Dropping a Chrysler slant-six engine into an E30 BMW 3-series is a very bad idea, and yet perfect for the 24 Hours of LeMons. We thought it would be hard to top that ill-advised engine swap, but a gang of wild-eyed California fabricators cooked up something even better (that is, even worse) for last weekend’s Sears Pointless race at Infineon Raceway: a Mazda Miata with Polaris snowmobile power. Three cylinders, two strokes—and a weight savings of nearly 800 pounds compared to the Mazda drivetrain. When they aren’t helping us with LeMons tech inspections or building cages for LeMons cars, the folks at West Sacramento’s Evil Genius Racing work on their bread-and-butter business: building and repairing cars for the Spec Miata world. Miatas are right there with E30 BMWs and Acura Integras on the “Cars We Aren’t Very Happy To See In LeMons Races” list—unless they’ve been hacked up with ridiculous modifications. An Evil Genius customer stacked this particular car on the track, it ended up sitting around the shop for a while, and then the mental gears started turning. In the words of EGR chief John Pagel: It was a very nice 1991 Special Edition BRG Miata. I looked after it for a customer, it got wrecked; right front frame rail bent way in and down, left front bent out. Bought it for $450 from the customer, proceeded to sell off $2500 worth of parts: engine, trans, left door and fender, interior, seats, dash, etc. It is a legit $0 car. We straightened it between two Ford Super Duties. Scott DeWinter had a Polaris motor and the build commenced. For the full story of how this car’s build process went, with technical details, check out this thread on the 24 Hours of LeMons forums . So, a 92-hp Polaris 600 three-cylinder went into the Miata. There is no transmission; the Polaris variable-speed belt-drive unit with centrifugal clutch was used. The entire engine and clutch assembly weighed about 85 pounds. No engine hoist necessary! All the power is transmitted through this belt. The team brought several spares. Two gauges, two pedals. There’s no electric starter in this setup. Instead, we saw the first-ever pull-start LeMons racer. Watch this clip to see how the starting process goes: In honor of its snowmobile...

The latest information (rumors) circulating about the next M3′s engine suggest that BMW is seriously thinking of placing a V6 (a 90 degree V6 at that) into the F80. Heresy!! BMW, a company known for it’s silky smooth inline sixes appears to be treading into Pontiac territory (Hello Buick 3800!) with a 90 degree V6. At least that’s the fear. Why A 90 Degree V6 The usual development path for a 90 degree V6 is through a cut down V8. Mercedes-Benz replaced its inline sixes with 90 degree V6s in years past, but has since developed a 60 degree V6 (allowing a common journal for a pair of pistons on either bank – more on this later) and a natural 120 degree firing order (one cylinder ‘fires’ every 120 degrees of crank rotation – all six cylinders fire within 720 degrees of rotation). However, the B8 Audi S4 uses a 90 degree V6 engine, using direct injection and supercharging. It has made it onto the Ward’s 10 Best Engine list (which is no small accomplishment). And that engine is competitive with the N55 inline six that BMW produces. But whatever BMW decides to do with the M3 engine it will produce more power than the Audi 3.0 TFSI V6. (And make no mistake – you heard it here first – the coupe will be an M3, I believe there is too much history with the M3 label to introduce an ‘M4′, but could they introduce a 435i? That’s a question for another day – and a different set of styling cues too). Benefits First, the V6 (90 degree or 60 degree) puts less weight over the front axle centerline than an I6. And less than a V8 too, for that matter. The 90 degree V6 sits lower in the engine bay, reducing the center of gravity slightly. But from BMW’s perspective, the width of the V between cylinder heads allows for their ‘reverse flow cylinder head’-’short path from port to turbo’ plumbing. A V6 should also have fewer friction losses than the BMW I6 since the V6 will utilize three main crank bearings while the I6 uses seven. Another plus is the shorter length of crank and camshafts which the V6 architecture offers. BMW can ensure that each cylinder will fire at 120 degree intervals (like an I6 or 60 degree V6) if they use offset crank journals. That reduces some of the odd noise...

