What would you do with your money if you were super-rich and didn’t care about what others think? Would you hide it away from the world or would you flaunt it about with an expensive and in-your-face car? Could you accept the gazes you get in the street while driving a huge piece of automotive overkill?
After showing us the brand new Safety Car for the 2014 MotoGP season in online photos, this weekend BMW officials brought the M4 Coupe out for live viewing and live photos at the first race of the season, the Qatar Grand Prix in Doha.
This marked the 16th season as “Official Car of MotoGP” for BMW and the continuos collaboration between the Germans and the MotoGP World Championship.
For this is a car that will run with the fastest bikes in the world, special changes were done to it, to better cope with its responsibility as Safety Car. Therefore, the M4 Coupe received a full body wrap with the traditional M stripes and stickers from the sponsors and a light bar on the roof.
Furthermore, a complete M Performance kit was added on the outside including a front bumper lip, new side skirts, new wheels, carbon fibre mirror covers, rear diffuser and blacked out kidney grilles.
Inside, all the seats have been removed and just a pair of Recaro racing seats was added up front, fitted with Schroth belts. To make sure the sound will match the look, the stock exhaust was replaced by an Akrapovic titanium one that sounds more than enticing.
Apart from the M4 Coupe, the competition will also get an M3 Sedan Safety Car from BMW alongside an M5 and two M550d xDrive Touring cars as medical units.
“BMW M is proud to be part of the MotoGP success story for the 16th season running. We are delighted that the BMW M4 Coupé experienced its baptism of fire as a safety car out on the racetrack,” said Thomas Schemera, Director of Sales and Marketing BMW M GmbH.
“Four generations of the BMW M3 have combined motorsport genes and unlimited suitability for daily use into one highly emotional overall concept. The BMW M4 Coupé is a natural progression of these fundamental ideas. We are certain that this model will set new standards with regard to the overall concept, precision and agility,” he added.
The goldRush Rally is an annual rally that has been held in America for the last 5 years. This year marks the 6th Anniversary of the goldRush Rally and the lineup of cars for this years rally is pretty spectacular. The list for this years cars is only partial at the moment but even so it is a truly astonishing collection of cars. The cars participating in this years rally include:
- Two Bugatti Veyron’s, the PUR BLANC and a Vitesse
- Porsche Carrera GT
- Ford GT
- Lamborghini Miura
- Lamborghini Murcielago SV
- Lamborghini Aventador Roadster
- Two Lamborghini Aventador’s
- Lamborghini Aventador Batventador
- Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2
- Lamborghini Gallardo
- Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder
- Ferrari F12
- Two Ferrari 599′s
- Two Ferrari 458′s
- Ferrari 430
- Twin-Turbo Ferrari 430
- Two Rolls Royce Phantom’s
- Two Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe’s
- Two Rolls Royce Ghost’s
- Four McLaren MP4-12C’s
- Three Audi R8′s
- Audi R8 Spyder
- Two Audi S8′s
- BMW M6
- BMW 750 M
- BMW X6M
- BMW M5
- Nissan GTR Track Edition
- Four Nissan GTR’s
- Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG
- Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Brabus
- Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG
- Jaguar XKR
- Two Sport Chassis’s
- Two Chevrolet Corvette Stingray’s
- Two Chevrolet Corvette Z06′s
- And an unspecified Bentley
That is a rather spectacular lineup, we can’t wait to see the final list and to see all the cars during this years goldRush Rally.
A huge thanks to Raw and Aimee at goldRush for this list and be sure to check out their Facebook page for more info and awesome pictures: //www.facebook.com/goldRushRally?fref=ts
Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon C 220 CDI BlueTEC AMG Line Auto
What is it?
Mercedes’ new fourth generation C-Class, the car that the men in Stuttgart hope will woo business car drivers out of their 3-Series BMWs, Audi A4s and Jaguar XFs.
This new Mercedes C-Class is the latest in a line of models that stretches back 32 years, when the Mercedes 190 was the first ‘baby Benz’, renamed C-Class when its successor was introduced.
So what’s new about this one?
Well for a start it looks much more stylish, with sculpted body lines that give it a sleek, sportier look.
Design cues have been taken from the S-Class. It’s also bigger, which helps
It has also taken a distinct turn up-market to emulate a baby S-Class, with lots of the technology and safety features percolated down. For example, collision prevention assistance that applies the brakes if you fail to react in time to a looming hazard.
The fancy wheels aren’t just for show. The new C-Class is a much better drive
In terms of comfort, the cabin has leaped forward in both quality and design. The new C-Class interior has a posh ambiance that will make the other German manufacturers pay attention.
Mercedes has stretched the C-Class a little – it’s now 4686 mm in length – but also trimmed down its weight. The result is a car that is slightly longer but around 70kg lighter.
