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Source: http://artandcolourcars.blogspot.com/2011/06/buick-regal-wagon.html
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The 2012 BMW M5 barely got itself revealed and yet we already have a very interesting bit of news about what sort of performance it can bring.
I’m not talking about the sort of 0 to 62 mph times you find on a piece of paper or the top speed you can push yourself to. This is the benchmark of our modern obsession with performance.
An unofficial time around the Nurburgring Nordschleife was revealed and people claim it was done by the F10 BMW M5.
While BMW and all of its subsidiaries and employees are keeping a lid on any confirmation of the sort of time their new sports sedan can manage.
Rated unofficially (and I can’t stress that enough) at 7:55, the 2012 BMW M5 has a more then respectable time around the Green Hell, being charted at number 70 overall for production vehicles.
It sounds like a bit of a suffering moment but the truth is that at 7:55 the 2012 BMW M5 is a lot faster than the E60 BMW M5 by a shocking 18 seconds.
Talk about improvements on your own product, it is obvious that the F10 BMW M5 is an improvement on all planes of existence but it seems like this time upsets a lot of other manufacturers.
Previous versions of the hottest cars from Ferrari and Porsche run about the same time. For example the F430 was less than a second quicker and the 996 Turbo is actually slower.
Those are trophies for 2012 BMW M5 but the actual competitors are really shaking in their wheels as we speak. The Porsche Panamera Turbo is recorded as going through a second slower to begin with.
Mercedes’ E63 AMG isn’t even on the books because their time was so slow it was nearly beaten by the smallest BMW 1 M car.
The BMW 1 Series M Coupe did quite a few victims anyway so we might as well just enjoy the Bavarian success.
As a quick reminder, the 2012 BMW M5 is powered by a 4.4 liter V8 engine with a special M TwinPower Turbo package that develops 560 horsepower and 501 lb-ft of torque.
The Nurburgring Nordschleife isn’t the sort of place where you reach the top speed of 190 mph you can get with the M Driver’s Package but the acceleration levels are a serious part of the affair together with the handling pack.
On that front it can go from 0 to 62 mph in just 4.4 seconds and with 13 of those seconds being sufficient for the 2012 BMW M5 to hit 124 mph.
Lupica G. 28 Jun, 2011Trash talking was over, preparations were over, all that was left for the 2011 Pikes Peak Hill Climb Special was the competition itself.
With the hammer down and proceedings starting, everybody had their eyes set on the big boys of the Unlimited class, one where there was even a milestone to be touched.
The winner of the Unlimited class and overall, was the Suzuki SX4 Hill Climb Special driven by Monster Tajima, who later on raised the trophy with quite a few other achievements going under his belt.
First of all, this year’s win marks the sixth consecutive victory at Pikes Peak Hill Climb for Suzuki, their SX4 Special and Monster Tajima.
Secondly, he wanted to break his own record and obviously he succeeded because he set a new overall time that’s faster than anything he or anybody else did before.
According to official records, Monster Tajima took the Suzuki SX4 Hill Climb Special up the Pikes Peak run in 9.51.278.
This means that together with the newly updated pavement bits and the newly tuned cars the 2011 Pikes Peak course was taken for the first time ever in under the 10 minute barrier.
Tajima and Suzuki took the glory, that means that somewhere in the lower side of the podium and the charts, other teams lay in disillusion.
Rhys Millen and his Hyundai powered RMR PM850 took second place with a time of 10.09.30.
It seems like technically, the Hyundai team isn’t ready to compete in such harsh conditions. This year, a braking problem intervened in Millen’s car about four miles away from the finish line.
This would have cost Rhys around 2 seconds on each turn from then on to the finish line which would’ve meant that the Suzuki SX4 Hill Climb Special may not have had such an easy life.
There’s a lot of probability in it so we might as well forget about how Suzuki’s SX4 may have lost and admit that the losers stood somewhere else.
Speaking of which, quite a nice surprise of the Pikes Peak Unlimited class was the ranking of the Dacia Duster No Limits edition.
Driven by Jean-Philippe Dayraut the “Romanian” SUV got a new image boost at Pikes Peak since it did manage to scratch itself up to the final place on the podium.
It seems like 850 horsepower is nowhere near enough to compete seriously at Pikes Peak but you can’t say that Dacia’s Duster did anything less than admirable on its first outing at such an event.
Lupica G. 28 Jun, 2011