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BMW restores classic Mini as it revives production in Netherlands

Mini will be kicking off production in the Netherlands, a country that hasn't built a Mini-badged machine since 1966. In honor of this event, BMW Group Classic, the team responsible for all the cars in the BMW Museum, as well as being a spare parts and restoration company in its own right, revived a classic 1959 Austin Seven. That particular car, number 983, was one of the first Minis to be built in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands' JJ Molenaar's Car Companies built 4,000 Austin Sevens and Morris Mini-Minors between 1959 and 1966, although we imagine Dutch Mini production will be much bigger when it starts up again in summer 2014. A five-person team from VDL Nedcar, the group handling production of new Minis, took to the job of restoring the diminutive British car from nose to tail.
The 34-horsepower engine and the transmission were both completely rebuilt, while the door panels were redone by hand. Help from the Mini community aided the VDL Nedcar team in finding authentic replicas or original parts where possible. All told, the new classic Mini is a striking example of what a good restoration can do to a car. The Seven was repainted in its original Farina Gray, adding to the car's sense of authenticity.

2014 BMW Z4 sDrive35is

The BMW Z3/Z4 roadster has never really had a widespread following because it has either been too humble and small a roadster (albeit with some fun and very low-volume M editions) or it has been - in this E89 generation - too casual an image leader with no racier aspirations. The current 480-hp Z4 GTEs don't count, since they are as stock a Z4 as today's Pamela Anderson is the same blonde actress we knew as Heidi on Home Improvement. You know, sort of like those ever-so-slightly modified Toyota Camry coupes competing in NASCAR.
The ultimate highpoint for the BMW Z roadster franchise was at the very start of its life in the mid-90s, in the James Bond film GoldenEye with Pierce Brosnan. The Stinger missiles that Q's team installed behind the Z3's headlights were never fired, and BMW never even offered this self-defense package as an option. Yet another case of the ol' bait and switch.
And in all these subsequent years of Z3s and Z4s strutting their long-hooded stuff, the little sporting Bimmer could really have used a live Stinger missile or two to spice things up. The current Z4 exists, it is pretty dang sexy, and BMW seems content to let it linger there. We just drove the new midlife version of the roadster near BMW headquarters in Munich, and it served to reinforce our feelings.

BMW i Collection puts upscale treehugging in the palm of your hand

If BMW's new i sub-brand sounds more like it belongs to consumer electronics than it does to automobiles, that's probably no mistake. After all, electric vehicles bridge the gap between conventional automobile and electronic gadget - just ask our compatriots over at Engadget that report on them all the time. But to drive the point home even greener, BMW has, together with the new i3, launched a new collection of electronics accessories that make the Bavarian automaker as much a competitor with companies like Belkin or Griffin as it is with Audi or Mercedes-Benz.
The new BMW i Collection includes items like a solar charger for phones and MP3 players, a laptop bag made from felt-like recycled PET plastic and vegetable-tanned leather, and of course the requisite USB dongle. Other items include keyfobs, a shopping bag, notebook and ballpoint pen.
All the items, of course, are designed to extend the i3's upscale tree-hugging image to items you can hold and use while your EV is charging in the driveway. They go on sale starting next month with prices ranging from 15 euros ($20) for the pen or lanyard to 99 euros ($135) for the shopping bag. Details in the press release below and images of the whole collection in the gallery above.