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BMW PressClub: Just another viral Monday
DESAF?ìO GS 2008
28.05.2008
Once again, and despite the rain, which threatened over the weekend, BMW Motorrad Spain held the second edition of the Challenge the last GS, 16, 17 and May 18.
The venue chosen for holding this event became the town of Basell, a unique site in the Pre-Pyrenees Lleida highlighted by a stunning natural environment. In this fabulous scenery, the Challenge GS proposed a series of tests and exercises skill, so that all registered pilots demonstrate their skill on a BMW motorcycle.
As usual, the GS Challenge consists of 3 tests that require knowledge of all possible to overcome, such as guidance on the ground to find common ground without coordinates, demonstrate the ability to overcome obstacles to driving, dominate the motorcycle before certain difficulties or display camaraderie, leadership and decision-making in testing group.
Undoubtedly, the weekend became an experience of off-road and fun, where the only condition was involved riding a BMW trail or endurance and passion for action and adventure.
In this edition, the GS Challenge continued surprised by his excellent organization and the participants were able to count on bivouac area and camping, access to the Motorcycle Museum, gifts, catering, music, go out and some spectacular prizes for the winners as summarized in the following table:
-- Class G:
-- Jose Ramon Gonzalez (Concessionaire MovilNorte) with the G 650 X Challenge.
-- Gorka Escudero (Concessionaire DasMoto) with the G 650 X Challenge.
-- Miguel Angel Galan. Pilot awarded to attend the GS Trophy.
-- Class A:
-- David Matthew Borch, with an R 1200 GS Adventure. Pilot awarded to attend the GS Trophy.
-- Class F:
-- Jordi Arnau Vidal, with an F 650 GS. Pilot awarded to attend the GS Trophy.
Farfus and Priaulx secure first race wins for BMW in 2008 WTCC season.
06-01-2008 Press Release
Pau, 1st June 2008. At the ÔÇ£Circuit de Pau VilleÔÇØ, Augusto Farfus (BR) and Andy Priaulx (GB) celebrated the first two victories for BMW in the 2008 FIA World Touring Car Championship. BMW Team GermanyÔÇÖs Farfus made perfect use of his pole position for the seventh round of the season and crossed the line 17.851 seconds ahead of second-placed SEAT driver Yvan Muller (FR). Priaulx finished eighth, and secured pole for race two.
An hour before the start of the afternoon round continuous rain set in, making for a wet track and difficult conditions. These, however, could not hamper Priaulx putting in a flawless performance for BMW Team UK, relegating Nicola Larini (IT) and Rickard Rydell (SE) to second and third respectively. This was PriaulxÔÇÖs tenth WTCC victory. To date this is the highest number of wins by any driver. Farfus scored three more points by finishing sixth. His team-mate J?Ârg M??ller (DE) and BMW Team Italy-SpainÔÇÖs Alessandro Zanardi (IT) and F?®lix Porteiro (ES) missed out on a top eight finish in both races.
Priaulx remains the best-placed BMW representative in the DriversÔÇÖ Championship, with 33 points putting him fourth. M??ller follows in seventh with 20 points. Farfus improved to ninth place with a total of 16 points. In the manufacturersÔÇÖ classification, BMW is in second behind SEAT with 85 points.
Andy Priaulx (BMW Team UK):
ÔÇ£This weekend has been special. The rewarding thing was to drive a wet race without any mistakes. I know if you make the smallest mistake in a touring car you just end up sliding all the way into the tyres. I was really happy with the race and really happy with 11 points from the weekend.ÔÇØ
Augusto Farfus (BMW Team Germany):
ÔÇ£As the start of the season didnÔÇÖt run as we had hoped for, IÔÇÖm obviously very happy with this victory. In the first third of the race, I pushed hard to open up a gap between me and the rest of the field. Fortunately this worked well. ItÔÇÖs great finally to be back on the podium and to score points again.ÔÇØ
J?Ârg M??ller (BMW Team Germany):
ÔÇ£In race one I narrowly missed out on eighth place, which reduced my chances of a good result in the second round. But in the wet my car just had no grip. We will analyse carefully the reasons for the problem.ÔÇØ
F?®lix Porteiro (BMW Team Italy-Spain):
ÔÇ£My lap times werenÔÇÖt too bad today, but that doesnÔÇÖt help you much on a street circuit. In the wet I didnÔÇÖt risk too much, as anyway a points finish was out of reach.ÔÇØ
Alessandro Zanardi (BMW Team Italy-Spain):
ÔÇ£I paid the price for my poor qualifying performance. Our car was very competitive today, but you just cannot win anything from the midfield here in Pau. I particularly enjoyed race two, although you could hardly see anything in the early laps.ÔÇØ
The photoÔÇÖs missing from last weeks Rolls Royce Motorcar press release.
