Auto News 5

These are dire days for high-end, high-performance automobiles, so dire that BMW has red-flagged the M1 Homage (which wowed the crowd at Villa d'Este in 2008) and the Z9 two-seater (which was to be derived from the four-door CS show car from Shanghai in 2007), but development work on the mid-engine Z10 continues. The car is being engineered as a coupe and a roadster; both body styles are proper two-plus-twos with substantially more interior room than a Porsche 911. The target weight of the Z10 is in the vicinity of 3300 pounds. When the original supercar idea was outlined a few years ago, a twin-turbo V-8 was the engine of choice. But now that Efficient Dynamics is the name of the game at BMW, engineers are concentrating on a 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight six rated at 450 hp and 350 lb-ft of torque (basically an uprated version of the engine that powers the next M3) paired with an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic. Rumor has it that BMW is also toying with a twin-turbo V-6, which would be lighter and more compact, but those advantages are unlikely to offset shortcomings concerning prestige and heritage.

2009 BMW 750Li

It's a well-known fact that the automotive press has run out of superlatives for the BMW 3-series lineup. In the case of the M3, the ultimate 3-series, the praise is typically amplified. Well, not so much for the convertible M3. You see, the automotive press has a penchant for very odd vehicles the general buying public simply doesn't understand, so we tend to eschew the cars "normal" people want. As a member of the press, I'm required to beg BMW for an M3 wagon instead of this goofy M3 convertible. The truth is, neither model makes much sense.inline_mediumwraptextright24968248/reviews/editors_notebook/0908_2009_bmw_m3_convertible0908_01_z+2009_bMW_m3_convertible+front_three_quarter_view.jpgTrue

BMW has already announced two hybrid vehicles that will debut at the 2009 Frankfurt auto show, so the fact that its latest concept is also a hybrid shouldn't be terribly surprising. However, we didn't expect the Vision EfficientDynamics concept to be a turbo-diesel hybrid that uses a lithium-polymer battery pack and be capable of a 0-62 mph sprint in a mere 4.8 seconds. If the M division ever decided to build a hybrid the results couldn't be too different from what we see here.