Morning Reads: 5 September 2007

[mika]

Today’s Birthdays / Calendar



Thank you all for the wonderful comments yesterday. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. : wave


BMW in the News

reviewcentre.com
BMW F800ST

BMW was in the pack –
cycleworld.com
Ten Speeders – The 10 fastest production bikes made, all in one place

f1complete.com
Heidfeld wields secret weapon for Monza.

TED: Ideas worth spreading
TED Blog,Conferences, Themes, Talks and Speakers



Page 2:
BMW Press: News and press releases from the official BMW sources


News:

informotori.co.uk
Bimota DB5 Borsalino



thekneeslider.com
Your perfect custom motorcycle is on sale now.

Okay so they were wrong –
thekneeslider.com
Custom SV650 Cycle World Custom Winner

Cycle World’s take on Alton Brown
cycleworld.com
A moveable feast

motorcycleclassics.com
Bonneville vs. Lightning: Battle of the Twins

Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly
School of Chop Kennedy Chopper Class

A sample teaser from -
classicbikeguide.com
Italian stallion – simply Magni-ficent



Paperwork Rider – roadrider.com.au
What to take – A tools ‘n’ papers checklist for that long ride

citybike.com
Trials and Tribulations

roadandtrack.com
Side Glances: Summers here and the time is right…

Packer News

jsonline.com
Packers Plus Online


The News-Record – Gillette Wyoming


Bike Reviews:

motorcyclist-online.com
Road Test: 2007 Suzuki Bandit 1250 Solid as a rock!


Blog Update

Foreign Language Blogs


Gear:

Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly
Aerostich Courier Bag

beatnikbiker.com
New Covertec laptop bags


Over Heard in New York | Voice of the City


M.R. Traveler

motorcycleclasics.com
Head to the Barber Vintage Festival for the "Bikes of 2007" Contest and more

motocycleclassics.com
Destinations: Newcomb’s Ranch Flintridge, CA


Today’s RoadFood.com



Woot

Todays Woot

The Blog


xkcd A webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language

Sluggy Freelance


Bike Candy:



From: Motorcycles of the 20th Century

THE END

[mika]

BMW Press: News and press releases from the official BMW sources

World of BMW News

Boxers at the Bol dÔÇÖOr

Unique chance to ride off-road in the Pyrenees

BMW Motorrad Rider Equipment

Husqvarna

Continued podium success for Seb Guillaume


BMW GroupPress Club:

PressClub Canada

BMW Group sets August sales record.

Whitby, Ontario. BMW Group Canada reported today a new sales record for the month of August. With a reported 2,151 BMW and MINI vehicles sold, BMW Group CanadaÔÇÖs sales increased 7.4% in August compared to August 2006. BMW Group also achieved a year-to-date sales record with an increase of 20.9% or 18,749 units, compared to the same period last year.
BMW Brand: BMW brand sets August sales record.

The BMW brand achieved a sales record in the month of August with 1,856 automobiles sold, an increase of 5.8% over August 2006. The BMW 3 Series Coup?® and Cabriolet continue to be hot sellers with their consistent and significant sales increases. In August, sales of the AJAC award winning 3 Series Coup?® were up 539.5%. The 3 Series Cabriolet, with BMWÔÇÖs first retractable hard top roof, witnessed a 262.2% increase in sales in August.

The BMW brand set a new year-to-date sales record. Year-to-date, 16,232 BMWs were sold, an increase of 22.6% compared to the same period last year.

ÔÇ£BMW and MINI enjoyed a strong August and we look forward to continued success as the new 2008 line-up begins to hit Canadian soil,ÔÇØ said Lindsay Duffield, President and CEO, BMW Group Canada.

BMW Motorrad Canada experienced its best ever August sales month with 127 motorcycles sold, up 36.6% from August 2006. Year-to-date, BMW Motorrad has increased sales by 28.9% to 1,273 units, compared to the same period last year.

