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BMW's DTM champ swaps rides with Mini's Dakar winner

BMW may not race in F1 any longer, and it doesn't compete with Audi and Porsche in the LMP1 class at Le Mans. It even shut down Mini's short-lived effort on the World Rally Championship. But that doesn't mean it doesn't race at all. In fact it's the current reigning champion both in DTM and at Dakar. So to highlight its varied motorsport programs, the German automaker had two of its top drivers swap rides. German driver Martin Tomczyk, who won the DTM title in 2011 and now drives for BMW, took to Nasser Al-Attiyah's Mini All4Racing Countryman on the sand dunes of Dubai. Meanwhile the Qatari driver, who has won the Dakar Rally two times now, took to the wheel of Tomczyk's BMW M4 DTM around Oschersleben in Germany. They even repeated the game of musical chairs at Hockenheim over the weekend. If anything, the promo clip shot by Red Bull just goes to show how different the varied racing machinery can be, and the challenges posed to racing drivers switching between disciplines. But lessons aside, it's a cool clip, so check it out above. Two champions swap cockpits: Martin Tomczyk drives the MINI ALL4 Racing, Nasser Al-Attiyah the BMW M4 DTM. Munich (DE), 1st May 2015. From asphalt to sand and back again: BMW DTM driver Martin Tomczyk (DE) and MINI ALL4 Racing ace Nasser Al-Attiyah (QA) both entered unfamiliar territory and took each other's cars for a test drive. As part of a video shoot for BMW Motorsport Premium Partner Red Bull in Dubai (AE), Tomczyk, a proven master of his trade on asphalt as the 2011 DTM Champion, took the wheel of the MINI ALL4 Racing, with which X-raid has won the famous Rally Dakar the last four years. During DTM testing in Oschersleben (DE), Al-Attiyah was given the opportunity to drive Tomczyk's BMW M Performance Parts M4 DTM. Two wins at the Rally Dakar are just some of the successes the rally driver from Qatar has had to date. He followed up his first victory in 2011 by winning in the MINI ALL4 Racing in January 2015. "Driving the MINI ALL4 Racing through the sand and over the dunes in Dubai was a fascinating experience and was so much fun," said Tomczyk. "The car has an incredible amount of torwue – and the test in the dunes was an amazing adrenalin rush even for an experienced race driver such as myself. It's totally different to driving on a circuit.

Mini Vision Next 100 concept invokes an alternate universe

Sir Alec Issigonis, designer of the 1959 Mini, would probably find Mini's new Vision Next 100 concept amusing. The original Mini was largely an exercise in efficient packaging and clever engineering. That it was handsome, and became iconic, was more a product of its wild success than an intentional product of its exterior styling. While the Mini concept is undoubtedly cleverly packaged, it's almost purely a styling exercise, no matter what sort of futuristic connected/autonomous functionality Mini says it'll have. Mini doesn't seem able to move past the Mini as a caricature of itself. The heavy, floating roof, the vestigial round and friendly "headlamps", the oversized gauge pod. This seems very German, the inability to communicate essential brand attributes without using cliches. Mini is in a styling rut, trying to evolve the same basic styling language with each new generation, stretching it over larger hard points. The Vision Next 100 program would have been a great time to communicate to the public that Mini is more than just styling tropes: it's an attitude, a way of thinking, a connectedness to the driver. More than a badge or bug-eyed headlights. To its credit, the interior is massively decluttered. That's in part to the rear-engine layout, but more on that in a follow-up piece. The comparatively vast footwell and ultra-minimalist dash pair well with the giant windscreen. It feels light, airy, and authentic to the ideals of the originally Mini in terms of space efficiency, without being overly sentimental. Futurism is a thankless profession, and we can't take this concept literally as a vision of what the brand will be in 100 years. We can say this: it doesn't seem that Mini will be able to transcend the styling tropes that currently define Mini. Let's hope they find a way out of their rut. Related Video: Featured Gallery Mini Vision Next 100 Concept View 38 Photos Design/Style BMW MINI Coupe Hatchback Concept Cars Future Vehicles vision next 100

BMW discussing new plant with Mexican authorities

Drawn in by low wages and manufacturing costs, BMW could be the next automaker to set up a manufacturing facility in Mexico. Automotive News is reporting that the German automaker has had discussions with local Mexican governments regarding a possible assembly plant, but there is no word as to when a decision may come down. Last we heard, BMW was reportedly looking to build the 3 Series in Mexico.
A key determining factor for this new plant is a free-trade agreement between the US and Europe, which according to the article, would give BMW better "flexibility and cost structure" to open another plant in North America. In terms of luxury automakers, Audi is currently building a new plant in Mexico and Mercedes-Benz is considering opening one in conjunction with Nissan for the CLA-Class, and in the bigger picture, Honda and Mazda are also preparing to kick off vehicle production in Mexico.