BMW is working on its own compact, more affordable four-door coupe to rival the likes of the Audi A5 Sportback and the upcoming Mercedes-Benz CLA.

The 4 Series Gran Coupe is set to debut sometime next year and will go on sale before the end of 2013. The 4 Series Gran Coupe will follow in the footsteps of the recently released 6 Series Gran Coupe, sporting four doors and a slightly longer wheelbase than its two-door counterpart. It’s not exactly classified as a sedan however – that’s reserved for the 3 Series moniker – as the 4 Series Gran Coupe will sport a nice, sweeping roofline.

Chances are the front end will resemble that we see now on the newly-designed 3 Series but with larger air intakes. Under the hood, the 4 Series Gran Coupe will be equipped with the same engine variants offered in the coupe and convertible models: a 428i with a 2.0-liter turbo-four and a 435i with 302-hp. Out in Europe, a 420d diesel is offered boasting 65-mpg.

BMW will also ultimately release an M4 Gran Coupe model, powered by the rumored inline-six, turbocharged engine that will pump out around 450-hp.

[Source: Auto Express]

Porsche has announced that it will be relocating its Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) subsidiary to the new Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles once it’s completed in fall of 2013.

The German automaker is currently working on building the new 53-acre Experience Center out in Carson, California and will feature a world-class test track and handling course, a leading sports science laboratory, a Porsche Cafe, and gift shop. Additional dining facilities will also be available for those upscale business meetings and events that could benefit with some track side views.

Porsche Motorsport North America will be relocating to the new Experience Center where they will continue to sell and service the North American customers sports programs. PMNA supplies a wide range of products from 911 Cup cars to the ultimate 911 RSR to race teams all across America.

“This not only makes sound business sense, but is symbolic as well,” said Detlev von Platen, PCNA’s President and CEO. “Aside from offering a modern, purpose built working environment, the motorsport specific operations will provide additional energy and dynamics to a facility that is all about performance both on the vehicle and human side. Thus our new Experience Center will perfectly symbolize the core of the Porsche brand, which has always been a successful blend of a passion for racing and for spirited yet responsible driving on open roads,” he added.

BMW has anointed its newest Head of Design, Karim Habib, who will effectively take the position starting June 1st, 2012.

Habib is credited with styling the exteriors of the current BMW 7-Series, a vast improvement over the previous generation’s styling designed by Chris Bangle. Even though the E65 7-Series was fairly popular in terms of sales, it’s undoubtedly ingrained in many minds for its ‘Bangle Butt’, the oddly shaped two-level rear end. Ironically enough, the ‘Bangle Butt’ was actually designed by Adrian van Hooydonk, who worked closely with Bangle on the previous generation 7-Series.

Regardless, the German automaker is looking forward to ushering in a new era of design with Habib at the helm. He is a 42-year old Lebanese-born Canadian who has been in charge of exterior design on BMW Automobiles up to this point. Habib will report to the previously mentioned Hooydonk, who is Senior Vice President of BMW Group Design.

Habib joined the BMW Group back in 1998 and worked with the automaker for ten years. In 2008, Habib jumped over to BMW rival Mercedes-Benz for a two-year stint before returning to Munich in 2010.

“Karim Habib is an outstanding designer who has had a significant impact on the design of the BMW brand over many years,” said Hooydonk. “His longstanding experience and subtle instinct for timely elegance and dynamics are the ideal prerequisites for this demanding task. I look forward very much to his support and collaboration,” he added.

Back in January, Ford unveiled its 2013 NASCAR Fusion entry, closely resembling the upcoming model with styling borrowed heavily from Aston Martin.

Now Ford Racing will show off the first version of its new race car with a full, race-ready paint scheme at the upcoming annual Roush Fenway Fan Day out in Concord, North Carolina. The vehicle on display will be the 2013 Motorcraft Ford Fusion of the Wood Brothers which will head to the Ford consumer display at Charlotte Motor Speedway and will become a regular part of a traveling exhibit through the remainder of the 2012 season.

