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BMW 328 Hommage (2011) revealed at Villa d'Este

This is the BMW 328 Hommage, a concept car which made its debut at the 2011 Villa d'Este Concours. The BMW 328 Hommage has been created to celebrate the 75th anniversary of BMW's 328 sports car, which was one of the featured classic cars at the Villa d'Este Concours.  BMW 328 Hommage: Where have I seen that shape before? I assume you're talking about the general shape of the car, rather than the buck-toothed rabbit look of the front-end graphic. While the BMW 328 Hommage is festooned with modern reinterpretations of such classic 328 competition car hallmarks as leather bonnet straps, bodyside recesses in lieu of doors, aero screens, and 'pepper-pot' alloy wheels, the overall shape has more in common with BMW's 2011 Geneva show car, the Vision Connected Drive.  The 328 Hommage is a far less direct descendant of the original BMW 328 than the M1 Hommage was to the original M1, or the 2006 BMW Mille Miglia Concept was to the original 328 Mille Miglia coupe.  BMW 328 Hommage: High-tech meets olde-worlde BMW is using the 328 Hommage as the latest demonstration of its research into carbonfibre construction.

BMW 1-series M Coupe (2011) teaser video

BMW is continuing to build up the hype ahead of the launch of its next M car – this is a teaser video giving us our first glimpse of the undisguised BMW 1-series M Coupe What’s new is our first look at this hot 1-series’ butch bodykit, complete with an engorged front bumper and triple air intakes. There are CSL-alike 19-inch wheels too, and sitting between the cross-drilled front discs is a twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six, producing 335bhp and 369lb ft. Drive, thankfully, goes to just the rear wheels, and they’ll be a choice of either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. There’ll be an M diff too, but we hear it might be on the options list as BMW’s money men fight to keep the list price under £40k.   

VW to intro Passat BlueMotion Concept at Detroit auto show

While performance heads are anxiously awaiting the North American debut of the hot-heat Mk VII Golf R at the Detroit auto show, Volkswagen's Passat BlueMotion Concept offers never-before technology in the Yank/Canuck family sedan segment: a four-pot motor with cylinder deactivation. Based on the EA211 1.4L turbo motor we sampled last year in the Euro-market Audi A3 sedan, the Passat BlueMotion Concept's engine is capable of shutting down the middle two cylinders during cruise, and features the Jetta Hybrid's gearbox, a twin-clutch unit capable of decoupling from the engine during off-throttle coasting. In the Passat's application, the 1.4 puts out 150 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque; VW suggests its highway fuel economy will stand at 42 mpg.