Eideard

The BMW M550d xDrive

The engine in BMW’s new diesel M cars appears to be a ripsnorter – 3.0-litre six cylinder with three turbochargers, common-rail direct injection with piezo injectors, a very healthy maximum power output of 381 bhp…abundant torque 546 lb-ft, very economical, low emissions and instantaneous response…

The key to the incredible performance of the engine is inaptly named M Performance TwinPower Turbo technology. That’s because they found that two turbochargers worked so well together, that they have now employed three for the first time.

The system uses two smaller turbochargers and one large one, with the right diameter turbo being used at precisely the time when it is most efficient. Another reason why three turbos is better than two is that the low moment of inertia of the small turbochargers means they do not suffer from the lag of a larger single turbo.

The interplay between the strategy of the turbos are designed to guarantee maximum power delivery across a wide rev band. The system comprises two relatively small turbochargers and one large turbo, which join forces precisely to deliver the amount of power required…The performance of the six-cylinder in-line diesel is only half the equation though…

The BMW M550d xDrive Sedan with its lighter weight and lower frontal area, returns the best of the bunch with 36mpg US and CO2 emissions of 165 g/km…

These cars come with a significant boost in performance and hallmark M precision in the interplay of the powertrain, chassis and aerodynamics – coupled with unrestricted everyday utility and high levels of efficiency.

The new powerplant strikes the most effective balance between output and fuel consumption of any series- produced unit of its kind.

Every one of them is beyond my budget. But, the engineering and design is terrific.

Toyota’s compact Aquion Prius due here in the US in early 2012
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Automakers Toyota and BMW on Thursday struck a partnership to share eco-friendly technologies, including in the joint development of lithium-ion batteries for next-generation electric cars.

BMW X3 Crossover diesel

Under the deal, the German automaker will also provide diesel engines for Toyota as the Japanese auto giant looks to boost sales in Europe, where more than half of passenger cars are diesel powered. Toyota has struggled to boost its European market share with its gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, despite its leading position in the low-emission technology.

Meanwhile, the pair will share development costs for batteries for electric cars as part of plans to roll out battery-powered vehicles…

Their pact comes after Toyota struck a deal in August to develop hybrid-vehicle systems with US-based Ford, while BMW inked a deal with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen Group to jointly develop hybrid systems for subcompacts.

There is no denying that conversion to radical new energy sources for vehicle propulsion is expensive. Even if you’re an early leader like Toyota in hybrid tech.

Markets are funny things and sometimes consumers can only digest one change at a time.

Cellular-based automotive roadside assistance services like GM’s OnStar and BMW Assist allow remote unlocking of vehicles by communicating with remote servers via standard mobile networks. Now a pair of security systems engineers have managed to prove it takes just a few hours of clever reverse engineering to crack the in-car cellular network-based technology to gain access to vehicles. They call their method “War Texting.”

Don Bailey and Mathew Solnik of security company iSEC Partners set up an ad-hoc GSM network, which allowed them to communicate directly with the in-car system, posing as authorized servers. A proprietary protocol that is normally in use proved not be secure enough. All they eventually needed to do, was to send simple messages from a laptop to the car’s computer.

Bailey and Solnik will present their findings during the upcoming Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas in a briefing entitled “War Texting: Identifying and Interacting with Devices on the Telephone Network,” although they will skip the details regarding the attack, to allow manufacturers to fix vulnerable systems.

However, apparently not just car security technologies are defenseless against the “War Texting” hacking method, as cellular networks are also utilized by SCADA systems that monitor and control industrial infrastructure, or facility-based processes.

Isn’t it a little overdue to require manufacturers of systems like these to build-in security protocols to guarantee safety and security. I surely hope no one is counting on wireless providers to do it.

Jaziri at his family home in Tunisia after being deported from Canada
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents.

Said Jaziri, the former Imam of a Muslim congregation in Montreal, was hidden inside a car driven by a San Diego-area man who was pulled over by U.S. Border Patrol agents near an Indian casino east of San Diego. Jaziri allegedly paid a Tijuana-based smuggling group $5,000 to get him across the border near Tecate, saying he wanted to be taken to a “safe place anywhere in the U.S.”

The arrest marks the unexpected resurfacing of the 43-year-old cleric, whose protracted legal battle to avoid deportation drew headlines in Canada. A Tunisian immigrant, Jaziri was deported for failing to disclose a criminal conviction in France while applying for refugee status in the mid-1990s.

But Jaziri’s supporters said he was targeted for his fundamentalist views: Jaziri backed Sharia law for Canadian Muslims and led protests over the publication of the prophet Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper in 2006.

Jaziri is being held as a material witness in the criminal case against the BMW’s driver, Kenneth Robert Lawler, who has been charged with immigrant smuggling. He is at the San Luis Detention Facility near Yuma, Ariz., according to his attorney, Wayne Charles Mayer. His bond has been set at $25,000…

According to the court documents, a Mexican foot guide led Jaziri and a Mexican immigrant over the fence near Tecate and he trekked overnight through the rugged back country, to a road where drivers frequently pick up immigrants for smuggling runs into San Diego.

