Sugrue leads Irish as Schaper dominates at De Zalze

Jayden Schaper

Mallow's James Sugrue is tied for fifth heading into the final round of the South African Stroke Play Championship.

The former South of Ireland champion shot a one under 71 in the third round at De Zalze to trail South Africa's teenage sensation Jayden Schaper by seven strokes on nine-under par.

Schaper (17) racked up five birdies over the last 12 holes for a two-under 70 to lead by five shots on 16-under from compatriot Wilco Nienaber, who shot 68.

Former SA Amateur champion Deon Germishuys fired a best of the day 66 to share third with Scotland's Euan Walker, who shot 69, on 10-under.

Portmarnock's Conor Purcell slipped back to tied 10th alongside Kilkenny's Mark Power after a 74.

Out in one-under as he sandwiched an eagle at the sixth and a birdie at the eighth between bogeys at the second and ninth, Purcell double bogeyed the par-three 12th and while he birdied the next, bogeys at the 16th and 18th left him nine shots behind Schaper on seven-under.

Power finished with back to back birdies for an excellent 67, but it was a round of two halves for Dundalk's Caolan Rafferty who followed a birdie at the fourth with six in a row from the sixth to get to nine-under.

After following a bogey at the 12th with a birdie at the 13th, he then bogeyed the par-three 16th and took seven at the par-five 17th to post a 68 that left him tied 15th on six-under with Galway’s Ronan Mullarney, who like Power, made seven birdies in an impressive 67.

South African Strokeplay Championship, De Zalze (Par 72)

Detailed scores

Selected scores (RSA unless stated):

200 J Schaper 67 63 70;

205 W Nienaber 73 64 68;

206 D Germishuys 73 67 66; E Walker (Sco) 66 71 69;

207 K Cantley (Sco) 66 73 68; H O’Kennedy 71 68 68; J Sugrue (Irl) 67 69 71;

208 C Lamprecht Jnr 71 68 69, B van Wyk 69 68 71;

209 M Power (Irl) 71 71 67, S Simpson 70 70 69, M Pauw 73 66 70, A Herrmann (Ger) 72 67 70, C Purcell (Irl) 71 64 74;

210 C Jarvis 73 70 67, C Rafferty (Irl) 75 67 68; L Filippi 66 70 74; 211 R Mullarney (Irl) 71 73 67, B McKenzie (Eng) 72 70 69, T Nel 72 70 69, T Vahlenkamp (Ger) 71 69 71, C Burke 71 69 71, M Mitchell 70 70 71;

214 R Cannon (Irl) 72 72 70, R Brazill (Irl) 70 71 73;

222 P McKeever (Irl) 73 70 79.

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BMW i Ventures Announces Investment in Zūm

Ride hailing apps seem to be quite in fashion these days but, if you ever wanted to use one and you had a small child with you, a limitation might’ve popped its ugly head. In most countries you’d have to order a special kind of Uber or any of its rivals, which has a child seat for such purposes. Well, it looks like there’s already an app out there for such services alone, called Zūm. This service is aimed squarely at kids at it just managed to raise some $40 million in a round led by BMW i Ventures.

Zūm is currently the leading provider of safe and reliable student transportation for school districts and working families. The company, which celebrates its fourth birthday this month, aims to become the world’s safest and largest child transportation provider and with this new investment, it could very well get closer to that aim. Apart from BMW i Ventures, Spark Capital and Sequoia Capital joined in to raise the company’s estimated value to $70 million.

“Zūm has proven itself as a force to be reckoned with in a market that has a lot of untapped opportunity,” said Ulrich Quay, managing partner, BMW i Ventures. “Its leadership is strong not only because of their drive to help working families, but because they themselves have families and understand the need for better child transportation, today. We’re proud to be supporting Zūm and look forward to seeing its momentum as it continues driving funds back into schools.”

