Auto News 5

Sure, it looks familiar. It should; this brilliant design exercise was done seven years ago, and traces of its lines and vestiges of its surfaces have turned up on numerous BMW concept and production models since. lines that were superb on the 2006 Mille Miglia concept car or that seemed not to make any sense in the grotesque (but very important) X Coupé were established by this concept, which BMW has finally made public.

As the phrase "tuned at the legendary Nürburgring" has found its way into ad copy for more and more performance cars, lap times at the Nürburgring Nordschleife racetrack have become the newest measure of performance, taking their place alongside top speed, quarter-mile, and 0-to-60-mph times. Most recently Chrysler, which had not done any development work at the track, took a 2009 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR to the 'Ring, seeking to beat the time set only a couple months before by the new Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. "One of the big driving factors for us going," said SRT engineer Mike Shinedling, "was that we got so many letters and e-mails from Viper owners." The result? The Viper ACR's time beat the ZR1's, and Viper owners everywhere have a new bar boast. There's no official sanctioning body for Nürburgring lap times, but figures for some recent production cars are listed to the right, as reported by their manufacturers.