BMW M Club Drivers Crash Into Each Other on Moscow Streets

A pleasurable drive on the city streets of Moscow, Russia, turned into a nightmare for several members of a local BMW M Club this past Saturday, after a number of cars crashed into each other.

Video footage from one of the cars involved in the accident as well as from another, unrelated vehicle discovered online (3rd clip, skip to 1:06), shows that the pileup occurred when the driver of a blue E34 M5 sedan turned on his blinker and veered towards the right lane at the same time that a mustard-colored E46 M3 Coupe was coming from behind.

As a result, the driver of the M3 lost control and smashed into the BMW with the camera (reportedly the blue E90 M3 sedan), which was then rear-ended by a 1-Series M Coupe.

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40 Years of BMW M Production Cars and Racers in Pictures

In May of 1972, Bayerische Motoren Werke, more commonly known as BMW, gave birth to a very special division that would not only shape the company's future products, both on the road and on the track, but also inspire its main rivals to follow its example. That subdivision was BMW Motorsport GmbH.

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New BMW 114i with 1.6L Turbo and M135i Presented in Five-Door Hatchback Body Styles

Over the weekend, BMW lifted the covers off the three-door 1-Series, which introduced two brand new models to the range, the 114i and M135i. As expected, both of these variants will also be available on the five-door version of the 1-Series.

As a quick reminder, the 114i features a de-tuned version of the 116i's 1.6-liter four-cylinder petrol engine with a twin scroll turbocharger rated at a pitifully low 101hp (102PS) and 180Nm (133 lb-ft).

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New BMW 1-Series Three-Door Hatchback with 101hp to 315hp for the M135i

Almost a year after the introduction of the second generation of the 1-Series five-door hatchback, BMW has presented a second body variant to the range in the form of the three-door hatchback plus a new flagship model, the M135i, which we first saw in pre-production trim at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

The new three-door model inherits the styling of the five-door 1-Series with the only change worth mentioning being the wider doors with frameless windows. The car's exterior dimensions are the same as the 5d model's at 4,324 mm (170.2-in.) long, 1,765 mm (69.5-in) wide, and 1,421 mm (55.9-in.) tall with a wheelbase of 2,690 mm (105.9-in).

BMW says that compared to the previous 1-Series 3d, the new car offers more rear legroom (+21mm) and a 30 liter larger luggage compartment with a total volume of 360lt.

The three-door hatchback model's engine range mirrors that of its more practical sibling with the addition of two brand new petrol units, one at each end of the spectrum for the 114i and M135i.

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Double M: BMW Prepares M Performance Editions of M3 Coupe and M5 Sedan

We get it that BMW wants to leave no stone unturned when it comes to serving its customers, but we must admit that introducing M Performance variants of its M brand cars makes about as much sense as buttering both sides of your toast.

"Our new BMW M Performance Models are geared toward customers looking for high performance for everyday use," are the words BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer used to describe the M Performance sub-brand.

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BMW Brings M Performance Parts for New 3-Series and 5-Series Sedans to the USA

Like all carmakers or any other company for that matter, BMW would like to be the one that customers go to when it comes to aftermarket products. While the Bavarian automaker has been offering Performance Parts for years, we will now come to know the components under the M Performance Parts brand name.

Today, BMW announced the availability of a new lineup of M Performance Parts for the latest 2012 3-Series and 2011-2012 5-Series sedans in the U.S. market. The range comprises chassis, aerodynamic, cockpit and powertrain components.

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Spied: New BMW M135i Three-Door Hatch Flexes its Turbo'd Straight-Six on the Nürburgring

After presenting the M135i Concept sports hatch at last month's Geneva Motor Show, BMW is now concentrating on finishing the development of the production model that will arrive in European showrooms either at the end of this year or in early 2013.

If you exclude the patches of swirly camouflage on the car's profile and the lack of the M Performance brand's traditional tricolor stripes on the sides, nothing else has changed over the prototype model.

The production M135i is based on the soon to be revealed three-door hatchback body-style of the latest 1-Series adding an assortment of M aero parts such as the front bumper, side skirts amd a different rear bumper that accommodates an integrated diffuser and dark chrome-trimmed exhausts pipes.

Other parts worth mentioning include the mirror caps in Ferric Grey and side window surrounds in gloss black plus the new 18-inch alloy wheels.

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BMW M Boss Confirms AWD for M135i, Says Company is Considering M Performance 7-Series

The crew over at Car&Driver magazine recently sat down for a chat with the president of BMW’s M division, Friedrich Nitschke, who had some very interesting things to say about the sub-brand's future products.

While Nitschke made it clear that the upcoming M135i that was displayed in concept trim at the Geneva Motor Show this March won't be coming to the United States, he confirmed that the six-cylinder turbocharged hatch will be offered in the rest of the world with optional all-wheel drive as well as a choice of manual and automatic transmissions.

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Hartge's Untamed BMW 1 M Coupe Pushes Out 396-horses

Joining a multitude of tuners that have worked over the BMW 1 M Coupe this past year is Hartge. The German company's program includes both performance upgrades and styling modifications for the M version of the 1-Series Coupe.

The tweaking starts under the hood with a Hartge power kit and a sports exhaust system that improve upon the standard model's 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six lifting output from 335hp (340PS) to 396hp (401PS) at 5,850 rpm and maximum torque from 450Nm to 530Nm (391 lb-ft) at 2,950 rpm.

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SPIED: BMW's New M3 Sedan Drops Two Cylinders but Gains Turbochargers

The engineers over at BMW's M division have their hands full with a variety of upcoming projects, one of which is the new M3 captured here in a sedan body style.

The first thing you'll need to know about the next M3 saloon and its two-door siblings (rumor has it they may be named M4), is that the current model's 4.0-liter naturally-aspirated V8 will give its place to a smaller displacement six-cylinder engine that will follow the example of the M5 employing the use of turbochargers.

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Chris Harris Test Drives BMW's Tri-Turbocharged and Diesel-Powered M550d xDrive Sedan

The new BMW M550d xDrive may be a forbidden fruit in the largest English-speaking markets of the world but that doesn't make the diesel-powered sports saloon any less interesting.

In the latest edition of his online show, DRIVE, Chris Harris sat in the driver's seat of the new BMW M Performance car and took it for a test drive.

Before you watch the video after the break, we'll remind you that the M550d xDrive sports a 3.0-liter inline-six diesel with three turbochargers sending 381PS (375bhp) and a monstrous 740Nm (546 lb-ft) of peak torque to all-four wheels through a standard 8-speed automatic for a 0-100km/h (62mph) sprint time of just 4.7 seconds.

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