ÔÇ£BMW MotorradÔÇÖs enhanced sport orientation is powering success in the showrooms and on the track,ÔÇØ said Norm Wells, Director, BMW Motorrad Canada. ÔÇ£Year-to-date sales are up nearly 30%. This past weekend, BMW Motorrad Canada was successful in winning the overall Canadian Thunder motorcycle racing series with the R1200S Sport Boxer. With such dynamic and exciting new products, we have been successful attracting new consumers to the brand.ÔÇØ

BMW Certified Pre-Owned sales for August increased 4.1% to 504 units. Total pre-owned sales for August were 742 units, an increase of 6.5% compared to August 2006. Year-to-date, Certified Pre-Owned sales are up 21.6%, translating to 4,362 units retailed. Total BMW Pre-Owned sales have increased 12.5% year-to-date to 5,886 units.

MINI Brand: MINI sales up 19% in August.

MINI sales were up 19.0% in August with 295 MINIs hitting the road in Canada. MINI set a year-to-date sales record of 2,517 units, an increase of 10.8% compared to the same period last year.

BMW Group Canada, based in Whitby, Ontario, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW AG and is responsible for the distribution of BMW luxury performance automobiles, Sports Activity Vehicles, Motorcycles, and MINI. BMW Group Financial Services Canada is a division of BMW Group Canada and offers retail financing and leasing programs on new and pre-owned BMW and MINI automobiles, as well as retail financing for new and pre-owned BMW Motorcycles. A total network of 38 BMW automobile retail centres, 18 BMW motorcycle retailers, and 22 MINI retailers represents the BMW Group across the country.
- 30 -

PressClub South Africa

Chose your adventure with Ayres Adventures


PressClub USA

No Motorcycle Numbers ÔÇô

BMW GROUP (USA) REPORTS STRONG AUGUST SALES

August sales for the Group (BMW and MINI) increase 19.3 percent
Woodcliff Lake, NJ - September 4, 2007... The BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) reports strong August sales of 30,639 vehicles, an increase of 19.3 percent over the 25,673 vehicles sold in August 2006. The BMW Group also increased its year-to-date sales volume to 223,341 vehicles, up 8.1 percent, compared to 206,530 vehicles in the same period of 2006.

BMW Brand Sales

Sales of BMW brand vehicles increased 18.5 percent in August for a total of 26,562 compared to 22,421 reported in the same month a year ago. Year-to-date BMW brand sales are up 8.7 percent, to 195,436 vehicles compared to 179,724 vehicles sold in the same period in 2006.

BMW Automobile Sales
BMW's automobile sales are up 22.1 percent in August to 20,825 versus 17,053 in the same month a year ago. Year-to-date sales also increased 9.3 percent, to 153,304 automobiles compared to 140,250 in the same period of 2006.

BMW Sports Activity Vehicle Sales
Sales of BMW Sports Activity Vehicles increased by 6.9 percent in August to 5,737 vehicles over the 5,368 sold last August. Year-to-date, sales of BMW Sports Activity Vehicles are up 6.7 percent, to 42,132 vehicles compared to the 39,474 sold in the first eight months of 2006.

MINI Brand Sales

MINI USA reported August sales of 4,077 automobiles, up 25.4 percent from the 3,252 cars sold in August 2006. Year-to-date, the division reports sales of 27,905 automobiles, an increase of 4.1 percent, compared to the 26,806 cars reported in the first eight months of 2006.

BMW Certified Pre-Owned

Sales of BMW's Certified Pre-Owned vehicles are up 11.2 percent, and the company reports its best August ever with sales of 7,462 CPO vehicles versus 6,713 vehicles reported last August. Year-to-date, CPO sales are down 1.9 percent, to 57,024 over the 58,129 reported in the same period in 2006.

BMW Group In America
BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, an industrial design firm in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group's global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all Z4 models and X5 Sports Activity Vehicles. The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger car centers, 335 BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 142 BMW motorcycle retailers, 82 MINI passenger car dealers, and 30 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group's sales headquarters for North, Central and South America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.


Motorsports PressClub

BMW Sauber F1 Team - Interview with Willy Rampf

Interview with Willy Rampf, Technical Director of the BMW Sauber F1 Team.
"If we used our Monaco car in Monza we'd be over 50 km/h slower."

Munich/Hinwil, 4th September 2007. The Italian Grand Prix in Monza represents a unique challenge for drivers and engineers alike. Willy Rampf, Technical Director of the BMW Sauber F1 Team, explains how he and his colleagues go about preparing for this race.

What makes Monza such a special track?

