Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy. Two Spocks of different eras brought together for a battle of speed and wits in Audi’s new commercial for the 420 horsepower S7 sedan . Quinto, our new Spock, returns for his second film in the upcoming “Star Trek: Into Darkness”, while Nimoy is a veteran of seven motion pictures and will forever be our #1 Spock. And while Quinto adds a wonderfully youthful flair to the character, let’s just say that there’s no replacement for tried and true experience.

Source: Youtube.com

PRO’s: Outstanding performance, extreme all-weather versatility, spacious enough for a family of 5.

CON’s: Peculiar styling, high price tag.

FINAL THOUGHT: An amazing SUV/crossover that may well be one of the fastest and most versatile vehicles that BMW has ever produced.

If you’re not sure whether the 2013 BMW X6 M is a car, truck or crossover, don’t feel bad because you’re not alone. You see this things got an identity crises, a bad one, and because of that consumers have been perplex by the X6 since its debut in 2008. I just spent a week with BMW’s X6 M and I can tell you this, I still have no idea what the hell it is, but I fell in love with it, and hot damn if it isn’t a riot of a performance vehicle.

Right off the bat you’ll notice the X6 M is different. It looks like nothing else on the road, runs a massive wheel and tire combo (front 275/40/20 rear 315/35/20), has enough grunt to flat-out embarrass most performance cars and is equipped with huge 15.6-inch front brake rotors that would stop a 747 that’s coming in for a landing. It’s also got more technology than the space shuttle, does an equally good job of defying gravity, yet, is just as home at a track day as it is hauling groceries home from the market.

When I took possession of the X6 M the first thing I did was look at the monroney (window sticker). The price, as optioned, was a whopping $100,895.00. That’s a big number, but one that, after romping on this thing, is really not that crazy. Think about it like this.

Here’s a vehicle that packs a 4.4-liter Twin-Turbo V-8 under the hood that makes 550 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque. It runs to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds, is electronically limited to 155 mph and has a personality that’s part Vegas stripper and part housewife.

The Vegas stripper part will obviously excite and entertain you, while the housewife portion will let one lead a proper upstanding life. For instance, there’s comfortable seating for 5 adults (the front seats are OUTSTANDING), plenty of room for luggage, it’s all-weather capable thanks to BMW’s all-wheel drive system and with every safety feature known to man, is probably the best place to be if something were to go wrong. Now granted fuel economy sucks at 12 city/17 hwy, but thanks to a large 22.4 gallon fuel tank, you’re still able to run around 300 miles between fill-ups.

Here’s some additional food for thought. Last year I ran a BMW X5 M in the One Lap of America. A vehicle that from a mechanical standpoint, is essentially identical. The race itself is a 3500 mile run around the United States that includes running on 8 racetracks in 7 days. It’s without a doubt the most grueling rally style event held in the U.S., and if you and your car make it, then be proud, very proud.

I drove that thing as hard as I would any performance car, and not only did it do well, but it exceeded my wildest expectations. I ran 152 mph down the back straight at Road America, was lifting two wheels off the ground at Hallet Raceway and hauling luggage for four adults over the 400-600 mile transit legs. In short, I was astonished at how good it was.

That experience also helped me justify the $100k price tag, the same one that’s on this X6 M. And while the majority of owners will never partake in an event like One Lap with their X6 M, the fact you can in a vehicle like this is mind-boggling.

I still can’t help but wonder though – why did BMW produce this thing when they already had such a great SUV with the X5 M? It just doesn’t make much sense to me. However, they do say that variety is the spice of life, and if that’s truly the case than rest assured that this 2013 BMW X6 M is hot enough to satisfy every one of your automotive needs.

Make it small, make it lite, make it fast. Those are the key ingredients for any well thought out sports car and something that BMW knew from the beginning. Therefore it should come as no surprise that their iconic 2002 is one of those machines. By today’s standards they are underpowered, but that doesn’t mean that they still don’t make one of the best platforms around for customization. Marc Norris’s Bavarian Workshop of West Hills, CA decided to take this concept and make it a reality with their own vision of what a factory BMW M2 might have been like.

Source: Youtube.com

Since the late 1980′s the BMW M3 has been one of the best cars out there offering up a great combination of performance, usability and style. Out of the box they’re outstanding machines, however over the years the M3 has seemingly become a watered-down version of its former self. So much so in fact that cars like the Boss 302 Mustang, and even BMW’s own 1M, can be offered up as competition. Everyday Driver decided to pit that aforementioned Ford and 1M against the M3 to see if the old boy should still retain its crown, or if it still brings out the same emotion the original car did all those years ago.