Life Ball MINI 2008 by Agent Provocateur. Auction on eBay starts next week. Auction in aid of HIV/AIDS projects at www.ebay.at from 5 to 15 June 2008.
05/30/2008
Munich/Vienna. Videos whirred and cameras clicked on Saturday, 17 May, when Joseph Corre drove the Life Ball MINI 2008 over the red carpet outside Vienna's City Hall in front of 40,000 spectators. Escorted by four models in "British policemen's uniforms", and with Sophie Ellis Bextor in the passenger seat, the arrival of the Life Ball MINI 2008 marked the start of the fantastic opening show.
The Life Ball MINI is traditionally created by the fashion designer responsible for the fashion show in the opening event - and in 2008, this was the British lingerie label Agent Provocateur. This year, the new MINI Cooper Clubman was selected as the basis for this exclusive, unique design. "The new shape is so reminiscent of the old English Mini police van that we were immediately inspired to create an Agent Provocateur styled interior that you really would want to get banged up in! A classic yet suped up exterior in Agent Provocateur signature pink and black colours complete with pink flashing light and inside.....the most seductive prison cell with hand to wall cuffs and blacked out windows and iron bars", says Agent Provocateur founder Joseph Corre.
The unique - and escape-proof - Life Ball MINI will once again be auctioned on eBay, as happens each year. It all starts on Thursday, 5 June - and then MINI and Agent Provocateur fans throughout the world have the opportunity for ten days to buy this unique car and do something for charity too. The total proceeds from the auction will be donated, as always, to Life Ball and to projects aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. So far, the auction of the "Life Ball MINIs" - transformed by such famous fashion icons as Diesel, Missoni, Ferr?® and Versace - has raised a total of Ôé¼ 260,000.-.
Worldwide measures to combat HIV/AIDS are one of the main elements of the corporate and social policy pursued by the BMW Group. The company's involvement in South Africa is particularly wide-ranging, covering a comprehensive workplace programme for employees and their families, plus a number of different projects in the local communities and further afield.
But the automobile manufacturer is also committed to fighting this pandemic in other affected countries, such as Thailand or China, for example. The company's membership of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBC) underlines its long-term commitment at its individual locations.
"By supporting Vienna's Life Ball, the MINI brand is going its own way and making its own very individual contribution to the fight against this auto-immune disease", says Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, Head of Brand Communication MINI, commenting on the brand's involvement here. "The Life Ball brings the pandemic back into the public's awareness each year in a very emotional way, and the auction of each uniquely designed MINI produces a major financial contribution to projects aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS."
Half of the proceeds will be donated to national projects in Austria. The other half will be used to benefit international projects, with allocation of funds regulated by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
You will find further information on the corporate and social programmes supported by the BMW Group at www.bmwgroup.com/responsibility.
BMW Group employee develops solution for a cheap, mobile device for producing drinking water. Stephan Augustin presented with the internationally renowned National Energy Globe Award in Brussels for his invention.
05/30/2008
Munich/Brussels. On May 26 in Brussels, an international jury presented the National Energy Globe Award 2007 to BMW Group designer Stephan Augustin for his invention of the so called Watercone, a device for generating clean drinking water. Guests at the awards ceremony included Mikhail Gorbachev, Jos?® Manuel Barroso, and Kofi Annan.
