2008 BMW M3

This is it. The car the BMW faithful have been waiting for. The 4.0-liter V-8 up front barks as the tach needle zings around the dial -- 6000, 7000, 8000 rpm. I grab fourth just before the 8400 rpm redline -- no, that's not a typo -- and turn into the fast right-hander.

The nose pushes gently. Feather the gas momentarily to get the bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport tires up front to bite, then back on the go pedal. Hard. The rear end starts to drift, but that's okay -- your backside feels hardwired into this thing, and you know within a quarter inch how far it's going to step out. Sliding... sliding... There! The tail brushes past the cones on the outside of the track before the red coupe straightens up for the short chute into a tight right hairpin.
Mash the brakes. The track-spec pads -- available over the parts counter at your friendly BMW dealer -- grab the massive vented and cross-drilled rotors front and rear. There's some momentary chatter from the ABS, but it stops like a cat on Velcro as you grab second gear. Then it's off the brakes as I dive for the apex, getting on the gas early to bring the tail around. The stability control -- in track mode -- wags an electronic finger, but gets the car straight and aimed at the next turn in point with minimal loss of momentum.

It's quick and precise; beautifully balanced and brilliantly responsive; deeply confident and inspiringly competent when you ask it the big questions. Yep, the new BMW M3 is everything the BMW faithful have been waiting for -- and then some. But ironically, it's the "then some" bit that might have a few of those faithful scratching their heads.
You see, at first acquaintance the new M3 appears to have -- whisper it, now -- gone soft. It feels remarkably refined as it loafs along the freeway in sixth gear, even with the optional 19-inch wheel/tire combo fitted to our tester. And although that screaming V-8 develops more than 100 horsepower per liter, it's a pussycat around town, pulling cleanly from as little as 1500 rpm. The four-cylinder E30 that founded the M3 dynasty 22 years ago was as rowdy and rambunctious as a punk rocker in a ripped T-shirt; by comparison this fourth generation version is as smooth and suave as a banker in a Brioni suit and $1000 wingtips.
credit by Angus MacKenzie

BMW 2002 High-Performance Lighting

BMW 2002 High-Performance Lighting
Most articles on special lighting gear appearing in BMWCCA publications deal with creating a rolling blowtorch. Such systems are costly, vulnerable and impractical 90% of the time. The most effective improvement in night vision is the conversion from sealed-beam to quartz-iodine headlight units.
In standard sealed-beam lights, a tungsten steel filament is vacuum-sealed in a molded glass reflector/lens combination. The reflector portion is surface silvered prior to installation of the filament. The vacuum seal reduces internal heat, extending filament life and preventing the shell from cracking or melting. As the filament burns, it sheds small, heat-blackened particles. These particles have a positive electrostatic charge and are immediately drawn to the negatively-charged reflector (and, to a lesser extent, the lens). Headlight efficiency progressively drops and the filament wears thin. By the time the filament quits from malnutrition, the darkened reflector and lens have robbed the unit of 70% of its initial output.
The quartz lamp has. neither quartz filament, lens nor reflector. The tiny envelope surrounding the stainless alloy filament is made of optical-grade quartz. Because the melting point of quartz is many times that of glass, and because the high-strength filament can produce far more heat (and, therefore, brightness) than the tungsten filament, total light output can be dramatically increased.
The quartz bulb (itself a sealed beam) is filled with an iodide gas. The iodide ionizes the particles cast off from the filament and reverses polarity from positive to negative. These particles are therefore repelled by the reflector and attracted back to the filament, where they continue to burn. The end result is a life expectancy approximately three times that of a sealed beam. In that time, the quartz lamp unit will lose but 5%-10% of its original brilliance. Bromine and halogen gases are sometimes used rather than iodine, but iodine has proven to be reliable, relatively low in cost and capable of providing long filament life.
Better construction comes with the superior luminance and durability of the quartz unit. Accurately-formed metal reflectors have super-brilliant reflective surfaces. Bulbs are located with high accuracy and held in place by elaborate tensioning devices. Lenses are molded of lead crystal that which costs a king’s ransom as stemware and fluted with exceptional precision.
The lens designer working with quartz lighting has more freedom than one restricted to tungsten lights. To obtain maximum efficiency from the low relative output of a sealed beam, the light must be concentrated in a narrow block pattern and aimed directly at the road but a short distance in front of the car. The result is excellent brightness in those two blobs of light. Precious little light is cast ahead and to the side, however. The quartz headlight has been designed to provide a wide sweep with extra right-side intensity and a center-to-upper-right sweep. The effect of immediate road-surface illumination is not as noticeable, but side vision is improved drastically and quartz headlights reflect back what is on the road, not the asphalt itself.