It’s difficult not to get a touch excited when you slip behind the wheel of any John Cooper Works tuned MINI. There is an air about the vehicle that just feels special. Fine details on the exterior hint towards the car’s performance edge, and tasteful interior highlights continue the performance theme. But in any JCW, the real excitement starts when you press the starter button. How a 1.6 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder can make such glorious noise is beyond me. The mighty inline 4 belts out warrior cries at all revs, settling to a surprisingly bass-filled idle. To be completely honest, the sound alone is probably worth the price of admission – but the excitement does not end there. Today we’re driving the new MINI JCW Coupe, a car that has had mixed reviews so far. Let me give you the skinny: MINI has been criticized for building a JCW product that does not fully conform to the form-follows-function design approach. The MINI Coupe is really a MINI Roadster, with a stylish roof – a Roadster with a fashionable hat. True, the roof is capable of surviving a roll-over collision, and it does add some structural rigidity to the car – but it’s marginal. MINI didn’t have to add the roof to make the car stiffer because it retains the beefed-up chassis stiffness of the Roadster. But this also means that the Coupe retains the weight of the Roadster. Oh Ohh. As a matter of fact, the JCW Coupe does weigh 30 kg (66 lbs) more than the JCW and this weight does show up on more than the specification list – it also makes its presence known dynamically. The 0-60 time on a MINI Cooper JCW is 6.5 seconds while the JCW Coupe accomplishes the same task in 6.4 seconds. Wait a short one: the heavier car is faster in acceleration than the lighter one? What gives? As it turns out, MINI have shifted more weight onto the front wheels to give it more front end grip, and hence, better acceleration. Of course, physics can’t be fooled and you can’t bend math, so eventually, this weight is going to catch up to the car (as will the less attractive weight balance), whether it be under braking, through the slalom or in outright agility. For what it’s worth, the Coupe does enjoy a lower center of gravity, but it’s not of much...

Our new YouTube channel launches on May 1, and it’s going to feature five original series, a heap of stuff like you see in this clip, plus more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel now so you don’t miss anything! Here is the original: New C/D YouTube Channel to Launch May 1; Here’s Our First Promo Clip [Video] View post:  New C/D YouTube Channel to Launch May 1; Here’s Our First Promo Clip [Video]

Acura’s first RDX launched in 2006, in hot pursuit of some dude named Jason. Who’s Jason? An aggressive, competitive (and fictitious) 30-year-old architect who typified Acura’s notion of an “urban achiever.” By 2010, Acura realized that “Jason” prefers “other types of  vehicles” (and possibly  “blondes”). Actual RDX buyers are “DINKs” (double income, no kids) and empty nesters. Keep Reading: 2013 Acura RDX – First Drive Review See the original post: 2013 Acura RDX First Drive: A More-Mature Compact Luxury Crossover with V6 Power More: 2013 Acura RDX First Drive: A More-Mature Compact Luxury Crossover with V6 Power

GM’s full-size crossover quadruplets— the Chevrolet Traverse , the GMC Acadia, the Buick Enclave, and the now-deceased Saturn Outlook—were fairly well received when they were first launched. GM’s three surviving eight-passenger utes are getting much-needed midcycle updates for 2013, and Chevrolet has now released details on its freshened Traverse. Keep Reading: 2013 Chevrolet Traverse – Official Photos and Info Originally posted here: 2013 Chevrolet Traverse: Hard Candy Shell, Soft Gooey Insides See more here:  2013 Chevrolet Traverse: Hard Candy Shell, Soft Gooey Insides

Every year the Strategic Vision marketing firm surveys thousands of American drivers, asking them to rank their rides on hundreds of criteria like fuel economy, technological innovation, warranty, and expected resale value. This year’s findings offer good news for hybrid and electric car manufacturers, and — for the first time in more than ten… More:  Volkswagen, Hyundai, Ford Ace Total Value Survey; Detroit Posts Gains

