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Formula Drift kicks off 11th season on Streets of Long Beach

The 2014 Formula Drift series kicked off last weekend in Long Beach, and saw Chris Forsberg, who you'll recall went mad and drifted around a warehouse in an Infiniti M, take the title behind the wheel of his Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z (shown above).
Forsberg really ran away with the first round of competition, outscoring his closest opponent, second-place finisher Kenneth Moen and his Bridges Racing Nissan 240SX, by 20 points. Third place was 2013 championship winner Michael Essa and his Yokohama BMW M3, 30.5 points behind Forsberg.
In the manufacturers' title, Nissan took an early lead with 122 points, which isn't a huge surprise considering five of the top ten drifters were piloting either a Z or a product of the brand's S platform. Ford, which had two drivers (Justin Pawlak and Vaughn Gittin, Jr.) in the top ten, took home second place, while BMW is currently third in the manufacturers' standings.

Orlando Bloom gets custom BMW S 1000 R by Deus Ex Machina

Gearheads can meet in the most unlikely of places. Take Orlando Bloom and Michael "Woolie" Woolaway. One was starring in a film where the other was working as a gaffer – we'll let you figure out which was which – and a friendship was kindled over their love for motorcycles. As it turns out, Bloom is a bit of a BMW bike enthusiast, and Woolie is the head of the famous Deus Ex Machina custom shop in Venice. The pair teamed up to create a custom four-cylinder Bimmer bike for Bloom based on the S 1000 R, and took it into the Malibu Hills for its first shakedown. Considering the Hollywood setting where they met, it should come as little surprise that they brought a film crew along to artfully document the experience, which you can watch in the four-minute clip above. BMW Motorrad and Orlando Bloom present the BMW S 1000 R Custom. Michael "Woolie" Woolaway from Deus Ex Machina turns Orlando Bloom's vision of a custom bike into reality. Munich/Los Angeles. Everyone knows Orlando Bloom as a successful actor, but not everyone knows about his passion for motorbikes. As a long-standing fan of BMW motorcycles, Orlando Bloom owns and rides a number of BMW models, including old classics. For his own custom bike project he specifically chose the BMW S 1000 R. He asked his good friend, Michael "Woolie" Woolaway, head of the Deus Ex Machina custom shop in Venice, CA, USA, to work with him to bring his custom S 1000 R vision into reality. The result of the cooperation, is a stunning one-off 4 cylinder bike. The S 1000 R Custom and Orlando Bloom had their first test ride in the Malibu Hills while shooting "4CYL", a production by Arthur de Kersauson and Clement Beauvais in cooperation with BMW Motorrad.

Alpina B3 Bi-Turbo burns all the midnight oil

We've got good news and bad news for you, boys and girls, from the floor of the Frankfurt Motor Show. The good news is that the BMW M3 has come early, with a diesel, in wagon form - albeit with a different name. The bad news is that it will in all likelihood never make it to America. Which is a shame, because it's awesome.
What we're talking about, of course, is the new Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo. BMW's wickedly talented but lesser know stepchild has created a 3 Series with a 3.0-liter twin-turbo diesel six packing 345 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. You - and by "you," we mean overseas buyers - can choose between sedan or wagon, as well as rear- or all-wheel drive. But the bottom line is a 4.6-second 0-62 time and a 173-mph top speed... from a diesel.
We scoped out the rear-drive wagon Alpina brought to the show, decked out in its signature blue. And you can, too, in the gallery of live shots above, along with the freshly assembled stock photos of both sedan and wagon versions in the gallery below.