This year’s NZ Festival of Motor Racing, held at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, celebrated the 40th anniversary of BMW motorsport in New Zealand. Spectators were treated to a visual extravaganza, with cars – many worth more than your house – racing around the track, vying for the top spot.

The F5000′s were a drawcard, as were the Group A and Historic Touring Cars of the late ’80s and ’90s (bring back memories of the Wellington Street Race, anyone?). Couple that with the first round of the Historic Muscle Cars, combined with pre-’78 saloons and GTs, and you couldn’t ask for more.

As with previous years, even patchy weather couldn’t put a damper on this two-weekend event (held 21-22 Jan and 28-29 Jan). This is one awesome event at a great venue, so make sure you get along to it next year!

BMW has put its revolutionary Vision EfficientDynamics car on show at Auckland’s Museum for public viewing all weekend (Friday July 15 to Sunday July 17).

Fresh from its appearance at the Australian Motor Show the concept can be viewed for free at the Atrium end of the Museum.

The Vision EfficientDynamics car has been confirmed for production in 2013 and BMW is claiming it will be the world’s first green supercar. It’s powered by a three-cylinder turbo-diesel with a hybrid synchronous motor at the front axle and a full hybrid engine at the rear axle enabling a maximum power output for the system of 241kW. This new technology allows the BMW VisionED to achieve a 0–100km/h sprint time of just 4.8 seconds while returning a very low economy figure of 3.76 litres per 100 kilometres, and a CO2 emission rating of just 99 grams per kilometre. (more…)

Things didn’t go to plan for three-time NZ V8 Touring Car champion, John McIntyre during his first shot at the North Island Endurance Series at Pukekohe Raceway on the weekend.

Partnered with endurance veteran Mike Eady, the V8-powered BMW M3 race car McIntyre was driving experienced a collapsed left-rear shock absorber. This meant the racing day unfortunately finished early for McIntyre and Eady. There are positives with the team qualifying well and running as high as fourth position in the 22-car field when the issue became too much of a hindrance to continue racing safely.

“We were reaching speeds of 265km/h and at that pace you need to have every confidence in your equipment.  Unfortunately the car was becoming too much of a handful and we had to make the disappointing call to retire,” said Mike Eady.

“It’s the first time in my career I’ve had a shock absorber fail and it’s the first time this car hasn’t finished a race.  It’s frustrating as we were well positioned and had an excellent fuel strategy in play which could have seen us finish on the podium.” (more…)

New Zealand V8 Touring car champion John McIntyre will team up with North Island Endurance Series champion, Mike Eady this weekend to help defend Eady’s endurance crown.

McIntyre will join the BMW team and have his turn in Eady’s BMW M3 V8 this Saturday 14 May in the endurance season opening six hour race at Pukekohe Park Raceway. Eady will reunite with his 2010 co-driver, Kevin Bell, to compete in the four hour Taupo race later in the series.

“We have a pretty impressive package again this year, the M3 is not only incredibly fast but has amazing reliability which means the drivers can push the car 100% for the whole race distance,” said Mike Eady.

The V8-powered BMW M3 has undergone some serious upgrades during the off season, with the most dramatic being a 150kg weight reduction. This was achieved by replacing the doors and boot with lightweight racing parts from BMW Motorsport, which will not only assist with speed but also enhance fuel consumption and lower tyre wear. (more…)

There’s no replacement for displacement is how the saying always goes and as this crazed story proves, it’s not exactly a new sentiment.

After the end of World War 2 Germany wasn’t allowed to own any military aircrafts which meant there was a huge amount of planes and plane parts laying around idle. So some German locals decided that they could use one of the BMW V12 plane engines to craft a one-of-a-kind racecar. Sounds like a good idea right? Well that BMW V12 aircraft engine was a  a 1925 46.0-litre 12-cylinder unit, to be precise. Not something you’d fit into your average race car, at all.

Understandably there were problems with this bespoke beast, the engine tipped the scales at 510 kg and was huge measuring 1.8 meters long, 1.1 meters tall and 0.87 meters wide. Locating a suitable chassis in post war Germany was difficult but the keen carmakers managed to get hold of a 1908 American LaFrance car that could take the engine’s size and weight. It then took the builders several years to complete the car, which was manufactured in a workshop belonging to the Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim and was given the apt name – Brutus.

According to the museum, the engine puts out 500 horsepower at 1,500 rpm, but other sources claim that it can produce 750 hp at 1,700 rpm (but for only one minute). Its fuel consumption is about as bad as it comes with 1 litre being consumed for every kilometer it travels. For this reason Brutus has a huge fuel tank and is said to comfortably cruise at speeds of over 100 km/h at just 800 rpm. (more…)

Cadillac have been busy shooting a TV commercial for its high-power CTS-V sedan on Germany’s famed Nürburgring. Now, after all of the editing and messing around has been completed, the end result is a brand new television ad spot simply named “The Competition,” showing viewers that one of the world’s fastest sport sedans will continue to match its european competitors. But how exactly can you improve on 0-100kph time of just 3.9 seconds and a ‘Ring run in just 7:59.32? It’s going to be tough.

Aside from seeing and hearing the CTS-V do what it does best out on an iconic testing ground, the video is bold enough to mention the BMW M5 and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG — two vehicles that meant Cadillac would need to raise the bar for its own sport sedan.

Check out the new Cadillac ad below. (more…)

Ford’s Mustang GT goes head to head against a BMW M3 on a closed circuit track. Results may surprise.

Extreme Fitness Thornhill, Ontario, Canada Parking lot. The female driver of the X5 was charged and is due in court 1 Dec 2009