Willy Rampf, Technical Director: "Monza is a classic high-speed circuit with extremely long straights, comparable only really with the old GP track at Hockenheim. At four points during a lap, the drivers hit speeds well in excess of 300 km/h and 76 percent of the lap is spent at full throttle. This is significantly more than at any other Formula One track, and that is why we run lower downforce at Monza than anywhere else over the course of the season."

What does that mean for the car's aerodynamics?

Rampf: "We have developed a 'low-downforce package' of special aerodynamic parts for this race. At Monza we run less rear wing than at any other circuit. And in order to achieve the right aero balance we have also redeveloped and adapted the front wing. In addition, we examine the aerodynamic efficiency of all the car's detachable parts for Monza. Only the most efficient of these are left on the car. Indeed, we remove several elements, as doing so enhances performance. We are taking the opposite approach to the way we prepare for Monaco, for example, where we generally add every part to the car that will generate extra downforce."

Staying with Monaco for a moment - how much less downforce do you run in Monza compared to the street circuit in the principality?

Rampf: "In Monaco the cars only reach 290 km/h at one point on the circuit, whereas in Monza they comfortably exceed 300 km/h in four places. For this reason the engineers set out to minimise drag, and that means giving away around a third of the car's downforce. In Monaco downforce is everything, while in Monza the drag coefficient plays a major role. Having said that, you can't afford to neglect downforce altogether. After all, the drivers also need to be able to brake late and accelerate quickly through the corners."

How do the top speeds of the two tracks compare with one another?

Rampf: "The low-downforce package allows the F1.07 to hit a maximum speed of around 350 km/h at the end of the start/finish straight in Monza. If we were to run the car in Monaco specification the drivers would not reach 300 km/h, as the engine output would no longer be sufficient to overcome the mushrooming air resistance."

How did the contributions of the wind tunnel and the supercomputer with Intel processors compare in the development of the aero parts?

Rampf: "The two are closely intertwined. The development of these parts involves interaction between the knowledge gained in the wind tunnel and the results of computer-aided flow simulation, otherwise known as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). CFD and the wind tunnel are mutually beneficial. CFD has advantages when it comes to the development of wing concepts, for example. The wind tunnel, on the other hand, is unsurpassed in perfecting the car's overall aerodynamic set-up."

How do you adapt the car mechanically for the Monza circuit?

Rampf: "In addition to achieving the highest possible top speed, it is also critical for the drivers to be able to drive aggressively over the kerbstones. The track features three chicanes leading into full-throttle sections. It is important to nail a fast exit from these corners, and to do that you need sufficient traction. The mechanical set-up of the car represents a tricky compromise. It has to be soft enough to ride the kerbs efficiently and provide good traction, but go too soft and you'll be short on stability through the high-speed corners."

What kind of stress do these track characteristics place on the brakes?
Rampf: "When it comes to the brakes, Monza literally blows hot and cold. On the one hand the long straights give them a lot of time to recover, but braking from seriously high speeds generates extreme loads every time. The end of the start/finish straight is the hardest braking zone of the entire season, the drivers slowing from 350 km/h to 70 km/h within the space of three seconds and enduring maximum deceleration of 5 g. The brake discs, meanwhile, briefly reach temperatures of well over 1,000 degrees Celsius. What makes braking under these conditions particularly tricky is that on the long straights the carbon discs cool down more than the drivers would like - to under 400 degrees. When they then stamp down with some 100 kilograms of pressure on the brake pedal, for a split second or two the brakes do not bite with full power. That is something the drivers have to be prepared for."

And what about the loads on the engine?
Rampf: "Monza makes the engines work harder than at any other GP. This circuit boasts the highest full-throttle percentage - 76 percent - of any venue on the calendar. This means that the engines are running for exceptionally long periods at high revs. However, we don't expect any problems since the homologated engines are designed to withstand loads of this order."
Printable versions of the sketches can be found at www.press.bmwgroup.com. Click on "BMW Motorsport PressClub", then "Photo", "2007", "Formula One" and "Technology, research and development".


BMW Sauber F1: Website

BMW Motorsport

BMW Yachtsport

BMW Golfsport

BMW Oracle Racing

BMW Sport website

[PAULBACH]

Good find Mika!

Good material and good source of reviews.

The F800ST gets a 10/10 for reliability.

And it has a belt drive for final drive.

Check out the review. <- Check it out.