Source: Everyday Driver via The Smoking Tire

The perplexing thing about BMW’s M cars and anything with an AMG stamp on it is this – are they sports cars, full-on grand tourers or both? Both the BMW M6 and Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG are brutes when it comes to flat out power, speed and torque, but what about handling and overall road manners? Chris Harris of the DRIVE Network on Youtube recently took both of these cars out for a proper flogging to see if they do in fact fall into a specific category, or if they’re simply a Jack of all trades and master of none. Check it out after the jump.

Source: Youtube.com/DRIVE

In this, the third installment of Car and Driver’s 2013 Lightning Lap, we get to check out cars that range from $60,000 to $119,999. The competitors are all run at Virginia International Raceway under the same conditions until one winner from each class is proven. This episodes lineup includes the Mercedes-Benz C63 Black Series, the Porsche 911 Carrera S, Ford Shelby GT500, Porsche Boxster S, Audi RS 5, BMW M5, BMW M6 and the turbocharged Audi S6. These are some stout automobiles no doubt, but how will they hold up under the stresses of the raceway. Click through to find out.

Source: CarandDriver.com

Porsche vs Lotus, Toyota vs Morgan, BMW vs Porsche as well as a host of other great automobiles battle it out for the EVO Car of the Year 2012. Now while all of these battles are excellent the ones you really want to focus on are the Toyota GT86 vs the Morgan 3-Wheeler, and the McLaren 12c vs the Pagani Huayra. Sure the others are fun, but bang for the buck, these four automobiles should leave you coming away speechless.

Source: Youtube.com/EVOTV

Dear Mercedes-Benz,

The Motoring Public

* It pains me to see this much awful in one place.

* Perfection achieved.

Let me preface this video by saying that there’s a reason that the 2012 BMW M5 keeps getting compared to Nissan’s insanely good GT-R. First off both cars pump out similar power; the BMW, 552 hp and the GT-R, 542 hp. The BMW makes it’s power by way of a twin-turbo V8 and the GT-R a twin-turbo V6. Both cars have four usable seats and as grand touring cars they both excel above and beyond what’s expected. This is where the comparison gets a little foggy however. You see the GT-R is a knife edge performance sports car, whereby the M5 is a super saloon. They’re both amazing at what they do, however they do it in different ways. DRIVE’s Chris Harris recently jumped behind the wheel of both cars to not only give his impressions, but to go over the ins and outs of two of the world’s best automobiles.

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For almost $95k, I'll pass on the 1 Series M. Image: BMW AG

When BMW declared that their “affordable” 1 Series M coupe would be a limited production model, we immediately knew that dealers would price gouge on any inventory that hit their showrooms. It’s the first law of capitalism: when a product has a limited supply and high demand, prices go up. I’m fine with that within reason, but sometimes dealerships take things to extremes. One southern California BMW dealer has a new 1 Series M on their showroom floor, and they’d be happy to sell it to you for the low, low price of just $94,635.

That’s $40,000 over the car’s already high $54,635 asking price, which puts it firmly into bend over, grab your ankles and prepare to squeal like a pig territory. Ten grand over sticker is greedy, but four times that is obscene. Worse, there are probably buyers in SoCal willing to step up to the plate and spend that kind of money on it, just to be the first with a 1 Series M in their garage. Sure, the car is likely to appreciate over time, but you’d have to sit on a zero mile example well into the next century before it yielded that kind of return.

The message from the dealership is clear: we don’t actually want to sell the car, but if someone is stupid enough to pay us $40k over what BMW says we should charge for it, we’ll be happy to part said fool from his money. In a perfect world, BMW would yank the dealer’s franchise schnell, but we all know that isn’t likely to happen. The sad part is that other dealers are likely to gouge nearly as badly for these “collector’s” cars, which makes the 1 Series M an epic fail on the part of BMW. What good is a performance car that your target audience can’t possibly afford? What’s the sense in pricing a driver’s car so high that only rich collectors, worried more about image than lap times, can afford it?

I’ll give this advice to BMW, free of charge: if you want to bring young buyers into showrooms, affordable cars start in the mid-$20k range, not double or triple that.

Source: DPCcars