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BMW reacquires original factory as classic center

BMW was barely two years old when it started manufacturing airplane engines in a factory on Moosacher Strasse in Munich. Two years after that, it sold the factory to Knorr-Bremse AG, a leading manufacturer of brakes for trains and commercial vehicles, and BMW moved into a new facility on Lerchenauer Strasse. There it expanded into the industrial giant we know today, building engines for cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and planes. It's taken the better part of a century to get that original factory back, but that's exactly what BMW has done, reacquiring the expanded facility from Knorr-Bremse this month.
The factory on Moonsacher Strasse will now serve as the headquarters for BMW Group Classic, the division that handles archives and historical vehicles for BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce. From there, just a stone's throw from corporate headquarters and its main plant (as well as BMW Welt and the BMW Museum), the classic division's operations will include a restoration workshop, vintage parts store, the company's archives, administration as well as a place to hold events. In addition, there will be an exhibition space for historical vehicles from the company's considerable collection.
At the heart of the new/old campus is the gatehouse, which is a protected heritage site and will serve as a gateway into the company's history. Read the full details in the press release below.

2013 BMW R1200GS and HP4 duel at Circuito de Almeria

The 2013 BMW HP4 is the track-ready version of the manufacturer's already mighty S1000RR, which puts the bike at the very tip top of the two-wheeled BMW food chain. The R1200GS, meanwhile, is intended to be a somewhat more utilitarian machine. Capable of conveying both rider and gear over vast distances and uncertain terrain, the big-boy GS is the Swiss army knife to the HP4's rapier. Or at least that's what we've always been led to believe. BMW recently rolled out some footage during a press launch that showed the R1200GS is actually no slouch when it comes time to sling around a road course.
The company threw both bikes on Spain's Circuito de Almeria for a little sparring match, and miraculously, the HP4 didn't just up and walk away from the R1200GS. From from it. Instead, the two stay tightly matched through most of the course before something surprising happens. We won't spoil the ending for you. Is it possible the rider on the HP4 still had some in reserve? Sure, but from the sound and look of things, neither bike was giving an inch. Check out all the video action below for yourself.

2015 BMW Alpina B6 xDrive Gran Coupe

Alpina has been lovingly modifying BMWs for half a century, but as we learned during a tour of the company's HQ in Buchloe, Germany, Alpina has been in the wine distribution business for nearly as long. The company has an estimated million bottles on reserve in two warehouses and a beautiful wine cellar/tasting room on property in western Bavaria, just yards from where its 1,500 hand-crafted automobiles per year are produced.
What does that have to do with the new B6 Gran Coupe? Well, it may help make sense of the overall character of Alpina's automobiles, especially vis-à-vis the similarly priced, similarly powerful M Cars that BMW sells in far greater numbers. Alpinas are built by wine connoisseurs for wine connoisseurs, or wine connoisseur types; they are not rip-snortin' racecars for the road - that's M's domain. Alpinas are esoteric, rich in character and nuanced. But make no mistake: they are very, very fast.
Our brief first drive of the B6 Gran Coupe - the only 6 Series-based Alpina we'll get in the US for 2015 - took place on German autobahns and Austrian alpine roads, where the car is more at home than anywhere in the world, both literally and figuratively. With 540 horsepower and 540 pound-feet of torque on tap from its twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 and xDrive all-wheel drive, the B6 is said to be able to hit 60 miles per hour in 3.7 seconds on its way to a top speed of 198 mph, a massive 43 mph faster than the M6, which is electronically limited to 155 mph. Yet even at insane speeds - we saw an indicated 190 mph on one particularly lonely stretch of Autobahn - the B6 feels more luxurious than sporty, taking the countenance of a low-slung Bentley Continental GT or an Aston Martin Rapide S, not a knife-edged supercar. It doesn't feel scintillating like a Porsche 911 GT2; rather it feels rock steady, like the 4,780-pound luxury sedan it is.