Michelin Track Connect helps you get faster around the track

The Internet Of Things has taken over the world the last few years as everything is now connected to your mobile phone. You can answer your front door by opening an app and looking at a live video feed. Or control just about anything in your house via voice commands with Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home. And since driving is usually a key part of our busy schedules, there’s apps like BMW’s Connected which gives you access to a handful of features for your BMW. Michelin has now entered into this connected world with their new Michelin Track Connect.

The Michelin Track Connect system was born from technology used by Michelin in track competitions and allows you to accurately check the pressure and temperature of your tires in real-time via their new app. It’s able to do this by utilizing four sensors mounted on the inside of compatible Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires that relay measurements back to a receiver mounted inside your vehicle. This receiver then transmits the sensor readings to the Michelin Track Connect app on your mobile phone.

Michelin takes the experience beyond just tire readings though as it also processes your data to help enhance your track day experience.

Before Your Lap:

The Michelin Track Connect system recommends optimal tire pressure for your vehicle, your use (road or circuit) and the weather conditions on the ground.

During Your Lap:

– A display of accurate, color-coded pressure and temperature values lets you see in real time whether your tires are operating within their optimum range.

– A behavioral gauge indicates the change in the balance of your vehicle (over/ under steer) according to the change in tire pressures.

– And a stopwatch to track your lap times.

After Your Lap:

You can view, compare and share the data recorded during the different runs in the mobile application. Thus, you know exactly what adjustments to make to your tire pressure before getting back out on the track.

The Michelin Track Connect system takes the guesswork out of tire pressures and helps you to make sure you’re getting the maximum performance from your Michelin tires. This won’t just help your lap times either, with proper pressures and temperatures, your tires will also last longer and save you money.

Currently the Michelin Track Connect system is only available for purchase in France, Germany and Switzerland and retails at €399. The tire sensors are reusable and have a guaranteed life of two years and have an estimated life of three years. You should be able to purchase the system in the United States via one of Michelin’s partners no later than 2019.

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Does the Audi RS5 Sportback force an upcoming BMW M4 Gran Coupe?

German car companies love to copy each other. We all know this. One brand creates a niche vehicle and the rest follow suit. It’s like clockwork, watching the rest of them scramble to come out with a competitor to each brand’s newest creation, immediately after its release. One such car that might create a German niche vacuum is the Audi RS5 Sportback which just recently debuted at the 2018 New York Auto Show.

The Audi RS5 Sportback is based on the standard A5 Sportback, a car that directly competes with the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe. The RS5 Sportback is just the most potent, high-performance and most powerful version. At the moment, the most potent version of the 4 Series Gran Coupe is the BMW 440i. There’s no M Performance version, nor is there a full-on M variant. What’s more, BMW has no plans on ever creating one, at least out of this generation. However, might the existence of the newly released Audi force BMW’s hand?

In New York, I watched as several executives from rival brands stood and quietly whispered about the Audi RS5 Sportback. It’s a very cool car and it had a lot of people talking. There were even some BMW folks, who shall remain unnamed, over at the Audi stand giving it praise. Not only that but there were BMW fans who were clamoring for a full-on M4 Gran Coupe now that they’d seen the RS5 Sportback. In fact, one very serious BMW fan proclaimed that, if they had the funds, they’d buy the RS5 Sportback because it fits their needs perfectly. A BMW M4 Gran Coupe would be this person’s perfect car if it existed but, because it doesn’t, they’d have to go Audi.

Just right there, BMW lost a sale. And I’m sure this person wasn’t the only one who feels that way. There’s clearly a market for such a car, as customers are loving these sleek, four-door “coupes” due to the fact that they provide the same sporty handling as their coupe alternatives while also providing sedan-levels or practicality or more. One BMW executive felt that the sedan is dying, with more and more customers preferring these new types of four-door coupes. So it’s evident that Audi is onto something by providing such a high-performance car in this segment.

We don’t know if BMW is currently planning an M4 Gran Coupe for the future generation. But if it isn’t, if the folks in Bavaria aren’t penning such a car right now, they should start because the Audi RS5 Sportback is in town and, until BMW does something about it, it’s the only place for customers to go.

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BMW UK celebrates 10,000 BMW i3 sales

BMW UK is celebrating a significant milestone as the 10,000^th BMW i3 was sold this week. This strong market position is not isolated to just the UK. In 2017, BMW Group sold more than 100,000 electrified vehicles and both BMW i and BMW iPerformance became the best-selling Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) brands worldwide.

BMW i vehicles are now sold in 74 countries and charging has never been easier with 130,000 ChargeNow accessible charge points worldwide with more than 6,000 in the UK alone .

