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Rolls-Royce Cullinan and BMW 8 Series spied south of Death Valley

Recently, we've stumbled upon a number of manufacturer prototypes running around. Usually, spy photographers sit and wait for hours with cameras primed in order to get a few shots of a car. We just got lucky. First, we caught the new Chevy Corvette ZR1 convertible during a Facebook Live video. A week or so later McGraw snapped a video of a ZR1 coupe cruising in his neck of the woods. Today, our ace photographer Drew Phillips caught a BMW test fleet filling up the new Rolls-Royce Cullinan and 8 Series coupe in Baker, Calif. Baker sits along Interstate 15, about halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It's just south of Death Valley, and, being late August, suggests that BMW was doing some hot weather testing. Drew was filling up his car when the fleet rolled in. There were at least two of the new king Rolls and a single 8 Series. Both cars were wearing a full swirl camouflage wrap. It's not an uncommon place to see prototypes. Still, seeing a whole fleet roll in is quite a sight. We've seen official photos of the Cullinan before, but these pictures give us our best view of the profile and rear we've had so far. From a distance, it looks like a high-riding version of the new Phantom with a hatch in place of the trunk. The taillights are obviously just filler units. Expect the final version to look very much like the squared off LED units on the Phantom. Likewise the interior and engine should be straight from the Phantom. That means a twin-turbocharged V12, though power is likely to be sent to all four wheels. We've seen the full BMW 8 Series concept a few times now. The proportions on the production car look the same, with a long hood and even longer wheelbase. The nose isn't quite as aggressive as the concept, but we expected the styling to be toned down to meet crash and safety standards. As for engines, look for six, eight and (hopefully) 12-cylinder power under the hood. A plug-in variant is also expected. Both cars have been in development for a long while, so look for full debuts sometime this auto show season. Maybe we'll happen upon some more test mules between now and then. Related Video:

BMW against Merkel's female board member quota in Germany

There may soon be more women in power positions in the world of German business under a proposed law from Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government. If passed, the law would force large, publicly traded corporations to have female members make up at least 30 percent of their supervisory boards (which are responsible in part for business strategy) by 2016. In addition, all companies would have to increase the female proportion on their management boards, which conduct regular business. The law seems likely to pass next month. "We've decided to do this and it will happen," said Merkel in a speech about the new rule, according to Bloomberg. Women currently have just six percent of management board seats in the country. Big businesses in the country aren't on board with proposed law, including automakers. "BMW as a company doesn't believe in quotas," said spokesperson Jochen Frey to Bloomberg. "While we hold that opinion, we want and strive for diversity in our workforce in terms of gender, ethnicity and age." Currently, 25 percent of Bimmer's supervisory board is female, a bit higher than the national average in Germany of 22 percent. German car companies are hardly alone when it comes to having a paucity of women in positions of power. Honda only added its first female member to the automaker's board of directors earlier this year, and Toyota and Nissan showed similarly low numbers. A 2013 list from Fortune ranked many of the most powerful women in the auto industry as coming from North America.

2015 BMW X4 configurator is ready to get personal

The 2015 BMW X4 configurator is ready for your special touch. Starting with the 300-horsepower xDrive35i that starts at $48,925 after destination, our special touch aimed at a luxury cruiser and added $9,250 to proceedings for a final tally of $58,175. That got us the Technology, Lighting and Driver Assistance packages, navigation and enhanced USB and smartphone integration. We were tempted to go for the Dynamic Damping Control for just $1,000 and a set of 20-inch M Double Spoke Wheels, but the configurator didn't want to mix the M Sport Line with our Sparkling Brown metallic exterior hue so we skipped it.
We've covered the details on pricing and the breakdown of the order guide elsewhere, so you can always click through for refreshers. Or you can skip all those words and dive straight into trying to build an X4 that makes you say, "Yeah, now I get it."