The Watercone is a solar-powered cone-shaped desalinator that generates fresh drinking water from salt or brackish water. With its rigid outer skin, this plastic cone can be used floating on water or on damp ground. The sunrays shining on the Watercone cause the water to evaporate under the cone and condense on the inside of the cone. The droplets of water then accumulate in a collector trough. The water can then easily be poured out of the opening at the tip of the Watercone into a container or drunk directly. The water is purified through the condensation as if it were undergoing a single-stage distillation process.
++Simple and effective++
Around 1.6 litres of drinking water a day can be obtained by using this invention. This means that the Watercone could play a major part in solving a number of problems: UNICEF experts estimate that 5,000 children still die each day from diarrheal diseases caused by dirty drinking water. Using the Watercone, people living in coastal regions in Africa, Asia, and South America can also obtain drinking water from sea water. In addition, this device also eliminates heavy metals and other pollutants when used near rivers.
The Watercone is made from hard-wearing, unbreakable Bayer Makrolon polycarbonate with an anti-UV coating and has a guaranteed working life of at least five years. Stephan Augustin came up with the functional design on the basis of practical specifications: Tests in the BMW wind tunnel showed that the Watercone can cope with wind speeds of up to 55 km/h without any problems. This means that it is largely unaffected by weather.
++Positive results of pilot project in Yemen++
CARE Deutschland carried out a pilot project in the coastal town of Zinjibar in Yemen, where it generally rains only three times a year. Consequently, the fishermen have to travel into the interior, sometimes up to 15 km, to find clean drinking water even though they live right by the sea. CARE handed out 100 Watercones to ten fishermen's families. The water quality produced was analysed by T?£V in Germany and found to be perfect. The people in the village went one further: they said the drinking water from the Watercone tasted better than bottled water.
++A dazzling idea on the beach++
Augustin, an industrial designer, came up with the idea of the Watercone on holiday on the Canaries. As he looked across the sea, he brooded about how to convert the rich stocks of sea water in the oceans into a daily ration of drinking water. "I wanted to use my professional knowledge and my experience to offer people who suffer from water shortage a humanitarian service in the form of a practical design", says Augustin. His new partner, the Water Management Department of Tinox?« GmbH in Munich, Germany, will be starting mass production of the Watercone later in 2008.
++Sustainable growth in the BMW Group++
According to its sustainable development strategy, the BMW Group has also made the responsible use of water a permanent practice in its worldwide production network: by consistently using closed water cycles, the amount of water used per vehicle produced could be cut by 35% over the last five years. Since the beginning of 2007, the BMW Group's engine plant in Steyr reuses all waste water from the production process. This world's first waste-water-free production plant saves around 30 million litres of water a year.
More Information:
Watercone: www.watercone.com
Energy Globe: www.energyglobe.info
Sustainability in the BMW Group: www.bmwgroup.com/sustainability
BMW Motorrad Days 2008: appuntamento a Garmisch-Partenkirchen dal 4 al 6 luglio
30.05.2008
Motorcyclists from all over the world will gather in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on the weekend from July 4 to 6 for BMW Days. BMW Motorrad is ready to welcome riders and friends of two wheels in a single party that will see at least
34,000 attendance.
The fil rouge will be music and many concerts in the evenings of great celebration: "The Goodfellas" on the evening of Friday, July 4 and Saturday evening the band of Monaco "Gerry and Gary." In the U.S. Lodge 2 groups will perform the "Plug-in" and "Steinzeit" reviewing the successes of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and other international groups will dance until dawn.
In motorcycle explore the fabulous area at the foot of the Alps. The region offers beautiful views, beautiful landscapes, lakes at high altitudes and unforgettable sunsets.
New this year will be a special tour in motion open only to women, with women's tour leader. Even in this case will be made available some of the range BMW motorcycle.
Chris Pfeiffer, holder of the title 'Indoor Streetbike Freestyle World Championship ", cimenter?á, even this year, in incredible numbers in the saddle to its 800 F demonstrating its ability to challenge and win against the common laws of physics.
Also inside the event will set a path off road than 10,000 m2 and will be made available forty R 1200 GS for those wishing to take advantage of the trail to practice driving in jeeps assisted by the trainers.
Writing at bmw-motorrad@gapa.de will ask possibie info and book.
