Car Throttle

BMW disappoint me. Sure they build fabulous performance cars like the BMW 1-Series M Coupe, the M3, the M5, and the to-be-built 552bhp BMW M6. But that's about it really. No gull-winged, bi-spoilered, extra wide arched, super-low supercars. This irks me as BMW are now, in my opinion, either too profit-oriented, politically correct, socially conscious or environmentally friendly for their own good. In a recent interview, BMW North America's Product Manager stated that the German brand doesn't feel the need to make a supercar and that they like to build practical cars that are drivers' cars and executive cars that one can use everyday. This thought is further cemented by the statement made by Albert Biermann, BMW M’s development chief who told Autocar last year that

As well as demonstrating future direction with the i3 and i8 Concepts, BMW finally released the 2012 BMW M5 in all its glory. And they had the car zooming around on their purpose-built indoor track complete with live sounds of their powerplant. Whilst the V10 has been binned due to poor fuel consumption and ever tightening emissions regulations, the 2012 M5 does have an increase in power since the last variant. Namely 560bhp from 6-7,000 rpm thanks to a twin-turbo V8. But it's not just the power that has been improved; BMW's engineers claim that this is the best handling M5 ever created. It's not hard to see why in the flesh. The 2012 M5 has a more aggressive stance than the previous generation which

The unquestioned champ in for mid-size performance is no doubt BMW's M5 (some even call it the original four-door supercar). Toward the end of a car's cycle it is inevitable for the model to get out performed by newer next-generation competitors. This has happened with Cadillac and its CTS-V, as well as the Porsche Panamera. The Cadillac CTS-V held a record for fastest four-door car at the famed Nurburgring circuit, only to be eclipsed by the Panamera. The Porsche's time currently checks in at a scant 7 minutes, 56 seconds. Now, website FastestLaps.com is reporting a new record for a four-door sedan at the track - 7 minutes, 55 seconds. That is just one second faster, something that can chalked up to driver differences or weather

Uh-oh, der Germans have gotten into the Jagermiester and found the crayon box again. Check out this Twin-Supercharged BMW M5 CLR 730 RS from a tuning house called Lumma Design. Black and white on the outside, red and whit on the inside, and they went and made the blower intakes orange. The last time I saw something this extravagant it was marching down Market Street. If you can ignore the colors, then the brass tacks of the ride are fairly notable. Lumma says that the plant under the hood is the most powerful engine ever in a road-legal BMW. The factory 5.0-liter V10 unit, which is nothing to sneeze at, cranks out 507HP and 520Nm o'torque, and Lumma saw fit to attach a pair of superchargers,

As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations surrounding 25 years of BMW's M5 sedan, a lot of news has been coming out. Some old stuff we haven't heard of before and some new stuff as well. Or new thing, that is - a special M5 CSL created by BMW. The BMW M5 is an iconic car in the industry, and it has been heralded as the performance benchmark in the luxury segment for years. That bar was only increased for the latest generation car, which uses a 5.0L V-10 making 507 horsepower. BMW has set out to top it though with this special edition car. The vehicle isn't officially referred to as a CSL, but BMW's M division head of development Albert Biermann said it was the

The latest-generation of the BMW M5 is the most high-performance iteration of the car yet. Perhaps the most unique thing about it though is the engine - it has a V10 engine in place of a traditional V-6 or V-8. That's something most people (aside from us car enthusiasts, of course) probably don't know about it. Does it matter that the M5 has two more cylinders than everyone else? Apparently not. A new report out by Edmunds' Inside Line says that the M5 could be shedding that engine for a V-8 powerplant. The report flies in the face of a previous one we heard about the M5 in June. That one said that the M5 would be getting more outrageous than ever, utilizing not just the same

Nearly everyone is working to squeeze more from less, but in the midst of all that there are some exceptions. If this latest report is anything to go by, BMW looks to be one of those exceptions. More for less? Nah. How about more from more? The next-generation M5 promises to do just that, looking a whole lot better too. The current 5-Series has gotten a lot of criticism for it's Chris Bangle-designed styling. Oddly enough, both it and the 7-Series (which got the criticism even worse, rightly so) continued to sell better then ever though. This new report speculates a lot about the new BMW M5, saying it could get a twin-turbocharged V-10 this time around, instead of the naturally-aspirated V10 in the current car. Other reports in