In addition to successful vehicle registrations, the BMW i3 has been awarded many accolades since entering the market. This includes winning titles such as Car of the Year in 2014, Best Electric Car of the Year in 2017 an Best Zero Emission Car by Fleet News this year, to name a few of many.

Graeme Grieve, Chief Executive Officer, BMW UK commented: “This is an important moment for electric cars in the UK. With the electric vehicle market growing at astonishing pace, I am proud that the BMW i3 has played such a major role in promoting EV ownership.”

 

Model	2014	2015	2016	2017
BMW i3 Retail Sales	1,220	2,145	2,631	3,458

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Happy Easter!

I took this photo back on Easter 2006 when Duke was a baby. These were the days when I could follow my boys around with the camera and they could care less. Now they see it and run... Not to mention that Duke is now almost 5'9'' at 13... Times do change!

That is Paul's tricycle from his childhood. His mother purchased it for him used back in the 60's and we found it stashed away in the empty chicken pen when we moved into Paul's childhood home. Both my boys rode this trike and I still have it. I have a fondness for old stuff. Insert Paul's joke here where he says the same and looks over at me. Hee hee!!!

The kitty in the photo is Amber. I adopted her my first year in college and she lived to be almost 20 (another old thing I loved) and was my constant companion.  She was about 18 in that photo. She loved Duke so much and followed him everywhere. But sometimes she got on his last nerve, thus this captured moment of him shoving her away with his foot. I miss Amber...

I wanted to wish everyone a Wonderful Easter weekend! One of my sisters is in town (Heather) and my boys can't wait to play with their cousins. They will be here any minute and there is such anticipation in the air right now.

I promised the kids a scavenger hunt for Easter, a first for me. I usually frantically throw some chocolate in some plastic eggs on Sunday afternoon and throw them all around the yard. I will never win any mom awards for holiday planning, decorating, or executing...

But this year I wanted to do something special since the kids are older. The hunt will be in our house and yard and the clues will be left in plastic eggs. The clues will lead to their Easter basket which is already filled with goodies today since I planned ahead for once in my life.

Guess I better get those clues written ASAP. ;-)

I will be back early next week with my newest action!!! Happy Easter!

I edited this photo  of  Duke and Amber with the Freesia preset from the Pretty Presets "Color Luxe" collection.

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

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Video: Tuned BMW M6 vs Alpina B6 xDrive Gran Coupe Drag Race

The BMW M6 is about to get a spiritual successor in the shape of the BMW M8. In the meantime, the old model, which has gone out of production already, is still fascinating BMW fans all over the world. The best version of the two-door M car was, without a doubt, the Competition Package model, coming with 600 HP and a couple of other small changes done to the chassis to make the Coupe feel a bit more agile.

The guys from DragTimes had one in the vicinity for a couple of days thanks to a fan of their Youtube channel and they took it to the drag strip for a couple of runs against a couple of worthy adversaries. However, this time around, the tuned M6 showed its muscles on public roads and that’s definitely something we don’t condone, especially if you take a closer look at the standing start races, where the driver barely manages to keep control of his RWD car in beast mode.

The rival it goes up against today definitely has the edge when it comes to standing starts. We’re talking about an Alpina B6 xDrive Gran Coupe, a beautiful, luxurious four-door coupe that wasn’t meant to be a drag strip champion but turned out to perform rather good anyway. The two use roughly the same engine block but with different specs. Both cars have 4.4-liter V8 twin-turbo engines but while the M6 uses the S63 mill tuned by Dinan to make close to 700 HP, the Alpina uses a reworked version of the N63 mill, delivering 600 HP.

There’s more to it though, as the Gran Coupe comes with all-wheel drive and a specially configured 8-speed gearbox from ZF. Chip in the fact that the Alpina is heavier and the results of the drag races are pretty much obvious from the get go. From standstill, the Alpina will win the 1/4 mile while the M6 will take the win from a rolling start every time thanks to its superior torque and power figures.

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Video: Tuned BMW M135i Compared to Stock BMW M2

The guys from Autocar recently bough a first-gen BMW M135i and decided to try and figure out just how much money they’d have to invest in it to make it capable of hanging with the brand new BMW M2 and other M cars. The idea is to figure out if there’s a clear answer to the question everyone has these days: should you buy a pre-owned vehicle and tune it or a brand new car altogether?