DESAF?ìO GS 2008
28.05.2008
Once again, and despite the rain, which threatened over the weekend, BMW Motorrad Spain held the second edition of the Challenge the last GS, 16, 17 and May 18.
The venue chosen for holding this event became the town of Basell, a unique site in the Pre-Pyrenees Lleida highlighted by a stunning natural environment. In this fabulous scenery, the Challenge GS proposed a series of tests and exercises skill, so that all registered pilots demonstrate their skill on a BMW motorcycle.
As usual, the GS Challenge consists of 3 tests that require knowledge of all possible to overcome, such as guidance on the ground to find common ground without coordinates, demonstrate the ability to overcome obstacles to driving, dominate the motorcycle before certain difficulties or display camaraderie, leadership and decision-making in testing group.
Undoubtedly, the weekend became an experience of off-road and fun, where the only condition was involved riding a BMW trail or endurance and passion for action and adventure.
In this edition, the GS Challenge continued surprised by his excellent organization and the participants were able to count on bivouac area and camping, access to the Motorcycle Museum, gifts, catering, music, go out and some spectacular prizes for the winners as summarized in the following table:
-- Class G:
-- Jose Ramon Gonzalez (Concessionaire MovilNorte) with the G 650 X Challenge.
-- Gorka Escudero (Concessionaire DasMoto) with the G 650 X Challenge.
-- Miguel Angel Galan. Pilot awarded to attend the GS Trophy.
-- Class A:
-- David Matthew Borch, with an R 1200 GS Adventure. Pilot awarded to attend the GS Trophy.
-- Class F:
-- Jordi Arnau Vidal, with an F 650 GS. Pilot awarded to attend the GS Trophy.
Farfus and Priaulx secure first race wins for BMW in 2008 WTCC season.
06-01-2008 Press Release
Pau, 1st June 2008. At the ÔÇ£Circuit de Pau VilleÔÇØ, Augusto Farfus (BR) and Andy Priaulx (GB) celebrated the first two victories for BMW in the 2008 FIA World Touring Car Championship. BMW Team GermanyÔÇÖs Farfus made perfect use of his pole position for the seventh round of the season and crossed the line 17.851 seconds ahead of second-placed SEAT driver Yvan Muller (FR). Priaulx finished eighth, and secured pole for race two.
An hour before the start of the afternoon round continuous rain set in, making for a wet track and difficult conditions. These, however, could not hamper Priaulx putting in a flawless performance for BMW Team UK, relegating Nicola Larini (IT) and Rickard Rydell (SE) to second and third respectively. This was PriaulxÔÇÖs tenth WTCC victory. To date this is the highest number of wins by any driver. Farfus scored three more points by finishing sixth. His team-mate J?Ârg M??ller (DE) and BMW Team Italy-SpainÔÇÖs Alessandro Zanardi (IT) and F?®lix Porteiro (ES) missed out on a top eight finish in both races.
Priaulx remains the best-placed BMW representative in the DriversÔÇÖ Championship, with 33 points putting him fourth. M??ller follows in seventh with 20 points. Farfus improved to ninth place with a total of 16 points. In the manufacturersÔÇÖ classification, BMW is in second behind SEAT with 85 points.
Andy Priaulx (BMW Team UK):
ÔÇ£This weekend has been special. The rewarding thing was to drive a wet race without any mistakes. I know if you make the smallest mistake in a touring car you just end up sliding all the way into the tyres. I was really happy with the race and really happy with 11 points from the weekend.ÔÇØ
Augusto Farfus (BMW Team Germany):
ÔÇ£As the start of the season didnÔÇÖt run as we had hoped for, IÔÇÖm obviously very happy with this victory. In the first third of the race, I pushed hard to open up a gap between me and the rest of the field. Fortunately this worked well. ItÔÇÖs great finally to be back on the podium and to score points again.ÔÇØ
J?Ârg M??ller (BMW Team Germany):
ÔÇ£In race one I narrowly missed out on eighth place, which reduced my chances of a good result in the second round. But in the wet my car just had no grip. We will analyse carefully the reasons for the problem.ÔÇØ
F?®lix Porteiro (BMW Team Italy-Spain):
ÔÇ£My lap times werenÔÇÖt too bad today, but that doesnÔÇÖt help you much on a street circuit. In the wet I didnÔÇÖt risk too much, as anyway a points finish was out of reach.ÔÇØ
Alessandro Zanardi (BMW Team Italy-Spain):
ÔÇ£I paid the price for my poor qualifying performance. Our car was very competitive today, but you just cannot win anything from the midfield here in Pau. I particularly enjoyed race two, although you could hardly see anything in the early laps.ÔÇØ
The photoÔÇÖs missing from last weeks Rolls Royce Motorcar press release.