There are looks of pride, shame, excitement and contentment, but some looks defy categorization. They are so packed with emotion that they speak one thousand volumes without a single word spoken. Such facial expressions are often found in cliche places: weddings, lottery winning photos, sky diving videos and the like. But there is one place I’ve regularly observed such faces that doesn’t require vows, parachutes or lucky numbers: the interior of a sports car. I recall an article written by one of my favorite authors, Peter Egan, pertaining to the topic at hand. He spoke of his first encounter with a Ferrari. The tale is full of emotion and much better recounted in his original words, but I’ll do my best to paraphrase it to the best of my recollection – I read this article sometime in the mid 1990s. Peter was very young and his obsession with sports cars was still formative – though not new. The sports car that stole his heart was the commensurate Ferrari that consistently comes to mind: a rosso red stallion, screaming to life on all 12 cylinders – just as Enzo intended. Although Peter went on to drive plenty of Ferraris later in life, the article he wrote spoke of a different, more meaningful encounter. This first magical experience was not enjoyed from the driver’s seat but rather from the passenger’s. A well-to-do Ferrari owner offered Peter a ride around the block, knowing how much this would mean to a wobbly kneed youngster. Peter went on to describe the experience: the first time he heard an Italian V12 rip from behind his head – the sound conjoined with shocking acceleration. I can only imagine the look on his face. This first Ferrari encounter shaped the way the Peter looked at cars, and no doubt had a direct impact on his eventual career path. Were it not for the generosity of this Ferrari owner, perhaps we would have missed out on decades of quality automotive journalism from one of the best authors in the business. The moral of the story rings loud and clear: if you are so privileged as to own a fine automobile, the automotive Gods oblige you to share the experience. I’m not suggesting you toss some snot-nosed teenager the keys to your M5, but I am suggesting you invite him to join you for a...

It has been a year since I started writing for BMWBLOG so to commemorate the anniversary, I wanted to mark some milestones and even some mishaps I have witnessed during my time at a BMW dealership since I started in the mid 90s. When I started, the now venerable E34 5 Series was still in the showroom. It was considered to be the premier midsize sedan of its time, and today it has roughly the size of a new F30 3 Series.  The E34 was also slower, less efficient and costly. Yes, less than what a comparably equipped F30 328i costs today, roughly $41,000. But it handled incredibly well and had the tactile feel very few cars can match today. The E34 reached its full potential with a special edition 540 M Sport powered by a 4.0 liter V8 that today is still very sought after. Looking back at the E34 I find myself lusting after E34 M5s in the same way one would look at a hot cougar . No, not the car! There was also a peculiar car in the back of the showroom when I started, it was always locked and nobody ever test drove it. The sales manger at the time explained to me that it was a race car for the street and most people wouldn’t understand why anyone would want to drive a car like that. It was obviously an E36 M3, but it had a big wing, “M Checkered” stripes on the front and back and lacked a radio and climate control. It was also about $15,000 more than the newly announced E36 M3. Why would anyone want to pay more for a car with no radio or climate control that would be driven on the street? Well, that car is now extremely rare to find E36 M3 Lightweight. BMW built around 120 of those cars. The M3 lightweight came to market to battle with Porsche at club events and was campaigned by Tom Milner (co-developer of the M3 Lightweight) in IMSA racing. It was right there and then that I decided to sell my Porsche 944T and buy an E36 M3. So I did. It wasn’t a lightweight but it was a 1996 model with the new 3.2 liter I6, updated climate control and the new DSC traction control. And that M3 sealed my love for Roundel. The end of the 90s also saw the introduction of the E39 M5 and the launch of the BMW Performance Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Why are those two items particularly significant? Because with the purchase of a new E39 M5, BMW would send you to the...

Wander around racing chat rooms and you can find more bile being spilled regarding the DeltaWing entry at Le Mans than just about any racing car since Enzo Ferrari ridiculed the mid-engined Coopers in the late 1950s. When I first saw it, in the infield of qualifying at Indy in 2010, the first thing that ran through my mind was, “GM Firebird”. Its tall vertical stabilizer is a direct echo of the GM concept car. The DeltaWing is certainly radical looking. And radical and ridiculous aren’t that far away from each in the dictionary. When you view something as visually radical as the DeltaWing, the first thought is, “who would think of something like that?” The who, in the case of the DeltaWing, is Ben Bowlby, no stranger to race car development. He was the Chief Designer at Lola after all – and if you don’t know Lola . . . So why did someone steeped in current racing car technology come up with a design that one wag described as, “something an 8 year old boy drew in a bored moment during class”? Actually the question should be why hasn’t this been done before. There IS a good reason for this design. The DeltaWing was designed to fix the failure of current race car aero tech, and that’s the current tech’s inability to provide real ‘racing’, passing in and around the corners – not just ‘passing in the pits’. Aero grip was a development, along with modern tire technology, of experimentation in racing sports cars in the 1960s. One of the first to explore aero grip was Jim Hall of Chaparral fame. The huge rear wing on the Chaparral 2E (which was a moveable device – operated by a pedal in the cockpit) was the beginning. And there’s a direct line from the Chaparral 2E to the F1 cars in service now. The problem is that the aero grip generated by the front wings on cars washes out when a car comes up behind another. Without the aero grip, the car understeers like a pig and the trailing car loses ground to the car ahead of it. That’s the problem that Ben Bowlby was trying to solve with the DeltaWing. The DeltaWing has much less frontal area than other racing cars, and doesn’t rely on the nose for any aero grip. It can come right up behind another car and not get washed out. Which means...