The vehicle pictured above, as realistic as it looks, is actually a full-size clay model produced by the Ford Design Center out in Michigan.

GALLERY: 2013 Wood Brothers NASCAR Ford Fusion

[Source: Autoweek]

True automotive enthusiasts might find a “How It’s Made – Rally Cars” a little comical, especially with the use of laymen terms to explain the process in building a formidable rally car.

But it’s nice to see a mainstream show on the Discovery and Science Channel spotlighting the form of motorsport, as they try to depict the hard work put into converting a standard Ford Fiesta into a 300-hp rally competitor, or as they say “a compact vehicle that has had a radical makeover.”

The video is clearly made for the general public, lightly touching on the process of stripping a car and building it to the regulations and standards for rally racing. It does do a nice job with an overview of the process, from tearing the car down, lightening the weight, to building the motor and bolting on a turbocharger. Our favorite tidbit is its focus on the graphics that make the car look “fierce.”

Watch a five minute segment from How It’s Made – Rally Cars after the break.

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Earlier in the month, Nissan kicked off its crowdsourced 370Z project by bolting-on a turbo kit, exhaust, coilovers and big brake upgrade. Now phase two has been completed, as the team continues to build the “ultimate track car.”

The second phase commenced with the 370Z hitting the dyno to get some tuning done to maximize performance while staying reliable. The team then swapped in a new steering wheel, shift knob, installed a trio of AEM gauges, reupholstered the door panels, and bolted-in a pair of custom Recaro seats.

A staggered set of 19-inch Volk Racing TE37SL wheels  also won a 59 percent vote from Facebook fans. Lastly, the video gives a quick glimpse of the vehicle getting wrapped with Metalloy material as a finishing touch.

The finished project is set to be unveiled on May 18 at ZDayZ up at Fontana Village Resort in North Carolina.

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Similar to the NASCAR Dodge Charger and Ford Fusion that were revealed earlier this year, Toyota’s newest entry to NASCAR looks to more closely resemble its production model.

The 2013 Toyota Camry was introduced looking much like its production counterpart and will compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starting next season. TRD worked closely with Calty Design, which is part of the Japanese automaker’s global network design team, to help create the race car that incorporates elements of America’s best-selling car.

This is all part of a bigger goal for NASCAR and the four competing automakers to help put the ‘S’ back in NASCAR – stock. One of the major changes from NASCAR is allowing the automakers to exchange glass for solid body pieces.

“When everyone at Toyota first saw the design of the 2013 Camry, the first reaction was, ‘They’re actually going to let you race a car that looks like that’,” said Andy Graves, TRD’s vice president of chassis engineering. “That just demonstrates how excited everyone was about the new design of the Camry stock car.”

As much as it might look a lot like a street Camry, this isn’t. As is the case with stock cars, it features a tube frame chassis, V8 and rear-wheel drive. A grocery-getter this isn’t.

GALLERY: 2013 NASCAR Toyota Camry

The Cadillac XTS is the American luxury automaker’s new flagship sedan, and priced at $44,995 it’s poised to do a fine job competing against the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Audi A6, Lexus GS, BMW 5-Series, and Infiniti M37.

Available in three trim levels, Luxury, Premium, and Platinum, the XTS will also feature Cadillac’s new CUE infotainment system and the American automaker’s new “directional tactile sensation” system, which is a fancy way naming a seat that vibrates to alert the driver of any eminent danger.

The XTS should be hitting dealerships any day now and to stir up some excitement, Cadillac has released dozens of photos of its flagship sedan, giving us a look at it from all different angles. Those interested in buying one up will have access to a 3.6-liter V6 powerplant with 300 hp mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. Front-wheel drive is standard while all-wheel drive is available as an option.

The front-wheel drive XTS has an estimated fuel economy of 17 mpg city and 28 mpg highway while the all-wheel drive will see just a slight decrease at 27 mpg highway, with city economy remaining the same.

GALLERY: 2013 Cadillac XTS

After almost six years since Ford put up everything it had as collateral to the banks, the coveted ‘Blue Oval’ is back where it belongs.

