BMW will build its Gran Coupe concept car, the company's development chief Klaus Draeger said.

The production Gran Coupe will rival luxury coupe-styled four-door cars such as the Mercedes CLS, Audi's upcoming A7 and the Porsche Panamera.

The concept was unveiled at the Beijing auto show in April. Draeger said the production version will be positioned close to the BMW 6-series.

 

It’s round three for the car that put Cadillac back in the luxury fight: a bold, brazen CTS coupe, a third body style to accompany the CTS sedan and sport wagon. And to send a 556-horsepower letter bomb to BMW and Mercedes, there’s naturally a high-performance  CTS-V version as well.

 

I drove that CTS-V coupe Tuesday at Monticello Motor Club, the rip-roaring private road course tucked below the Catskills of New York. Journalists in attendance also received a surprise visit from Mark Reuss, the new president of GM North America -- and the former head of GM’s Performance Division. Reuss had taken a break from the glare of his new position to drive his new baby and get his first taste of the technically challenging Monticello circuit.

 

Mercedes-Benz and Britain's Sky 3D channel teamed up to create what they're calling "the world's fastest 3-D movie." What does that mean, exactly? Frankly, not much. Semantics aside, what they're getting at is that they threw two race-car drivers -- rally driver Robbie Head and former F1 racer David Coulthard -- into a pair of 562-horsepower SLS AMG sports cars and let them tool around the Isle of Man TT track trailed by some pricey 3-D camera hardware and some helicopters.

Is it an expensive marketing ploy? Absolutely. Is this trailer in a mere 2-D? Indeed. Does it still manage to get your heart pumping hearing those gorgeous gull-wing Mercs tear up the pavement? You bet it does.

The movie premieres this weekend in England. Check out the trailer, via Jalopnik, after the jump. 

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is upon us (I'm heading up for coverage tomorrow, so please forgive any hiccups in the posting schedule here), and to get us in the mood for completely over-the-top and ridiculous feats of automotive engineering that pretty much no one can afford, here's the Lotus T125 track car. Essentially, it's an F1-style race car sold to regular old drivers (well, those with a ton of money, anyway).

The T125 is about the size of a Porsche Panamera, but with even more oomph. Its 3.5-liter Cosworth V8 engine, essentially a detuned race engine, puts out a maximum of 640 horses (at 9800 rpm) and 332 lb-ft of torque. Here are some more specs for the race nerds, courtesy of Car and Driver: 

The Cadillac XTS Platinum concept may have screamed "flagship" at this year's Detroit auto show. But Cadillac already is looking at a more luxurious car--authorized by the boss himself.

This year General Motors Co. CEO Ed Whitacre authorized the brand to create a big, rear-wheel-drive flagship. The project still lacks a firm target date, sources say.

Here's what to expect in Cadillac's 2011-13 model years.

 

Hyundai has been moving up in the world of late, with well-received and value-heavy models like the Genesis sedan and coupe, the surprisingly competitive (at least at its introduction) Equus luxury sedan and the sharply designed Sonata -- not to mention their 10 year, 100,000 mile warranties. And it looks like that effort has paid off: According to Kelley Blue Book's most recent Market Intelligence Brand Watch study, the Korean automaker has moved into the top five most considered brands.

The Q2 study shows that Hyundai consideration jumped by six percentage points during the previous quarter, which pushed the manufacturer into the fifth spot. Getting knocked down to No. 6 was Japanese automaker Nissan.

Good news for domestics, as Ford continued its reign as the most considered brand and Chevrolet took the third spot. Toyota at No. 2 and Honda at No. 4 rounded out the top five.

The numbers are after the jump. (Note that the percentages quoted represent the number of respondents considering the brand, regardless of vehicle segment.) 

The Skip Barber Racing School is offering a lifetime pass to its various driver-training and racing programs. The cost: $295,000.

Barber's Fast Pass for Life allows drivers to fill available seats at any of the school's programs--its racing schools, high-performance driving schools, Mazda driving schools and race-series activities.

Fast Pass Holders can register for an entire season in advance or show up on an event-to-event basis, said Jim Altemus, the school's marketing manager. But Barber won't bump out another student for a Fast Pass holder.

 

According to Automotive News, we’re about to see some pretty drastic changes to the General Motors landscape. In less than six years, all manufacturers will be required to increase the average fuel economy of their fleets to 35.5 mpg. Throw in the fact that General Motors expects fuel prices to return to the $4-per-gallon levels we saw just a few years ago, and we can begin to understand why the company has decided to tailor its products accordingly. While we’ve heard all about the new 2011 Chevrolet Aveo and the small people-mover based on the GMC Granite Concept, the news that even midlevel luxury badge Buick will dabble in the compact segment is something relatively new.