Life Ball MINI 2008 by Agent Provocateur. Auction on eBay starts next week. Auction in aid of HIV/AIDS projects at www.ebay.at from 5 to 15 June 2008.
05/30/2008
Munich/Vienna. Videos whirred and cameras clicked on Saturday, 17 May, when Joseph Corre drove the Life Ball MINI 2008 over the red carpet outside Vienna's City Hall in front of 40,000 spectators. Escorted by four models in "British policemen's uniforms", and with Sophie Ellis Bextor in the passenger seat, the arrival of the Life Ball MINI 2008 marked the start of the fantastic opening show.
The Life Ball MINI is traditionally created by the fashion designer responsible for the fashion show in the opening event - and in 2008, this was the British lingerie label Agent Provocateur. This year, the new MINI Cooper Clubman was selected as the basis for this exclusive, unique design. "The new shape is so reminiscent of the old English Mini police van that we were immediately inspired to create an Agent Provocateur styled interior that you really would want to get banged up in! A classic yet suped up exterior in Agent Provocateur signature pink and black colours complete with pink flashing light and inside.....the most seductive prison cell with hand to wall cuffs and blacked out windows and iron bars", says Agent Provocateur founder Joseph Corre.
The unique - and escape-proof - Life Ball MINI will once again be auctioned on eBay, as happens each year. It all starts on Thursday, 5 June - and then MINI and Agent Provocateur fans throughout the world have the opportunity for ten days to buy this unique car and do something for charity too. The total proceeds from the auction will be donated, as always, to Life Ball and to projects aimed at combating HIV/AIDS. So far, the auction of the "Life Ball MINIs" - transformed by such famous fashion icons as Diesel, Missoni, Ferr?® and Versace - has raised a total of Ôé¼ 260,000.-.
Worldwide measures to combat HIV/AIDS are one of the main elements of the corporate and social policy pursued by the BMW Group. The company's involvement in South Africa is particularly wide-ranging, covering a comprehensive workplace programme for employees and their families, plus a number of different projects in the local communities and further afield.
But the automobile manufacturer is also committed to fighting this pandemic in other affected countries, such as Thailand or China, for example. The company's membership of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBC) underlines its long-term commitment at its individual locations.
"By supporting Vienna's Life Ball, the MINI brand is going its own way and making its own very individual contribution to the fight against this auto-immune disease", says Andreas-Christoph Hofmann, Head of Brand Communication MINI, commenting on the brand's involvement here. "The Life Ball brings the pandemic back into the public's awareness each year in a very emotional way, and the auction of each uniquely designed MINI produces a major financial contribution to projects aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS."
Half of the proceeds will be donated to national projects in Austria. The other half will be used to benefit international projects, with allocation of funds regulated by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
You will find further information on the corporate and social programmes supported by the BMW Group at www.bmwgroup.com/responsibility.
BMW Group employee develops solution for a cheap, mobile device for producing drinking water. Stephan Augustin presented with the internationally renowned National Energy Globe Award in Brussels for his invention.
05/30/2008
Munich/Brussels. On May 26 in Brussels, an international jury presented the National Energy Globe Award 2007 to BMW Group designer Stephan Augustin for his invention of the so called Watercone, a device for generating clean drinking water. Guests at the awards ceremony included Mikhail Gorbachev, Jos?® Manuel Barroso, and Kofi Annan.