In December 2006, the American automaker was forced to raise $23.5 billion in liquidity, $18.5 billion of it which came from leveraging all of its domestics assets, including the F-150 and Mustang trademarks as well as even the brand’s Blue Oval logo.

It took Ford until September 2011 to completely pay back the loan, and in March 2012, Ford issued out its first dividend payment in almost six years. As a result of the turn-around, all the assets that Ford had put up as collateral are now free and Ford is once again whole.

“The Ford Blue Oval is back where it belongs with the Ford family of 166,000 employees around the world. This is a great day for us and is the result of several years of hard work and progress by everyone associated with Ford,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Company.

“We are so proud of today’s decision by Moody’s and the resulting release of all collateral – particularly the Ford Blue Oval. This is an important milestone and further proof that, by staying laser-focused on our One Ford plan, the Ford team can deliver great products, build a strong business and contribute to a better world even through the most challenging external environment,” added Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer of Ford.

A few weeks ago, a trailer for Audi‘s Truth in 24 II: Every Second Counts documentary was unleashed onto the Internet packed with plenty of high-speed action at arguably the world’s most famous race. Now you can grab your favorite Apple device and download the film for free on iTunes.

The documentary debuted nationwide on May 5th on SPEED TV and gave racing fans an inside look into the world of racing from Audi’s point-of-view at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The full copy can be downloaded for free exclusively at the iTunes Store and will work on your Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, or Apple TV. And it is of course in full high-definition. Those that missed the first Truth in 24 can also grab it on iTunes for free.

Narrated by Jason Statham, this film undoubtedly packs the most entertainment and drama one could expect at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 2011 was the year Audi saw tragedy struck twice for the team leaving the lone number-2 R18 TDI to fend off a trio of Peugeots as it went on to claim the victory.

This year, at the Cannes International Film Festival in France, the 65th Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) will be awarded. Mercedes-Benz decided to pay tribute to the celebration of the coveted award by providing a fleet of shuttle limos and SUVs completely wrapped in bright, flashy gold.

As you can tell by the photo, the German automaker is providing stretched S-Class models, CLS-Class models, E-Class models, and ML-Class models. Some of those are AMG variants ensuring stars and guests of this year’s film festival can travel in style. AMG is also offering daily test drives throughout the festival dates (May 16 – May 27) so that visitors can test out the luxury brand’s current line up.

It’s pretty flashy to wrap a fleet of transportation cars in shiny gold finish, but when it comes to the Cannes International Film Festival – nothing is considered too outrageous. As it says on the side of one of its cars, “Star inside. Star outside.”

[Source: Carscoop]

If the GT 86 is any sign of Toyota‘s future, it most certainly will be a bright and successful one.

Recently president of Toyota’s CALTY Design Research unit, Kevin Hunter, said that the Japanese automaker’s focus for its future models will be unexpected designs. They plan on delivering a big message in years to come that Toyota can be more than just a conservative, mundane brand of automobiles.

Looking to differentiate itself from the competition, Toyota is looking to become a pioneer in the field of design, something that they haven’t really made a priority over the last few years. Most Toyota models were designed based on consumer preferences rather than ingenuity and innovation.

“In the past, let’s face it, we had boring design,” Hunter said. “We’re going to act more instinctively. We’ll continue listening to the customer, but we can’t do creative design only listening to the consumer. They don’t know what they want five years from now. We’re going to make some predictions.”

In the past, Toyota was well-known for performance-oriented vehicles such as its MR2 and Supra, but nowadays its popularity is synonymous with boring models such as the Prius and Camry. Much of its upcoming changes can be attributed to current CEO Akio Toyoda, who often times can be seen sporting a race suit rather than a business suit.

The design message will also spread to Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus, and its sub-brand Scion, targeted to younger consumers. Currently Hunter characterizes Toyota showrooms as a department store – lots of good, but mostly mainstream products. His hope is to transform the entire brand to be more like “select shops” with Scion and Lexus featuring a more boutique approach.

[Source: Wards Auto]