This has been achieved with a body structure that is half steel, half aluminium, Fuel consumption is improved and CO2 emissions have been cut.
OK, but what’s it like to drive?
Watch out BMW, Merc is playing catch-up. Compared with the previous C-Class, this new one is noticeably better to drive, with taut behaviour and handling that is now close to the benchmark set by the class-leading 3-Series.
The electro-mechanical steering has a good feel and the Airmatic air suspension that will be on most versions has a cushioning ride quality. Refinement is generally very good too, although the 2.2 litre diesel engine gets a bit gruff when you work it hard.
The post Mercedes C-Class car review – sleek, sporty, and looking to pull a 3 Series driver appeared first on Business Car Manager.
Volvo’s reputation for boring, boxy cars is well and truly a thing of the past.
Volvo’s little brown shooting brake may sprout into a full-blown luxury wagon. A rendering provided by Germany’s Auto Bild shows what the Concept Estate would look like with two more doors and a roof rack.
Auto Bild says this new model will be designated V90, a short-lived moniker that adorned Volvo’s top wagon in the 1997 and 1998 model years. The magazine says the V90, supposedly built off the next XC90 chassis, will debut in 2015 as the successor to the V70, the Volvo wagon without “XC” body cladding and off-road pretensions sold elsewhere in Europe. Likely, the Concept Estate won’t be sold as-is, which is a shame but understandable given Volvo’s quest for bigger sales.
As Volvo has previously announced, all future models will see four cylinders and potential hybrid power. Auto Bild also mentioned the possibility of a subcompact V20 wagon to compete with the Audi A1 and Mini Countryman. Now that Volvo is letting Americans play with the V60 and the 350-hp V60 Polestar, adding more station wagons might not be the long shot it once seemed one or two years ago.
This car looks good from every angle, and with it’s rally warpaint, it really looks the part.
Rotek Racing officially unveiled its striking Oakley Motorsports-liveried Audi S3 saloon during the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s official Media Day at the historic Donington Park circuit on Tuesday (18 March).
Oakley Motorsports and Rotek Racing gave power to the people by inviting the BTCC’s army of fans to select its 2014 livery from 12 artist’s impressions.
Thousands of enthusiasts flocked to the Rotek Racing and BTCC Facebook pages to choose their favourite colour scheme and the winning Oakley Motorsports design has gone from the drawing board to reality, officially unveiled to the assembled media, VIPs and fans in the Donington Park pit lane on Tuesday (18 March).
The BTCC – Britain’s premier motor racing championship – is experiencing something of a renaissance. For more than half a century it has inspired great motor sporting feats and captivated millions of fans and it continues to soar in popularity, providing spectators with bumper-to-bumper on-track action and unparalleled access to its star drivers and cars.
Each year the championship embarks on a tour of the UK’s greatest motorsport venues, including Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Silverstone, and attracts large trackside crowds of around 40,000 spectators, with a TV audience of approximately 20million tuning in to ITV Sport’s comprehensive live coverage.
Rotek Racing, an Audi Customer Racing team, is led by tin-top star Robb Holland – the first American to contest rounds of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) whose one-off outings in the Dunlop-backed BTCC have heralded a full campaign in 2014.
Holland is now the first American to enter the BTCC full-time and is determined to reach the front in the ultra-competitive championship.
Fusing his larger than life character and approach to racing with prestigious backing from the motorsport division of American brand, Oakley, and a fine and meticulous attention to detail, Holland also aims to make Rotek Racing the most visual, interactive and fan-friendly team on the grid.
“The hard work has been put in by my guys at Rotek Racing and it has been tough watching them work through until the early hours of the morning to ready the car for Media Day,” said Holland. “Nobody was willing to cut any corners and we wanted to make sure that absolutely everything was done right. To see the Audi S3 out here at Donington Park is pretty spectacular.
“You’re always going to be proud of what your guys produce, but to have received so much positive feedback on the car is just fantastic and a testament to all the hard work and the hours put in by the team. I also have to give credit to the fans because they chose spectacularly well and I really do believe that Rotek Racing will have one of the most striking liveries on the grid this year!”
Holland continued: “The 2014 season will definitely be a learning year, as trying to build a new car and develop it with very little testing is a tall order for even the most experienced of teams and there are still quite a few circuits for me to acclimatise to.
“However, I think the Audi S3 saloon will be a good fit, as it’s the first of the new generation S3s to race anywhere in the world. I’m also really glad to have the support of Oakley Motorsports. The BTCC is the perfect high visibility platform to launch its line of motorsports gear here in the UK and across Europe.”
For more on Rotek Racing, visit the official www.rotekracing.com website, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page or follow @rotekracing on Twitter.
The post Rotek Racing Unveils Striking Audi S3 BTCC Contender appeared first on Fourtitude.com.
