know with the Finn. With Red Bull staying the same, Alonso at Ferrari alongside Massa, Nico Rosberg and Barrichello being tipped to swap places (the latter is already confirmed at Williams), and Glock reportedly heading to Renault to join Kubica, the new season is already shaping up fast.
And based on what happened in 2009, it is safe to suggest that in the new era of Jean Todt succeeding Max Mosley as President of the FIA after a landslide victory against Ari Vatanen, and refuelling being banned, anything is possible.
Last Friday, my buddy Colin called me to tell me he finished his 1974 BMW R75/6, so of course Mike and I raced (literally) over to his house to check it out. This thing is awesome, and sounds good too. Yes, that is an 8 gallon Heinrich tank. All tits and no ass. The fairing in the picture is unmounted. He still has a few things to work out on, but it’s a runner. After the break in on the motor, he’s touring up the coast. I’m jealous. I wanna go up the coast. Ride on Mangold!
1974 R75/6
Mangold's racer.
Nothing new to post on the CB175. Still sourcing parts. I hope to have something for this weekend.
Because I live in ditzy-girl-world, I allowed my car to run out of coolant, thus it overheated. I was in such a rush to get where I was going, that I didn’t realize my car was over heating until my car was surrounded by a cloud of black smoke!!! I’m talking about so much smoke that it looked like it was about to blow up! So of course I blew the head gasket, and of course I drive a BMW, so what would’ve been an $800 job, turned out to be an $1800 job!
Then after that situation was resolved, moving day came, the movers quoted me $350, and once everything was done, they said it would be $550!!! Sorry guys, that’s $200 you won’t be receiving!!! You know they tried to argue me down for like an hour, but in the end, I was able to jew em down!
Then, I went to a Halloween party, and the girl from Friends Part II (who wasn’t speaking to me, and sometimes doesn’t speak to our mutual friends because they’re speaking to me…lol) was in attendance, and speaking to me as if nothing happened! She was the quintessential life of the party, so much so that she was getting on everyone’s nerves! There was not one person there that she didn’t have a full conversation with! I’m telling ya’ll, the girl was acting as if it were HER party! She even went up to my boyfriend and jokingly told him if he didn’t participate in the party that she would “never speak to him again” at which point I heard someone yell out “Uh, I don’t think he cares!” All night long, all I could think was “this girl is seriously a schizo”! She even found it necessary to narrate the party to us; if something was going on in another room, she would come back into the room that her (former) friends were in, and tell us all about what we had missed!!!! I had never seen this side of her, she was acting so corny, and childish, I was kinda happy that she dumped me, because I had mistakenly befriended a lame!!!!
Not to mention, I am 75% sure that the reason she has stopped speaking to me is because her boyfriend won’t allow her to! (And that’s so LAAAAAAME!!! (Jay-z voice)) He doesn’t like me because he knows that I know for 100% FACT that he has cheated on her on multiple occasions, and he’s afraid that I will one day share my information with her, which I never have…until now, so if she’s reading this blog…”you dumped a good friend for a cheating ass, lame ass boyfriend. You deserve whatever you get fake bitch!”
And do you know that on Monday when I saw her, she didn’t speak to me again, after she was ALL IN MY FACE on Sunday?!?!?!?!? “C’mon Son!” (check out on you tube Ed Lover’s skits called “C’mon Son“—sooo funny!)
I ain’t got time for the 50/50, that why I KEEPS IT 100 BIYOCHES!!!! xoxo
If you took a quick guess as to which car is faster, what would you say – the $44,000 Lexus GS300, or the $34,000 ES350? If you guessed the GS, you would be wrong. The ES is more powerful and quicker in acceleration, an awkward fact that can make Lexus dealers nervous, especially with the GS' more sporty character. This situation is due to the unusually early introduction of the 2007 ES model, which was well ahead of the GS and giving us a glimpse of the power upgrades in store.
Starting with the GS, expect the base 3.0L 6-cylinder engine to be replaced with 3.5L unit that's already in the ES350 and GS450h, bumping horsepower from 245 to 272. Expect the 4.3L 8-cylinder engine to be replaced by the 4.6L unit, upgrading horsepower from 300 to 380. This should effectively move the sedan from 0-60 mph in the low 5 seconds, more closely matching its German rivals. It will be interesting to see if Lexus will offer another hybrid in the GS line. So far, Toyota and Lexus have resisted offering multiple hybrid powertrains for the same model, but a GS550h using the 4.6L 8-cylinder can slot nicely between the 6-cylinder GS450h and the flagship LS600h. The GS300 will be renamed to GS350, and GS430 to GS460.
As previously noted, the 272 hp 2007 ES350 has already been introduced, replacing the 225 hp ES330. This is essentially the same 3.5 liter unit being proliferated throughout Toyota's lineup, but due to octane optimization, generates slightly more power than its Toyota counterparts. A hybrid version, if offered, would be called ES450h with virtually identical specs as the current GS450h, generating 340 total-system hp. It could also signal a similar powertrain offering for Toyota's Camry, which shares the same platform as the ES, and is currently offered only in 4-cylinder hybrid form.
The 2007 RX350, also introduced ahead of schedule, replaces the RX330. Similar to the ES, horsepower moves from 225 to 270. Expect a similar change on the 3.3L RX400h, which goes from 268 total system hp to 340 and renamed to RX450h.
The SC430 and LS430 will follow the same upgrade as the GS430, but to establish its flagship status, the LS hybrid version will get an exclusive 5.0L 8-cylinder unit that will generate at least 410 hp. The LS430 will be renamed LS460 and the 5.0L hybrid LS600h. The LS will have the world's first eight-speed automatic transmission, and it is unclear if and when this will be shared with other models.
It is doubtful the IS, introduced last year, will have any powertrain upgrades for 2007. As for the GX and LX trucks, they are certainly due for an upgrade, but truck engines typically lag in advanced technology than its passenger-car counterparts. For example, Toyota's variable valve timing wasn't introduced on 8-cylinder trucks until model year 2005, although it was available on its passenger cars seven years earlier.
