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Round three of the 2008 German Cross Country championship was a white and blue affair, as three of the top four bikes in the XCPro class were BMW G 450X machines. The BMW Motorrad factory team may have been denied its third consecutive victory, but overall the racing at Mernes proved to be a major success for the factory team.

BMW works rider Simo Kirssi - the current GCC series leader and winner of the opening rounds at Tollwitz and Walldorf - was yet again the fastest man out of the Munich manufacturer’s camp, but it was Frenchman Cyrille Coulon who claimed the overall race victory with Kirssi coming home in second place. Arguably though, the ride of the day went to fans’ favourite, five-times World Motocross champ Joel Smets, who came from last position to secure the final podium spot.

Under blazing sunshine, Kirssi grabbed the Le Mans-style start and guided the field into the first lap, shadowed by his teammate Bert Meyer and Coulon. The Frenchman set a blistering pace and wasted no time, passing Meyer in lap one and then Kirssi on the following lap to take the lead. Smets meanwhile suffered drama in the first chicane. Finding himself trapped under his own bike after a crash - and visibly in pain - the likeable Belgian re-joined the race in last position. But Joel was on fire and quickly started to pick off competitors to the left and right, forcing his way through the pack and ultimately rounding out a magnificent performance by stealing third place from Meyer.

After the chequered flag, the BMW Motorrad Motorsport crew applauded their riders and everyone on the team was delighted with the result. After all, success is the best reward for all the hard work and extensive development carried out to date.

“I started well and enjoyed the track,” said championship leader Kirssi, who had been following Coulon for a large portion of the two-hour race, yet had to accept the runner-up position. “Cyrille went by in the second lap and I couldn’t quite keep his pace. Not today. I am not satisfied and would have preferred to win.”

Commenting on his excellent podium spot, Joel Smets described how the adrenaline kept him battling until the end: “There was a lot of dust in the first corner after the start. I couldn’t see anything and don’t even know why I crashed. Maybe I clipped another rider’s bike, perhaps someone touched mine or maybe I just lost the front. Anyway, I was lying there with my leg trapped between the rear wheel and fender. I hurt my hip in the incident and had to ride through the pain for two hours. Nevertheless, once I started making my way though the pack it was a lot of fun and I am pleased with the result.”

Bert Meyer, who completed the BMW display of strength behind Kirssi and Smets, had his hands full with rival Arnaud Demeester early in the race. The veteran Frenchman however crashed out two thirds into the proceedings.

“The start went well today,” said Meyer. “After re-fuelling though, I ran into an old problem of mine - struggling to regain my rhythm. I was then battling with Arnaud Demeester and took control before he eventually crashed out. Fourth place is okay.”
The final word went to Team Manager Wolfgang Fischer, who praised all his riders for their efforts: “Simo rode his own race in second place. His lap times were similar to Coulon’s, but he couldn’t quite keep the pressure on him. Joel delivered an exciting race and came from being way behind to take third, while Bert had a great battle with Demeester, which continued until the Frenchman dropped out. All our team riders completed the race and two of them finished on the podium, so all in all it’s been a great day for us and a superb day’s racing.”

Results from GCC Mernes XCPro class

1. Cyrille Coulon (FRA), Yamaha, 22 laps
2. Simo Kirssi (FIN), BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 22 laps
3. Joel Smets (BEL), BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 22 laps
4. Bert Meyer (GER), BMW Motorrad Motorsport, 22 laps
5. Marco Straubel (GER), KTM, 21 laps
6. Stefan Geyer (GER), KTM, 21 laps
7. Falko Karbautzki (GER), KTM, 21 laps
8. Christoph Seifert (GER), KTM, 20 laps
9. Steffen Albrecht (GER), Yamaha, 19 laps
10. Andreas Schulz (GER), 19 laps

WOLFSBURG/LÜBECK —There are just a couple of weeks left before the big double birthday party: Volkswagen New Beetle fans from all over Europe are going to be celebrating the tenth anniversary of the cult car line; at the same time the New Beetle Sunshine Tour is starting its fifth run in July. Alongside the production models, special paint jobs or completely new body work will all be on display at our grand review drive along the Baltic Sea coastline. The birthday tour starts midday on Saturday, July 19, at the Volkswagen Center in Lübeck. Its goal? A beach party featuring New Beetles on the beach grasslands at Grömitz.

