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BMW M235i Racing restores our faith in 'M'

Based on the upcoming BMW 2 Series and aimed at amateur and semi-professional racers, the 2014 BMW M235i Racing is a stripped-down, race-spec coupe ready to take on the Nürburgring in the VLN Endurance Championship race series against cars from Audi, Porsche and Toyota.
Obvious in the image above (click to enlarge), BMW has given the M235i Racing the wide-body treatment with a track that has been stretched by 3.5 inches. Under the hood, the 3.0-liter turbocharged inline six-cylinder receives a power boost from a stock 322 horsepower up slightly to 333 hp, while other modifications include a full FIA roll cage, a racing fuel tank and a limited slip rear differential.
The M235i Racing replaces the M3 GT4 as BMW's factory racer, and it will be priced at 59,500 euros (close to $80,000), which is about as affordable as a factory-prepped racecar can get. The full press release is posted below, but we can't wait to see this car in action next year.

BMW-Toyota joint sports car project is on like Donkey Kong

It's official - there will be a jointly developed sports car from BMW and Toyota. While the two auto giants signed a Memorandum of Understanding that pledged to pursue "joint development of architecture and components for a future sports vehicle" back in June of 2012, in the interim, it has remained unclear how those plans had been progressing. BMW has finally officially confirmed that the German and Japanese manufacturers will be codeveloping a pair of sports cars in addition to pursuing other disciplines including fuel cell systems and lightweight technologies.
"We have agreed on a joint architecture for a sports car. What is important is that there will be two different vehicles that are authentic to the two brands," BMW Development Chief Herbert Diess told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Reuters is reporting. This is a very, very big step for both brands, but now the speculation can officially begin as to what the products of this agreement will look like.
There's ample reason to believe that the BMW-Toyota tie up will result in a Supra successor based on comments made by the chief engineer of the GT86/FR-S program, Tatsuya Tada, back in August. Follow that with a rumor from earlier this month that Toyota could debut a Supra concept car at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show later this month, and we could be seeing the fruits of this partnership sooner rather than later.

Tier 1 suppliers call GM the worst OEM to work with

Among automakers with a big US presence, General Motors is the worst to work for, according to a new survey from Tier 1 automotive suppliers, conducted by Planning Perspectives, Inc.
The Detroit-based manufacturer, which has been under fire following the ignition switch recall and its accompanying scandal, finished behind six other automakers with big US manufacturing operations. Suppliers had issues with trust and communications, as well as intellectual property protection. GM was also the least likely to allow suppliers to raise their prices in the face of unexpected increases in material cost, all of which contributed to 55 percent of suppliers saying their relationship with GM was "poor to very poor."
GM's cross-town competitors didn't fare much better. Chrysler finished in fifth place, ahead of GM and behind Dearborn-based Ford, which was passed for third place this year by Nissan. Toyota took the top marks, while Honda captured second place.