The Watercone is a solar-powered cone-shaped desalinator that generates fresh drinking water from salt or brackish water. With its rigid outer skin, this plastic cone can be used floating on water or on damp ground. The sunrays shining on the Watercone cause the water to evaporate under the cone and condense on the inside of the cone. The droplets of water then accumulate in a collector trough. The water can then easily be poured out of the opening at the tip of the Watercone into a container or drunk directly. The water is purified through the condensation as if it were undergoing a single-stage distillation process.
++Simple and effective++
Around 1.6 litres of drinking water a day can be obtained by using this invention. This means that the Watercone could play a major part in solving a number of problems: UNICEF experts estimate that 5,000 children still die each day from diarrheal diseases caused by dirty drinking water. Using the Watercone, people living in coastal regions in Africa, Asia, and South America can also obtain drinking water from sea water. In addition, this device also eliminates heavy metals and other pollutants when used near rivers.
The Watercone is made from hard-wearing, unbreakable Bayer Makrolon polycarbonate with an anti-UV coating and has a guaranteed working life of at least five years. Stephan Augustin came up with the functional design on the basis of practical specifications: Tests in the BMW wind tunnel showed that the Watercone can cope with wind speeds of up to 55 km/h without any problems. This means that it is largely unaffected by weather.
++Positive results of pilot project in Yemen++
CARE Deutschland carried out a pilot project in the coastal town of Zinjibar in Yemen, where it generally rains only three times a year. Consequently, the fishermen have to travel into the interior, sometimes up to 15 km, to find clean drinking water even though they live right by the sea. CARE handed out 100 Watercones to ten fishermen's families. The water quality produced was analysed by T?£V in Germany and found to be perfect. The people in the village went one further: they said the drinking water from the Watercone tasted better than bottled water.
++A dazzling idea on the beach++
Augustin, an industrial designer, came up with the idea of the Watercone on holiday on the Canaries. As he looked across the sea, he brooded about how to convert the rich stocks of sea water in the oceans into a daily ration of drinking water. "I wanted to use my professional knowledge and my experience to offer people who suffer from water shortage a humanitarian service in the form of a practical design", says Augustin. His new partner, the Water Management Department of Tinox?« GmbH in Munich, Germany, will be starting mass production of the Watercone later in 2008.
++Sustainable growth in the BMW Group++
According to its sustainable development strategy, the BMW Group has also made the responsible use of water a permanent practice in its worldwide production network: by consistently using closed water cycles, the amount of water used per vehicle produced could be cut by 35% over the last five years. Since the beginning of 2007, the BMW Group's engine plant in Steyr reuses all waste water from the production process. This world's first waste-water-free production plant saves around 30 million litres of water a year.
More Information:
Watercone: www.watercone.com
Energy Globe: www.energyglobe.info
Sustainability in the BMW Group: www.bmwgroup.com/sustainability
BMW Motorrad Days 2008: appuntamento a Garmisch-Partenkirchen dal 4 al 6 luglio
30.05.2008
Motorcyclists from all over the world will gather in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on the weekend from July 4 to 6 for BMW Days. BMW Motorrad is ready to welcome riders and friends of two wheels in a single party that will see at least
34,000 attendance.
The fil rouge will be music and many concerts in the evenings of great celebration: "The Goodfellas" on the evening of Friday, July 4 and Saturday evening the band of Monaco "Gerry and Gary." In the U.S. Lodge 2 groups will perform the "Plug-in" and "Steinzeit" reviewing the successes of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and other international groups will dance until dawn.
In motorcycle explore the fabulous area at the foot of the Alps. The region offers beautiful views, beautiful landscapes, lakes at high altitudes and unforgettable sunsets.
New this year will be a special tour in motion open only to women, with women's tour leader. Even in this case will be made available some of the range BMW motorcycle.
Chris Pfeiffer, holder of the title 'Indoor Streetbike Freestyle World Championship ", cimenter?á, even this year, in incredible numbers in the saddle to its 800 F demonstrating its ability to challenge and win against the common laws of physics.
Also inside the event will set a path off road than 10,000 m2 and will be made available forty R 1200 GS for those wishing to take advantage of the trail to practice driving in jeeps assisted by the trainers.
Writing at bmw-motorrad@gapa.de will ask possibie info and book.
