There was a bit of a worry regarding BMW’s position on manual gearboxes when they’d (partially) limited the availability of such a thing in the latest M5 and M6 generations.

That worry seems to be fading as, once again, the patent office BMW use started leaking out some more details as to what they’re on about.

This time, the information doesn’t speak of a ton of new models or toys but a single product.

It’s quite the biggie though, it seems BMW is working on a new type of manual gearbox, one that comes with a Porsche approved number of gears; at seven.

Two images were leaked, both of them explaining the process behind BMW’s new gearbox in development. The first is quite easy to understand but the second comes in with too much of a technical incline required.

The first image of the BMW 7 speed manual is of the shifter knob and showcases the final gear being offside, in a rather unusual way.

The second image tries to explain how the system actually works and is basically a simple way in which BMW is telling us that they’ve engineered a solution to keep us from screwing up the shifts.

BMW have designed this gearbox so that you can’t make unfitting gear shifts. Apparently the principle is simpler than we can see on the prints since the new gearbox is based on the 7 speed M-DCT.

Hopefully, now that most of this stuff has been leaked BMW will provide a decent set of releases on the inner workings of the new gearbox or at least help us with what we’re thinking right now.

As seen on e90post

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

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The Bavarians are great at making their own cars and, as Rolls Royce and Mini teach us, they’re brilliant at making British ones as well.

Certainly, despite the Germans having a serious effect on the development of the two British brands they still manage to retain some of the appeal.

This might be the reason behind all the excitement we see in the reports coming in of how BMW might be working towards reviving the Triumph brand.

A smattering of British magazines, most notably Autocar, have gotten an idea of how BMW just filed in a new patent for the Triumph name.

Since it’s not your usual arrangement, the new paperwork gives people more hope. Not only is BMW holding on to the British sports car historic name but they’re also registering for the branded parafanelia that comes along.

There’s no desirability loss on the Triumph vehicle front but it’s pretty tricky to wonder what sort of vehicle BMW would build for the brand.

A lot of time has been spent on the subject and after seeing the Mini Roadster introduced the number of options available is definitely slimming down.

Basically, all that’s left would be for BMW to make a cheaper, stripped out version of their Z4 roadster and something of an open top BMW 1 Series M Coupe (maybe a targa top?).

The first has already been shot down before on account of some dealer and overall distribution problems. If the Bavarians have worked things out it could be brilliant.

An N20 powered version of these cars under the Triumph name could end up as being the ultimate rival for the likes of the Toyota GT86 or even the upcoming Alfa Romeo 4C.

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Marcus M.

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The F20 BMW 1 Series has been left at the back of the new Bavarian product news for a while now and for good reason. There hasn’t been that much to say about it that’s new.

Until now, as the Chinese have quite the surprise in store for us. Regardless of the copycat jokes, there’s been a leak from China containing the patent drawings for the new BMW 1 Series.

So far, the F20 BMW 1 Series has only been available in the five door hatchback body style, thus missing out on the variety.

The newly released patent drawings amend that issue as they reveal the F20 BMW 1 Series in three door hatchback guise. My favorite sort of change when talking about a hatchback.

You get a bit of an extra sportiness in the look, but you retain most of the practicality and interior space. With the F20 BMW 1 Series it’s hard to go into specifics about the changes implied.

However, the sketches are the first shot we get at seeing the cleaner design the new hatchback gets. Apart from losing the rear doors, the rear wheel arches seem to have swollen and feature a more aggressive body kit.

In terms of performance, most of the F20 BMW 1 Series will be the same as no engine changes are expected. There’s a good chance that an eventual M Sport package will fiddle with these settings more than they do on the five door hatchback.

Rumor has it however that the BMW 1 Series will get a GT version in this generation. That’s not exactly the best sounding rumor in the world but we’ll wait and see what’s happening with it.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

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