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BMW to be featured at 2016 Monterey Motorsports Reunion

The 2015 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion just wrapped up, with the Shelby GT350 serving as the featured marque. Track officials, however, are not wasting any time – or enthusiastic momentum – in announcing a featured marque for next year's event. Next year's Reunion will highlight BMW on the occasion of its centenary. Now if you're thinking that the Bavarian manufacturer hasn't been building automobiles for that long, you're technically correct. The company started out as an aircraft engine manufacturer 99 years ago in 1916. It then got into motorcycles in 1923 before rolling out its first automobile – the Dixi that was a licensed version of the Austin 7 – in 1928. However you trace the automaker's history that's still one heck of a long time. And BMW has been active in motor racing throughout, making it a worthy candidate for next year's celebration. This won't be the first time that Munich's finest will be featured at the reunion. BMW was given the same honor back in 1996. The featured marque can alternately be an automaker, a specific model, a type of vehicle, or even an accomplished racing driver. Last year's was Maserati, preceded by the Chevy Corvette, Shelby Cobra, Jaguar, and the legendary Dan Gurney. Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Jaguar, and Porsche have each been featured thrice - that's right, thrice! - in the history of the retrospective event. Related Video: BMW TO BE HONORED AS FEATURED MARQUE OF 2016 ROLEX MONTEREY MOTORSPORTS REUNION MONTEREY, Calif., August 16, 2015 — The full, rich heritage of the Ultimate Driving Machine® will be celebrated when Bavarian Motor Works is honored on the occasion of its 100th anniversary at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. The celebration takes place August 18-21, 2016 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on the scenic Monterey Peninsula. "The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is a perfect stage on which to celebrate 100 years of BMW," stated Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO, BMW of North America, LLC. "The BMW brand and the legend of The Ultimate Driving Machine® was forged on and continues to be refined on racing circuits all over the world. In the United States, Laguna Seca has played a starring role. This year, our BMW Z4 GTLM racing cars finished 1-2 in IMSA competition there - almost 40 years to the date a BMW 3.0 CSL won our very first race on the classic circuit.

Alpina XD3 Bi-Turbo offers facelifted looks, diesel-powered 4.9-sec 0-62 sprint [w/video]

I've always thought it would be fascinating to look at the psychographic data of Alpina's customer base. While the company's high-zoot rendition of BMW 7 and 5 Series sedans makes plenty of sense, I don't quite understand the appeal of the still-expensive tunes, further down the range. Enter the European-only Alpina XD3 Bi-Turbo, which made its debut here in Geneva today. The XD3 has been around for a bit, but this year it's refreshed to coincide with the BMW X3's own nip-tuck. The result is essentially a new front and back fascia on the same, ginormous Alpina wheels that make the brand's products instantly recognizable. For anyone that covets huge diesel performance in a small SUV-shaped package, that's a good thing. The XD3 pushes a whopping 516 pound-feet of torque and 345 horsepower out of its 3.0-liter, biturbo sixer, all good for a 0-62-mile-per-hour sprint of just 4.9 seconds. Which is quick by any measure. Still, the privilege of driving the fast, high-center-of-gravity Bimmer doesn't come cheaply – Alpina would like just over 69,000 euro ($77,000 by today's rates) for each example. That kind of coin will buy a European equal performance in the form of a Porsche Macan diesel, or any number of non-SUV performance rides, too. It takes a special mind, I suppose... Related Video:

BMW X4 hatches its fastback shape in Shanghai

The day has finally come for BMW to pull the covers off its X4 Concept at the Shanghai Motor Show. The machine brings few surprises - we've already seen an official image gallery from the German automaker, so its exterior shape was well known - but at least now we get to see it with our own eyes, and with the lenses of our very own cameras.
You can clearly see the fastback roofline in our high-res image gallery above, along with the jacked-up stance that allows BMW to call this machine a Sports Activity Vehicle, which basically means "Crossover" to our friends in Munich. We've seen similar vehicle shapes before, most notably in the form of the BMW X6, but also as far back as the 1980s from the likes of AMC.
We fully expect the transition from concept to production to be pretty seamless, so what we see here is, for the most part, what we'll see on the showroom floor in 2014. Feel free to peruse the press release below, but first, be sure to browse through our live images from Shanghai and let us know what you think.