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Toyota-BMW sports car to gain all-wheel drive, supercapacitors?

Sales of salt are skyrocketing following the latest rumor of the planned joint-venture sports car from Toyota and BMW. The whisperings indicate that project will spawn both a replacement for the BMW Z4 and a long-awaited Toyota Supra successor based on the FT-1 Concept shown above. Word is that the new cars will feature front-engine, all-wheel-drive layouts with plug-in hybrid technology. This news would appear to run somewhat counter to earlier reports that BMW and Toyota are teaming for a six-figure hybrid supercar.
According to Autocar, the project will benefit from the experience Toyota gained with the TS030, its hybridized Le Mans prototype. The evidence for this is, of all things, a Toyota Yaris - in particular, the Yaris Hybrid R that was shown at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show last September. That car used a 300-horsepower, 1.6-liter gas engine, while a pair of 60-horsepower electric motors provided all-wheel-drive push (an additional motor also sent additional juice to the front axle). The 414-system-horsepower drivetrain used supercapacitors in place of the traditional lithium-ion batteries of traditional hybrids.
For the production sports cars, Autocar claims that the Yaris Hybrid R's setup will serve as the basis for the new powertrain, although it won't be a direct carryover. Instead, a 2.0-liter BMW engine will be paired with Toyota-designed, BMW-built motors.

2015 BMW i8: Autoblog Technology of the Year finalist

Traditionally, nominations for the Autoblog Technology of the Year award are earned for specific developments - a new-think powertrain, a uniquely developed material, a groundbreaking smartphone app, or what have you. In the case of BMW's marvelous i8, it so bristles with novel applied sciences and fresh features that we broke with tradition and nominated the entire car.
We just couldn't help ourselves. Oh, we could've focused on the i8's carbon-fiber monocoque, or its well-resolved plug-in-hybrid powertrain that incorporates a tiny 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine and an electric motor, or its seamless through-the-road all-wheel drive. This is a car that will even have frickin' laser beams for headlights - at least it will for our friends in Europe (and it will in the US, should our legislators ever catch up).

Watch two championship-winning DTM cars from BMW go head-to-head

BMW recently had a little fun with two of the company's past DTM champions. Roberto Ravaglia and Bruno Spengler, winners of the 1989 and 2012 championships, respectively, both showed up at the world-famous Hockenheimring with their title-winning cars. The two swapped seats, with Ravaglia taking the helm of Spengler's BMW M3 DTM racer and Spengler sliding behind the wheel of Ravaglia's first-generation M3 racer in the classic BMW Bank livery, and headed for the track. Spengler got a 23 second head start in the first-gen M3 with Ravaglia chasing behind.
It didn't take long for the older hotshoe to sort out his new ride and close the gap. The short clip below follows the two as they make their way around the circuit, but the really interesting portion comes when the pair begin discussing what they like and don't like about each other's machines. You can check out the full video below for yourself.