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Police smash sinking BMW window with rock to save woman trapped inside

Two quick-thinking police officers in New Zealand saved a woman's life after her BMW somehow ended up in the the ocean on Tuesday afternoon. Witnesses told Stuff.co.nz the woman drove off of a rock wall surrounding a parking lot at Waitemata Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, and into the ocean. Her BMW immediately began filling with sea water. Bystanders called police and made their own attempts to save the woman. Officers Paul Watts and Simon Russell also tried to open her car doors and smash the windows with a baton. Their failed efforts wasted precious time. The woman soon had to crawl toward the back window, the last part of her car not completely submerged in water. Officer Watts smashed the window with a rock and they were finally able to pull her to safety. Watts told The New Zealand Herald the woman was moments away from drowning. Seconds after extracting her the car sank completely into the ocean. "It was pretty close, probably 30 or 40 seconds after we managed to get the female out of the car, the car was already slipping further into the water," Watts told the Herald. Police are still investigating what caused the accident. The woman was in shock and suffered cuts and bruises. She is in stable condition at a local hospital. Related Video: News Source: Stuff.co.nz, The New Zealand Herald BMW Videos

Behind the Scenes of BMW's 'Drift Mob,' Part 2 [w/video]

After spending four days practicing about a dozen drift stunt moves in a parking lot for an upcoming BMW "Drift Mob" internet mini-film, Rhys Millen, Sam Hübinette, Dai Yoshihara, Rich Rutherford, and Conrad Grunewald are finally ready for show time. We are brought to the huge urban traffic circle to see the stunts performed midway through the day to observe for a couple of hours.
The undertaking is massive, with multiple cameras set up, scores of crew members, a helicopter filming from above, a rigged pickup for car-to-car shots, sidewalks lined with security and plenty of curious onlookers, and oh, yeah, a major intersection of a top world city shut down for an entire weekend.
The five drifting legends are nestled in their identical red BMW M235i coupes, which have been modified with special handbrakes but essentially nothing else you can't get on a stock version, and are listening to direction from director Mic Rodgers and stunt coordinator Riley Harper. We're basically given free rein of the set, to shoot the cars, the drivers, and at one point, even hopping in with Yoshihara for one of the admittedly more tame stunts. Even then, the g-forces are so severe that they flip our cameraphone's video recording from landscape mode to portrait. Yes, this is a pretty cool day to be reporting on cars, and as we said during our first installment of our behind the scenes coverage of Drift Mob, we're honored to be the only US media outlet here to tell the tale.

Next BMW X1 moving to smaller, lighter FWD-biased platform

BMW's decision to make the upcoming 2-Series Active Tourer front-wheel drive has been polarizing to say the least, but like it or not, that is the direction the company will go in the near future - one rumor put the number as high as 23 front-wheel-drive models for Mini and BMW combined. The next-generation X1 won't send all its power to the front wheels, though, when it launches in early 2016. While it will use the same platform as the Active Tourer, rumors suggest all models will use all-wheel drive - at least at launch.
A "high-ranking," unnamed BMW manager confirmed to AutoWeek that the new model will switch to transversely-mounted three- and four-cylinder engines and the same six-speed manual and eight-speed automatic transmissions as the Active Tourer. The new, smaller platform will allow for more efficient packaging, and despite the smaller size, interior space will remain comparable. All the changes should make it significantly lighter too.
Don't start wailing just yet because BMW surely won't be entirely abandoning sporty models. AutoWeek claims that the Bavarians are working on a higher-output version of the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with power closer to 300 horsepower, about a 72-hp boost. It's also rumored to offer a sporty version of the X1 that may be called the X2.