The BMW M135i was bought on the second-hand market and has been put through quite an enhancing process to maybe turn it into a proper M car. It had 30,000 miles on the clock when it was bought back in the summer of 2017 and is now a different car altogether. After replacing the suspension with Eibach springs tuned by the people over at Birds, a Quaife LSD was added to the mix, along with a shortshift kit and a modified clutch.

Last, but not least, the N55 engine under the hood received an engine tune taking the power levels up to 390 HP and 420 lb-ft of torque. The whole shebang added up to about £6,600 which add up to the £17,500 the guys spent on the car in the first place, for a total of over £24,000. By comparison, the BMW M2 they are comparing against here has a MSRP of £44,070 and comes with less power and torque.

In the end, the obvious things do make these two cars a bit different and in interesting ways. Whilst the M135i is the more powerful and faster car of the two, the M2 is still the one you want the most. It’s the real deal and it handles better, despite everything that went into the hatch. Sure, it’s more expensive and that’s going to be the most important thing in some people’s books but overall, if you can afford it, get it.

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The best cars we saw at the 2018 New York Auto Show

Now that the press days for the 2018 New York Auto Show are over, and the public is now free to go and check it out, we thought we’d give a bit of a recap of what we saw there. Before heading to the NYIAS, we thought it would be a quiet show. BMW didn’t have any big news, really, and we weren’t hearing much from automakers. But it turned out to be a better show than we originally expected. So let’s talk about the best cars we saw in New York, so when you, the public goes, you know what to look for.

BMW

Let’s start with BMW, being that most of you are BMW enthusiasts. To be honest, there weren’t a lot of new cars there but there were some cool things to see. For instance, there were a ton of great colors. BMW killed it this year with bringing some really interesting colored cars to the show. There was a Dakar Yellow BMW M3 (my personal favorite), a British Racing Green BMW M6 Gran Coupe, a Fire Orange M4 Convertible and an Individial Nardo Grey BMW M760i. Nardo Grey is typically an Audi color but it’s another personal favorite and it looked very cool on the big V12-powered Bimmer. The BMW i8 Roadster was also there, looking good, as well as the ALPINA B7 and the brand-new BMW X4 M40i.

 

Audi

While BMW’s stand was sort of quiet, Audi’s was anything but. They had the worldwide debut of the new Audi RS5 Sportback, a car that had many people very excited. The standard Audi A5 Sportback is a competitor to the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, so the RS5 Sportback is what a BMW M4 Gran Coupe would compete with, if it existed. And seeing the RS5 Sportback made us yearn for an M4 Gran Coupe. I’m a big fan of the RS5 Sportback and thought it looked great. I also love how Audi had the stones to make a worldwide debut with a green sports car. Excellent. Oh, and it packs a 450 hp 2.9 liter twin-turbo V6 and can hit 60 mph in 4 seconds or less, while have a pretty huge trunk and back seats. Sign us up.

Audi also had the new A8 there and its interior and luxury was seriously impressive. We haven’t driven the A8 yet but, just judging from the interior, it might have it over the BMW 7 Series. The seats are sensationally comfortable and the build quality is other-worldly. It also features some pretty slick tech and the best touchscreen infotainment system I’ve ever used. Again, we haven’t driven it so I can’t say how good that touchscreen will be while driving but, from just sitting at the auto show and using it, color me impressed. Hell, even some BMW people were coming by and looking at it, impressed by it and felt that an M4 Gran Coupe should be made.

There was also the new Audi R8 RWS (Rear-Wheel Series), which is the first-ever rear-wheel drive Audi and it’s flipping awesome. The idea of a rear-wheel drive, mid-engine, naturally-aspirated V10-powered supercar is awesome in itself but then you add it its fantastic looks, impressive tech and everyday usability and the R8 RWS is one of the coolest cars on the planet.

 Volvo

If Volvo just made the XC40, I think it’d be a successful car company. That little crossover is going to sell like crazy and deservedly so. It looks fantastic, has a cool, quirky and modern interior and sports some pretty good cargo space. If I were shopping in that segment, between the XC40, BMW X1 and Jaguar E-Pace, I’d have a hard time not picking the Volvo. It just has so much character and it looks so good.

Genesis

Even just a few years ago, if you had told a car enthusiast that one of the most exciting cars to see at an auto show would be an electric Hyundai, they’d laugh at you. While Genesis is technically not a Hyundai anymore, as Genesis is now an individual brand under Hyundai, similar to Lexus and Toyota, it’s still associated. However, the Genesis Essentia Concept was one of the coolest cars we saw in New York. A fully electric, rear-wheel drive, grand-touring car with futuristic Roaring ’20s styling and a 0-60 mph time of three seconds? I don’t care what brand makes it, that’s pretty damn cool.

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