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Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo torquing its way toward Frankfurt

Few tuners benefit from the kind of factory support that Alpina does, giving the pseudo-aftermarket firm nearly as much official status as BMW's own M division. And this is its latest product.
Set to debut, as expected, at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week is the new Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo, which you can consider, for all intents and purposes, the diesel M3 that BMW never built. While the outgoing D3 (which was Alpina's best-selling model) used a four-cylinder engine, Autocar reports that the new model packs a 3.0-liter, twin-turbo inline-six diesel to drive a respectable 345 horsepower but a mammoth 516 pound-feet of torque to either the rear wheels or all four through the optional availability of xDrive. (European buyers will also be able to choose between sedan and wagon bodystyles.)
The engine is the same as you'd find in the XD3 and D5 (Alpina's diesel performance versions of the X3 and 5 Series, respectively), but in the lighter 3 Series form can propel the D3 Bi-Turbo up to 62 miles per hour in 4.6 seconds and on to an Autobahn-crunching top speed of 173 mph. And as per Alpina tradition, visual cues are minimal, with a subtly optimized aero kit and 19- or available 20-inch alloy wheels. Unfortunately, the 7 Series-based B7 is the only Alpina we get on this side of the Atlantic, but an oil-drenched performance enthusiast can dream.

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.

Ferrari, BMW lend expertise to Olympic bobsled, skeleton, luge

LONDON — There are plenty of reasons why the sport of bobsleigh is sometimes referred to as Formula One on ice, but few as obvious as Italy's World Cup sleds. Resplendent in Ferrari red, and with a set of team sponsor Pirelli's P-Zero tyres painted on the sides, they are even liveried to look like racing cars. Ferrari, Formula One's most glamorous and successful team, have worked with the Italian federation, whose sleds run without sponsor branding at the Olympics, since 2010 and in the run-up to next month's Pyeongchang Winter Games. Former rival BMW, title sponsor of the World Cup, has long partnered the U.S. bobsleigh team, while McLaren teamed up with Britain's bob and skeleton athletes for the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia. "There's always the link between the Formula One companies, or any motor company, and skeleton and bobsleigh," says Rachel Blackburn, the engineer who has been involved in Britain's skeleton program since 2006 and who used to work for McLaren. "There's the Ferrari sleds and the BMW sleds ... when we were at McLaren it kind of made a good story," she told Reuters by telephone from her home in Dubai. That somewhat manufactured rivalry has died down in the years since Sochi, with McLaren no longer involved and Ferrari's presence low key. But the worlds of grand prix motor racing and sliding sports still have plenty in common. Bobsled, luge and skeleton are among the fastest of Olympic sports, with bobsleds reaching speeds over 90 mph. Drivers are subjected to gut-wrenching G-forces, and crashes can be fatal. And then there is the ongoing debate about cost controls, the direction of future rules, preserving a level playing field and obsessive secrecy — all endlessly recurring themes in Formula One. 80 mph on a tea tray Blackburn said skeleton, where riders hit 80 mph on what has glibly been compared to an oversized tea-tray, sits somewhere between Americas Cup yachts and Formula One cars in terms of speed and aerodynamics. "Applied engineering is far more interesting than the pure stuff, so when its applied to something that's fun and exciting it does make it a lot easier to solve problems," she said. "There is the Americas Cup, sailing, Formula One and the high speed ice sports as well. It's the same concept.