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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.

Thermal imagery of BMW M4 DTM pit stop is red hot

A pit stop is a pit stop, right? The race car pulls in, the crew changes the tires, pumps in some fuel, maybe swaps out a busted body panel or squeegees the windshield, and off it goes for another heat. Only pit stops have become the focus of news lately for a number of reasons, whether it's because of mishaps (like the ones that prompted F1 to ban mid-race refueling), new time records (due largely to said ban) or interesting new ways to film the fast-paced action.
A few weeks ago we brought you footage of an IndyCar pit stop filmed from multiple angles courtesy of Google Glass. Now BMW has released a brief clip of one of its M4 DTM racers coming in for fresh rubber, all filmed by infrared camera. Its the kind of technology BMW uses to help optimize its German touring cars for competition, and now the Bavarian outfit has released some footage for fans to enjoy.
The resulting thermal imagery gives you an idea of how hot the car runs (and where the heat is emanating from), how warm they get the fresh rubber before they get it onto the car, and what kind of temperatures the pit crew is subjected to. Look closely enough in the 25-second video below and you'll even see the heat sputtering out of the exhaust pipes as the M4 downshifts into its pit box. (Just don't try adjusting your speakers, the clip is without audio.)

BMW predicts US will be biggest i8 market

BMW will be showing a production version of its new i8 plug-in hybrid supercar at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show, and while we're quite excited about seeing the company's second i product in the flesh. According to a new report from Automotive News Europe, BMW is expecting its largest markets to be the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. Notable for its absence in that list is everybody's favorite mega-market, China.
Automobilwoche, a German-language publication of Automotive News Europe, spoke with the i8's product manager, Hendrik Wenders, who declared, "The US will be by far the largest sales market for the i8." Wenders stops short of actual mentioning what percentage of i8 sales will be in the US, but does mention that it should arrive in showrooms around the world in about nine months. The simultaneous rollout will occur in 50 different countries.
Check back for our full coverage of the i8's debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. If you just can't wait until September, then check out our first drive of the i8 Prototype.