WORLD - ALL

This coppery-orange number turned out to be just the right ride when I picked up our freshman from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies for a weekend at home. It drew industrial design students to the entrance of his building like feral cats to an open can of fresh tuna, and they started walking around it and pointing at elements like it was a freaking concept car visiting their studio.

Traditionally aftermarket tuners wait until the car is already on the market before they start planning how they’re going to tweak it, but Italy’s premier BMW tuning house Racing Dynamics is apparently staying ahead of the curve by releasing details of their intended mods for what they believe will be the new BMW M10 supercar.

The Racing Dynamics RS55 Coupe is set to feature a 655-hp V10, which the tuner expects to push the car past a top speed of 215 mph. (They released the picture above together with the ambitious stats.)

We’re not sure how they can predict what speed a modified version of a car that doesn’t yet exist might be able to reach, but we’re looking forward to finding out! Racing Dynamics expects the car to hit the market in 2009.

Article source: http://autoblog.blogsome.com

BMW 330i German Engineering At Its Best

The first (and, as it turns out, only) new car I ever bought was a 1970 BMW 2002. It was a wonderfully simple little car that was probably more fun to drive than any other little sedan on the road - fast, agile and just a tad quirky. It was the precursor of the fabulous 3-Series that would come to define and lead the small sport sedan segment.

This week’s ride is the blazingly fast, eminently sophisticated BMW 330i, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive sport sedan. I was supposed to be evaluating a Kia Rio this week but it was needed elsewhere so the 330i was a fill-in. Neither I, nor my pretty blonde was disappointed. She had her heart set on buying a 3-Series BMW a few years ago when an opportunity popped up to buy a little SLK. She opted for the latter but is still enamored with the Bimmer. She’s planning on getting her lusty paws on this one.

The 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution (Evo) Special Edition represents the final round of updates to the Evolution IX bodystyle. With its price set at $33,249, this new trim grade includes the aluminum roof shared with the Evo RS and MR, a new front lip extension, lightweight 17 and Prime, BBS wheels finished in a “Diamond Black” look, red-stitched Recaros, and HID headlamps.