The private initiative of the “New Beetle Sunshine Tour” got started by Beetle Cabriolet driver Gabriele Kraft of Lübeck in 2004. She takes charge of the organization of the party, which comes along each year in July. “What had its origin on a small scale has grown meanwhile into a regular international meeting. This year three New Beetles from Ukraine will be joining us as a first,” she says. More than some 190 cars with participants from all over Europe have registered already, and Gabriele Kraft is pretty optimistic that there won’t be a single spot left on the beachy grasslands at Grömitz. Even Beetle freaks from as far away as Scotland have logged on with us.

The Grömitz community and Volkswagen, the sponsors of the New Beetle Sunshine Tour, have definitely dreamed up a fine birthday surprise again this year. A really spectacular art project has been initiated to follow up on the drive-on show-truck-stage that we had last year, complete with its open air concert. New Beetle drivers who would like to be there when it happens this year can register for free on the Internet at the homepage www.beetle-sunshinetour.de.

M’s been the word for supreme performance in the BMW lexicon for 30 years and 300,000 unique and exclusive vehicles.

In motoring terms, BMW M GmbH defines the concept of a halo brand. M cars account for around one percent of all BMW Group products sold, yet the image of BMW M is so much greater. Even now, after three decades, driving a car boasting the M logo remains an exclusive experience.

The 300,000th M car, an Alpine White BMW M3 Coupé was handed over to a customer in Regensburg recently. This East Bavarian town is also the location of the BMW plant in which the high-performance sportscar is produced.

What began as an experimental division dedicated to Motorsport has become one of the most admired and imitated in the premium automotive segment. In 1978, BMW was alone in forging the M brand (in the guise of BMW Motorsport GmbH), when the M1 supercar was born.

The tremendous success of the BMW M GmbH began with this limited run production car, a mid-engine racer, featuring a straight six-cylinder power unit used in the newly founded ProCar series.

To comply with homologation requirements, a road-going version powered by a 204 kW engine was also built. This now famous supercar was honoured with a one-off Homage car to celebrate its 30th anniversary, introduced to the world at this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2008 at Lake Como.

At its launch, the BMW M1 was Germany’s fastest series production sports car. In all, 445 BMW M1 cars were produced between 1978 and 1981, one of them immortalised as a BMW Art Car by Andy Warhol.

In the years following, BMW firmed its M philosophy into becoming the home of high-performance cars suitable for everyday driving, delivering punchy performance in a discretely enhanced body, but with power train and suspension technology directly inspired by motor racing.

The first BMW M5 came with a 210 kW straight six-cylinder engine. Thanks to its performance and understated silhouette, this sedan was extremely popular amongst business travellers.

Two years later, a further M model laid the foundation stone for a new vehicle category.

The BMW M3, ancestor of the current fourth model generation, caused a stir both on the road and on the racetrack. It is the most successful touring car ever utilised in motor sports, also becoming a huge commercial success within a very short time, with sales of 17,000 examples.

To date, the M3 is still the biggest single model in the M family, accounting for 180,000 sales.

In the first 10 years of life BMW M sold around 35,000 cars. In 1994, BMW M sold 10,000 cars in one year for the first time.
Since then, record sales figures have been achieved consistently, with sales of all BMW M GmbH models continuing to rise further with each new generation. Worldwide purchases of the new BMW M3 alone exceeded 4,000 in the first four months of the 2008 – even before the market launch of the BMW M3 Convertible and the new M double-clutch transmission with Drivelogic.

The USA is the most important market for BMW M cars, and on the European continent the high-performance sports cars are much coveted in the UK, Germany and Italy.

Currently BMW M offers nine individual models, all featuring high-revving engines.

The BMW Z4 M Roadster and the BMW Z4 M Coupé boast a straight six-cylinder with 252 kW, the BMW M5, and the BMW M5 Touring, the BMW M6 Coupé and the BMW M6 Convertible all feature a 373 kW V10 engine. Both power units are series winners of the “International Engine of the Year Awards” (the Engine Oscars), which the new 309 kW V8 engine utilised in the BMW M3 was also able to seize in its category this year.