Seven-inch options

Plug-in a single-bulb light employing dual filaments through a single reflector. They are commonly called H4 because of use of the H4 quartz lamp configuration. Wire-in: a twin-bulb package employing separate reflectors for the H1 (low beam) and H3 (high beam) lamp designs. The only available twin-bulb unit at this time is the Marchal “Amplilux.” Bosch has a light employing two H1 bulbs, but it is presently available only in Porsche recessed mounting buckets. Robert Bosch Corporation has not said whether this light will become available for other applications.
Cutaway drawings of the H4 and Amplilux lights are shown in Figures 1a and 1b, respectively. Both could be called “The Paradox,” for operation is the reverse of what would be anticipated. The low beam is actuated by the upper filament (or bulb in the Amplilux) and employs the upper portion of the reflector. Conversely, high beam uses the lower filament (or bulb) and exits from the lower portion.
In both the H4 and Amplilux, a series of shields are employed to precisely control the shape of the beam. These baffles vary in design and placement according to the theories of different manufacturers.
Another paradox is that the horizontal spread of the light is controlled by vertical fluting. This employs the technique of refraction the bending of light rays as they pass through media of different density.
The high beams in both H4 and Amplilux units are unencumbered by the shields. The H4 emits light from the entire reflector area. The Amplilux concentrates its high beam through the secondary reflector and a non-dispersant, clear lens. When the high beam is selected, the filament or bulb for the low beam is extinguished. This is a disadvantage in the Amplilux, as the spread beam is eliminated for the narrow beam piercing the blackness. The Amplilux only may be wired to maintain low beam operation when the high beam is selected. This will be explained further on.
credit by Nelson Barnes

Why not M1?

Why not M1?
The M1 name is reserved for the original M-car, the Giugiaro-bodied result of a joint effort between BMW and Lamborghini to develop a production race car and build enough of them for homologation. The mid-engine car is powered by an advanced for its time, 277-horsepower, 3.5-liter twin-cam inline-six. Only 456 cars were made. Because of the car's special place in BMW's history, the M1 designation is not seen as a viable name for an ultimate 1 Series.
By Kirill Ougarov

BMW Concept 1 Series tii

BMW Concept 1 Series tii: Performance preview or appearance package?
As soon as the 1 Series was announced, the question everyone began to ask was, "When is the M model coming?" But the 1 Series may never wear an M badge. Many a Bimmerphile would consider it sacrilege to name it M1 -- the legendary mid-engine homologation racer of the late '70s. So BMW went back a few more years into its history to help name the BMW Concept 1 Series tii.

Unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo motor show, Concept 1 Series tii bears the same designation as the performance variant of the now venerable BMW 2002, which roamed the streets in the early 1970s. The car is a glimpse into the future of what a production performance 1 Series model may be like -- at least on the surface.
The emphasis of the tii concept is on agility. Weight savings are numerous - the hood, mirror caps, airdam covers, trunklid spoiler, and rear bumper inlay are all of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic. All four brake calipers are painted blue, as is one bolt on each of the four wheels and the tow hook. A racing stripe runs the length of the entire car, starting off white on the black carbon-fiber hood and then turning black on the white roof and trunklid. A tii decal is on both bumpers, with the front decal being mirror imaged. The anti-glare strip at the top of the windshield also sports a tii logo.

The interior boasts copious amounts of Alcantara, which covers the steering wheel, most of the upper dashboard, shift knob, and part of the door panels. The sport bucket seats are wrapped in leather with Alcantara upholstered insets. The sport-style rear seats are upholstered in a similar material mix. The stitching in the leather of the front seats is blue, as is the driver's seatbelt and the base of the shift knob.
A nifty touch is the mixed color gauge faces. The speedometer is primarily black and the tachometer white, which gives the tach the advantage of instantly grabbing the eye -- handy on the track where engine rpms are far more important than the indicated speed and fractions of a second.
Conspicuously absent, however, are changes to the business end of things, making the Concept tii little more than a club-racer trim package of sorts for the 135 rather than a true performance model. If the concept comes to production life, it's hoped BMW will spice up the production model with stiffer springs and maybe more boost to the 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged unit, rather than with just a carbon-fiber body kit and an Alcantara dashboard.
Credit By Kirill Ougarov