2002 Bmw Z3 M Roadster on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2022 Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance Mega Gallery | The show in pictures

COMO, Italy — Held annually, the Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance is, in many ways, Europe's version of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It takes place in a beautiful location, and it brings together an impressive selection of rare and valuable cars. It's a real treat for the eyes, the ears, and, if you're into champagne, the palate. The 2022 edition of the show was no exception: About 50 cars were shipped to Lake Como from over a dozen countries, and it wasn't just the usual suspects. Sure, there were a lot of pre-war cars (including a couple of one-off models), but some of the icons that younger enthusiasts grew up with (like the Lamborghini Countach) were present as well. This year's event was split into eight categories: The Art Deco Era of Motor Car Design, The Supercharged Mercedes-Benz, How Grand Entrances Were Once Made, Eight Decades of Ferrari Represented in Eight Icons, "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday," BMW's M Cars and Their Ancestors, Pioneers That Chased the Magic 300 KPH, And a design award for concept and prototypes. The jury gave the coveted "best of show" award to a 1937 Bugatti 57 S owned by Andrew Picker of Monaco, while the aforementioned classes were won by, respectively: The Bugatti 57 S, shown below, A 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet, A 1956 Chrysler Boano Coupe Speciale, A 1966 Ferrari 356 P Berlinetta Speciale Tre Posti, A 1961 Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL, A 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL, A 1989 Porsche 959 Sport, And the Bugatti Bolide concept unveiled in 2020. Winning at Villa d'Este is a big deal: The cars are judged by a panel of highly experienced judges. No one gave me a scoring sheet, presumably out of fear that I'd award points to the late-model Fiat 600 lurking in the parking lot, but several cars that didn't win an award caught my eye. One is a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, a grand-prix racer that was once owned by King Leopold III of Belgium and that has never been restored — its patina is inimitable. Another is a 1961 BMW 700 RS. One of two built (the other is in the BMW collection), it's a tiny, ultra-light roadster related to the 700 and powered by a 697-cubic-centimeter air-cooled flat-twin tuned to develop 70 horsepower. It won several hill-climb events during the 1960s, and it's one of the rarest cars ever to wear a BMW roundel. Aston Martin's freshly-restored 1979 Bulldog concept was cool to see as well; check out the cassette player integrated into the headliner!

BMW i3 with range extender won't get all the EV tax benefits in NJ

Everyone loves that new-car smell, but not everyone loves that new-car tax. And whoever in New Jersey thought the extended-range version of the BMW i3 plug-in would be exempt from said tax was sorely mistaken, Green Car Reports says. To paraphrase the Garden State's favorite son, Bruce Springsteen, the first kick those drivers will take is when they hit the ground. BMW said last year that the BMW REx would qualify for new-car tax exemptions in New Jersey and in Washington State. The car's all-electric range was recently estimated at 72 miles and it has another 87 miles of gas-powered range-extended capability. Unfortunately, the range extender not only tacks on $3,850 to the car's sticker price but adds on almost that much again because New Jersey's seven-percent sales tax applies to all cars with any sort of gas-powered engine. BMW didn't respond to a request for comment about the New Jersey situation from AutoblogGreen. In other New Jersey electric vehicle news, the Consumer Affairs Committee of the New Jersey State Assembly will discuss the legality of Tesla selling directly to consumbers tomorrow. The extended-range i3 is involved in a different issue on the other side of the country. BMW said earlier this year that the REx would qualify for California's white zero-emission vehicle stickers that allow for solo access to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. These unlimited white stickers can go on any EV, but the REx version only qualifies for the green stickers, which are designated for plug-in hybrids and extended-range plug-ins and the state has run out of those.

This Alpina C1 is a rare bit of BMW 3 Series history

Over its five decades in the business, German tuner-turned-automaker Alpina has established a long history of taking great BMWs and making them just a bit tastier, more luxurious, and well... faster. Of course, they haven't always been the land rockets of modern day, however that's not to say they were exactly tame. Back in the early 1980s, this was one of the cars to have—an Alpina C1 2.3. Based on the original E21 BMW 3-series, the C1 2.3 bridged the performance gap between the standard BMW 323i and Alpina's hard-charging B6 2.8. It summoned up a heady 170 horsepower and disposed of the 60 mph sprint in just seven and a half seconds. Not shabby at all. 33 years later, this '83 Alpina C1 is back up for sale , and it's still quite the head-turner. RELATED: Check Out the Hard-Charging 2016 Alpina B6 xDrive A look back at the C1's contemporary relatives show just how wide Alpina's performance gap had been. Introduced in 1977, the BMW 323i offered up 141 horsepower courtesy of BMW's famed M20 straight-six engine, a big performance improvement over the E21's previous four-cylinders. The Alpina B6 2.8 3-series on the other hand, introduced in 1978, blew its doors off thanks to the bigger 2.8-liter straight-six plucked from the BMW 528i, offering up 200 horsepower. All that, in an early 3-series. With that in mind, a middle-of-the-pack car made sense, so Alpina treated the 323i's straight-six to some of the B6 2.8's goodies, minus the former's Bosch fuel-injection system. Bilstein shocks were part of the diet too, along with oversized disc brakes, sleek alloy wheels, as well as the tell-tale Alpina front splitter, rear spoiler, and racy side-stripes. RELATED: The BMW Isetta is Coming Back, But as an Electric Vehicle! Inside, Alpina added a dose of luxury as well. One could order their C1 2.3 with the gorgeous optional Recaro seats with Alpina stripes, as well as a bespoke leather steering wheel, gear knob, and speedometer. Top speed? About 130 mph. Compared to regular E21 BMW 3-series cars, these are quite rare. How rare is a point of debate, however. Production estimates range from as few as 35 to as many as 400, depending on the source. Regardless, you certainly don't see them everyday, and if this one fits your fancy... it lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Related Video: This article originally appeared on Boldride.com. Aftermarket BMW Auctions Coupe Classics eBay alpina