2002 Bmw 325ci Sport Package on 2040-cars

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BMW shows up-armored X5 concept and we can't get near it

BMW has brought a slightly different concept vehicle to the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. Rather than something that foreshadows a future product or a new design direction, the Munich-based manufacturer has brought an X5 that's designed to be shot at. It's called the Concept X5 Security Plus. The Concept X5 name is a bit misleading, though. It's based on the 2014 X5, while BMW already builds an armored CUV, called the X5 Security. The concept tag has to do with the "Security Plus" part.
Engineered to be compliant with VR6 security standards - the current X5 Security is for VR4 standards - the Concept X5 will quite happily shrug off direct attacks from an AK-47. Thanks to sealed joints, high-strength steel moldings, high-performance steel body panels and special, polycarbonate-coated security glass, Kalashnikov's finest, whether used as a firearm or as a melee weapon, would be useless against this X5.
Built alongside the standard X5 in BMW's Spartanburg, SC factory, the X5 is shipped to a BMW facility in Toluca, Mexico for installation of the armor and security features. The company claims this delivers a more thoroughly engineered protective solution than aftermarket retrofitting.

2013 BMW M3 Coupe Lime Rock Park Edition

Sic Transit Gloria
I like difficult cars. I like turbo "moments," dramatic weight distribution, low-grip, peaky power delivery, and overly quick steering, along with ultra-short wheelbases and any number of other non-racecar-perfect dynamic foibles. I love the newest generation of BMW cars and engines - all turbo'd up with tons of torque and power everywhere in the rev range, too. But what I think the enthusiast community will miss when this 2013 M3 Coupe becomes the 2014 M4 Coupe - replacing its idiosyncratic, small-displacement, revvy V8 for something like a triple-turbo, directly injected, inline six-cylinder powerhouse in the process - is the work it takes to drive the car fast and perfectly. Sometimes small flaws just make things better; my mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, and all that.
The idea of this E92 M3 going away then, magnified by the loss of the M3 badge for the coupe, is at best bittersweet for me. This generation of M car is already surpassed in terms of raw thrills by the better-than-ever Mercedes-Benz C63, a car that doesn't ask its driver to sacrifice low-end grunt or the very latest in amenities in return for stellar backroad performance. Yet any time I've been lucky enough to lap a track in the M3, it has quickly become clear that the Bimmer is the better on-edge tool. With the freedom to wring the neck of the 4.0-liter V8 and room to exercise the lovely balance of the car, the E92 is hard to match (even six years after its debut).

Toyota GT86 engineers explored shooting brake and sedan variants, are they still in the cards?

According to the Toyota UK blog, engineers for the automaker were so excited developing the GT86 coupe that they investigated producing a whole family of models based on the rear-wheel drive sports car. And at least one engineer - product chief Tetsuya Tada - still hopes it can happen, even if not everyone at Toyota is onboard. Tada: "Actually we tried to do this secretly but the executives found us out. They said: 'What are you doing? Will you please focus on the coupe.'"
Those mooted variants included both a four-door sedan and a shooting brake. Why? Aside from the pure excellence of a lightweight, brilliantly handling hatchback, Toyota was keenly aware of the fact that it may need to spread the cost of development out across several models. Tada says that's part of the reason why it was so easy to create the convertible. The company knew from the outset that a softtop version was in the cards, and built the machine's structure to accommodate having the roof sliced off.
Tada also made mention of the already-announced collaboration between Toyota and BMW. The engineer said that the GT86 was particularly helpful because it demonstrated just how successful a product conceived and designed by two different companies can be. While he didn't say exactly what Toyota and BMW are up to, it's clear the two are looking into a number of possibilities. It's an interesting read with a lot of