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is the first and only van to be available with a seven-speed torque-converter automatic transmission Read the original: Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Undergoes Winter Testing

If you’re looking at compact family sedans for the first time, and didn’t expect to find a Chevrolet or a Hyundai among TheCarConnection’s top choices, you’re in for a surprise. Both the new Chevy Cruze and Hyundai Elantra are among our top-rated vehicles in the class, and one of them has a major award in its win column. From our road tests, it’s… View original here: Chevy Cruze Vs. Hyundai Elantra: Compare Cars

The Porsche Boxster really didn’t need a wholesale redesign. Since its introduction in 1997, Porsche tweaked, fiddled with, and upgraded the roadster nearly every year, keeping it feeling modern and fully competitive. Even in the outgoing generation’s final two model years, it remained the benchmark for its class, winning our Best-Handling-Cars Under $100K competition and taking home another couple of 10Best trophies . Despite the outgoing car’s inarguable excellence, the 2013 Boxster rides on a new platform. Keep Reading: 2013 Porsche Boxster S – First Drive Review Read more: 2013 Porsche Boxster S First Drive: More Power and More Ability Original post:  2013 Porsche Boxster S First Drive: More Power and More Ability

  While major auto brands such as Lamborghini, Audi and Hyundai drew the initial enthusiasm expected for the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, the acclaim of this Swiss exhibition also attracts the likes of smaller European firms. It is from these smaller companies some of the most imaginative expressions of design and technological creativity radiates through the automotive show. Whether being a small sports car manufacturer or an automotive component supplier, the temptation to leave a lasting influence on the Geneva exhibition leaves open the opportunity to eventually rival or work in concert with the better exhibitors at the auto show. A United Kingdom business already known in the automobile industry for supplying electric drive solutions, Zytek Automotive arrived at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show with a unique presentation. Pairing one of their 70-kilowatt energy motors with a lightweight Morgan Plus Series sports car, Zytek cooperated with the development of a concept vehicle. Working alongside the Morgan Motor Company and aluminum component manufacturer Radshape, Zytek explored how the zero-emissions power of an electric motor can merge with the driving experience of a timeless roadster. Creating the Morgan Plus E, the most innovative part of this development concept (other than being based on a classically designed British sports car) is the inclusion of a manual transmission. Typically, full electric cars will not require the need for a transmission based on the fact their motors generate maximum torque at zero RPMs. The Morgan Plus E contends that an all-electric powertrain involving a five-speed manual transmission could have some usable performance advantages.     Zytek Automotive managing director Neil Heslington said, “A multi-speed transmission allows the motor to spend more time operating in its sweet spot, where it uses energy more efficiently, particularly at high road speeds,”. The five-speed manual transmission on the Morgan Plus E is also said to provide stellar acceleration over similar single-speed electric vehicles. Functioning just like a conventional manual-shifting gearbox with the driver engaging a clutch at speed, the Morgan Plus E does not need application of the clutch when starting from a stop or slowing. Zytek also...

It’s hard to watch more than a few episodes of CSI or Cold Case and not wonder why anyone bothers committing crimes in the first place. We leave little details and traces all over. Humans are remarkably sloppy creatures. More » See more here: COTD: Forensic Evidence Edition [Commenter Of The Day] Go here to see the original: COTD: Forensic Evidence Edition [Commenter Of The Day]