Border Patrol agents, alerted by fire fighters who saw the immigrants get in the trunk, pulled the car over near the Golden Acorn Casino, about 50 miles east of San Diego. He told agents that his journey to the border had been a long one. He took a flight from Africa to Europe, then to Central America and Chetumal, Mexico, on the Mexico-Belize border, where he took a bus to Tijuana.

Guess he took his bankbook with him when he was deported from Canada.

After a couple of months of teasing glimpses offered on a website with the cheeky address of www.dontblogaboutthis.com, BMW has announced that its Vision EfficientDynamics concept vehicle will go into production. The plug-in hybrid vehicle that made its debut at IAA last year as a concept vehicle is a four-seater (2+2) sports car conceived to combine the performance of a BMW M Car with the fuel economy and emission management exceeding that of a small car.

Standing just 4 ft tall the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics is powered by the company’s ActiveHybrid technology already found on the X6 and X7. IN the Vision EfficientDynamics a 3-cylinder turbo diesel with a hybrid synchronous motor at the front axle is combined with a full-hybrid engine at the rear axle for an overall system output of 241 kW/328 bhp. It can accelerate from 0 to 62mph in 4.8 seconds and boasts an average fuel consumption of 3.76 liters/100 km/75.1 mpg and a CO2 emission rating of 99 grams per kilometer.

The vehicle’s lithium-polymer rechargeable battery is housed centrally in a longitudinal chassis element and is said to be fully rechargable from a conventional power socket in just 2.5 hours. When being powered solely from the batteries the vehicle can run emission free for up to 31 miles, while the range can be extended an extra 404 miles thanks to the 24-liter diesel tank.

BMW hasn’t revealed when the Vision EfficientDynamics will roll off the production line, how much it will cost, or how many will be produced. We’ll keep you posted on that front.

The folks at gizmag aren’t certain about availability or price on the prototype paint job either. I don’t want to know.

Click on photo for video – and click on HD!

We were as shocked as anyone when BMW announced it was quitting Formula 1 to devote more resources to developing cleaner, greener automobiles. [Not as shocked as Mario Thyssen, I'll bet!] There was some skepticism, but BMW wasn’t blowing green smoke. It’s serious about building eco-friendlier pavement-peeling cars.

First up is a slick 356-horsepower all-wheel-drive plug-in diesel-hybrid concept that BMW claims accelerates like an M3, sips gas like a Toyota Prius and can go 31 miles on battery power alone. It’s called the Vision Efficientdynamics Concept, and we’ll see it later this month at the Frankfurt auto show…

The EfficientDynamics is a 2+2 four-door hybrid that combines M Series performance with better fuel efficiency and less emissions than you see in many compacts. BMW performs this magic by marrying its ActiveHybrid technology with an extremely economical engine and excellent aerodynamics. The result is a concept car with a top speed governed at 155 mph and a zero-to-62 acceleration time of 4.8 seconds. More impressive, the car gets 62.2 mpg and emits a Prius-like 99 grams of CO2 per kilometer.

RTFA for details and specifications.

Yes, I want one, too.

BMW, Mini’s parent company, is taking the vehicle in a decidedly greener direction with the Mini E — a factory-built, fully electric Mini with an estimated range of 150 miles or more.

After the Mini E’s debut at the upcoming Los Angeles auto show, 500 Mini Es will be distributed to customers in California, New York, and New Jersey early next year as part of a pilot project to road-test the car. Select private and corporate customers will lease the cars for one year with the possibility of an extension, during which the Mini Es will be inspected every 3000 miles or six months.

Extra weight prevents the Mini E from beating the Mini S in terms of performance, but it matches the nonturbocharged model, scooting from 0 to 62 mph in 8.5 seconds according to Mini, though its top speed is electronically limited to 95 mph. While not as quick to 60 as a Mini S, the Mini E will likely feel quick off the line thanks to the electric motor’s instantaneous torque.

Charge times will depend on how much power is available in your wall, but BMW says the wallbox can charge a completely drained Mini E to full power in as little as two-and-a-half hours. A full charge will give the Mini E a range of 150 miles or more while pulling only 28 kW-hrs of electricity from your wall, according to BMW.

BMW plans to have all 500 cars built by the end of 2008 and ready to distribute to testers in the U.S. BMW is also considering testing some vehicles in Europe as well, but has not made a final decision yet. At the end of the test, all the cars will be collected and returned to BMW for extensive review by BMW, after which we’d expect to see the Mini E to eventually find a permanent place in the Mini Cooper lineup.

Wow! I wish I could talk them into one cranky old geek high-altitude tester in northern New Mexico.