So far, Zūm partnered up with 150 schools and catered to the needs of more than 500,000 students. The new funding will be used to expand Zūm’s business model and increase school partnerships throughout the country as the company works to double its footprint by the 2019-2020 school year. Funding will also support the advancement of Zūm’s proprietary technology, such as its state-of-the-art GPS vehicle tracking and real-time system dashboards for school districts to have full visibility into a child’s commute for enhanced safety and efficiency.

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AC Schnitzer unveils their BMW X4 tuning program

German tuning shop AC Schnitzer unveils their tuning program for the BMW X4 G02. As always, the aftermarket program kicks off with a power upgrade for several of the BMW models. In this case, the BMW X4 xDrive30d gets a power bump to 315 horsepower from the standard 265, while the X4 M40d jumps to 380 hp from 326.

The aero part of the program is not ignored either. The sporty character of the BMW X4 is underlined by AC Schnitzer “Sport” carbon tailtrims, which are also available in chromed “Sport” and black “Sport” versions. Other visual upgrades include front spoiler elements for the M Sport models rear roof spoiler, rear spoiler and carbon “Racing” rear wing.

The AC Schnitzer rear skirt protection foil and the side emblems (160 mm right and left) as well as the AC Schnitzer engine optics, round up the exterior visual upgrades.

The interior of the BMW X4 by AC Schnitzer consists of noble aluminium pedals, footrest, keyholder and the aluminium cover Black Line for iDrive Controller.

Thanks to the AC Schnitzer suspension spring kit, the BMW X4 is lowered at the front and rear by 20 – 25 mm compared to the standard vehicle.

2017 BMW X4 M40i – TEST DRIVE

As always, AC Schnitzer has created some custom wheels for their BMWs. The AC1 BiColor or anthracite alloy wheels are available in 19 inch (8.5J x 19″ with tires 245/50 R 19), AC1 BiColor or anthracite alloy wheels in 20 inch (8.5J x 20″ with tires 245/45 R 20), AC1 BiColor or anthracite alloy wheels (front: 8.5J x 20″, rear: 10J x 20″ with tires 245/45 R 20 front and 275/40 R20 rear) and AC2 alloy wheels BiColor or anthracite/black in 22 inch (front/rear 9.0J x 22″ with tires 265/30 R22).

No pricing is available at the moment, but in the mean time, you can admire the car in all its glory.

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BMW and Daimler Announce Agreement for Autonomous Driving R&D

Literally days after BMW and Daimler announced their joint-ventures in next-gen mobility, the two German giants announced yet another, even more interesting collaboration, this time in the field of autonomous driving. The arch-rivals are going to work together to develop Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous systems, looking to cut both costs and development time. According to their estimates, this move will allow the companies to have software ready in the mid 2020s.

Initially, the focus will be on advancing the development of next-generation technologies for driver assistance systems, automated driving on highways and parking features (up to SAE Level 4). The two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop this technology. Joint development work will be carried out via a scalable architecture covering several stages of automation, with Levels 3 and 4 enabling automated driving on highways.

In addition, there’s a possibility of extending this collaboration to cover higher levels of automation, both on highways and in urban areas. The development of current-generation technologies and ongoing collaborations of the two companies will remain unaffected and continue as before. Therefore, the memorandum signed today will apply to future plans. The two companies also announced today that they are looking for more partners in this new endeavor.

“As we continue to pursue our strategy, we are combining the expertise of two technology leaders. At the BMW Group, long-term partnerships within a flexible, scalable, non-exclusive platform are fundamental to advancing the industrialization of autonomous driving. Combining the key expertise of our two companies will boost our innovative strength and speed up the spread of this technology,” said Klaus Fröhlich, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Development.

Ola Källenius, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development said: “Autonomous driving is one of the most revolutionary trends for us at the moment, and the entire Daimler Group is working very hard on it. As always at Daimler, our top priority is safety. Instead of individual, stand-alone solutions, we want to develop a reliable overall system that offers noticeable added-value for customers. Working with the right partners, we want to make significant advances in enhancing the performance of this technology and bring it safely on the road.”

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