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BMW will be featured marque at 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed

As part of BMW's centenary celebration, it has been named the featured marque at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed. That means we'll see plenty of Bimmers on track, but it also means a few will be hoisted in the air on this year's version of the famous Gerry Judah sculpture. That sculpture takes center stage on the Goodwood House's front lawn, blending metal with actual automotive machinery for a striking display that serves as the centerpiece for the entire Festival of Speed. This year, it will feature three race-ready BMWs – the 328 Mille Miglia Roadster, a Brabham-BMW BT52 Formula 1 car, and a Le Mans-winning V12 LMR. Consider the racing bases covered. And since this is England, it's only fitting that Rolls-Royce and Mini will stand alongside their parent company during this year's event – Rolls-Royce is headquartered down the road. BMW Motorrad will feature prominently, as well, and the M Brand will have its own "M Avenue," which will feature M cars sold over the past 40 years, including more than a few of the M cars our editors chose in their list of the greatest BMWs. You can also expect BMW's birthday present to itself, the futuristic Vision Next 100 concept, to receive a prominent placement at Goodwood. And of course historical and modern BMW models will be taking to the Goodwood Hill Climb course alongside the usual slate of performance vehicles, racecars, and concept vehicles from other brands. The 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed runs from June 23 to 26. Related Video:

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.

Ram and Alfa Romeo top J.D. Power study of best automaker websites

Imagining a new car can be terrific fun, especially if the new car is an Alfa Romeo. So say the fantasy engineers at the J.D. Power agency, who’ve found that Alfa and Ram, sister brands under the Stellantis umbrella, offer potential buyers the most attractive consumer websites, which are often their first viable encounter with those vehicles. Power found that those marques lead the mass market and premium categories in its twice annual Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study. In the premium segment, Alfa Romeo led with 755 points, up six points over BMW, 10 points ahead of Infiniti, 14 points past of Jaguar, and 18 points up on Porsche. By contrast, Volvo and Audi trail the pack with 689 points, and are behind Genesis (699 points), Tesla (720), and Cadillac (721), all of which perform worse than the premium segment average of 724 points. The summerÂ’s study showed that in the mass market segment, Ram leads with an impressive 735 points, which puts it six points ahead of GMC, seven points atop its stablemate Jeep, eight points beyond Subaru, and 22 points ahead of the industry average. Volkswagen finished dead last among mass market names, but only one point behind Ford, 684 to 683 out of a possible 1,000. Segment average, as noted, was 713 points. “Website satisfaction can be volatile, and automotive websites are not immune to changing preferences,” said Jon Sundberg, director of digital solutions at J.D. Power. “However, manufacturers have shown to be very agile when it comes to website design and ensuring their sites meet modern standards, more so than many other industries, as exemplified through the study data.” Marketing/Advertising Alfa Romeo Audi BMW Ford Volkswagen