SCOOP: 2012 BMW 1-Series Caught with Less Camouflage

As BMW is getting closer to launching the second generation of the 1-Series, more and more scantily disguised prototypes are being spotted out testing. These latest scoop pictures afford us our clearest view yet of the five-door hatchback version, not only because BMW has reduced the amount of swirly sheeting but also due to the fact that the cars appear to be final prototypes with production headlamps and tail lights.

As you can see, the Bavarian automaker sticks with the tradition of keeping a design for two generations before radically changing the styling. This means the next 1-Series hatchback takes an evolutionary styling step keeping the basic shape of the current model.

Beneath the sheetmetal, there will be significant changes in the engine lineup with the introduction of a hybrid powertrain as well as BMW’s new generation of turbocharged gasoline units.

Details remain limited for now, but it is possible that the new 1-Series will be offered with both the upcoming three- and four-cylinder engines with TwinPower Turbo technology, which combines twin-scroll turbocharging, direct gasoline injection and a fully variable Valvetronic valve management system.

The first application of BMW’s turbo-tech on a small displacement gasoline engine is the 2.0-liter four-cylinder N20 powerplant on the X1 crossover with an output of 245-horsepower at 5,000 rpm and a peak torque of 350Nm or 258 lb-ft, available at just 1,250 rpm

It is believed that BMW will introduce both the three- and five-door hatchback versions of the new 1-Series at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September, with the Coupe and Convertible models to follow in late 2012 or early 2013.

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Report: Fiat to Begin Assembly of New 2012 Panda Mini in November

The first examples of the successor to Fiat’s current generation Panda city car will roll off the production line in Italy this November, according to a top Fiat executive. The third generation of the Panda is scheduled to make its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show in mid-September.

"We are on track in refurbishing Pomigliano, which will become a truly state-of-the-art plant when it begins production in November," Fiat Group chief manufacturing officer Stefan Ketter told Autonews Europe.

Last year, Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne announced that the updated Pomigliano d'Arco plant in central Italy would manufacturer the new Panda as part of the firm’s “Fabbrica Italia” (Italian factory) plan to increase vehicle productivity in Italy from around 650,000 units in 2010 to approximately 1.4 million cars in 2014.

The decision to move production of the Panda from the Tychy factory in Poland to Pomigliano came after Fiat SpA workers supported a reorganization plan to increase their productivity by around 70 percent, switching to a three-shift, 280-workday year from the current two shifts and 235 workdays. Sergio Marchionne had threatened the unions that he would either keep production of the new Panda in Poland or move it to Serbia if they did not agree to the new labor deal.

Fiat has invested some €800 million to build the new Panda in Pomigliano. In 2010, the Italian factory produced around 30,000 units of the Alfa Romeo 159 sedan and sports wagon, plus the final examples of the 147 hatchback and GT sports coupe.

The Tychy factory in Poland builds the current Fiat Panda and 500, as well as the Ford Ka city cars, and is currently Fiat’s largest and most efficient plant in Europe producing more than 533,000 cars in 2010. It ranks second within Fiat Group's global plants after the firm’s Belo Horizonte, Brazil, facility that produced close to 700,000 vehicles last year.

Source: Autonews Europe [Sub. Req.]

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SCOOP: 2012 MINI Coupe JCW Remains Remarkably Faithful to Concept Model

Given that BMW Group officials recently confirmed that MINI’s new coupe model will arrive in the market before the end of the year, it shouldn't come to much of a surprise that the company is gradually stripping away the camouflage from its test cars. Spotted here by our scoop photographers in Germany, is the most potent version of the MINI Coupe lineup, the John Cooper Works model that’s easily distinguished by the aggressive body kit with the flared wheel arches and muscular bumpers.

MINI first showed the Coupe and Roadster models through a pair of concept cars at the Frankfurt motor show in 2009. As predicted, the production version of the Coupe has stayed remarkably faithful to that show car’s design. In fact, with the exception of some very minor details such as the grille and the tail lamp crystals, nothing else has changed, including the shape of the top that’s supposed to resemble a baseball hat worn backwards.

The JCW version seen here, also keeps the concept’s sporty aero kit with the modified front and rear bumpers, beefy side skirts and extended wheel arches that house larger alloy wheels.

The same appears to be true for the interior (at least from what we can see through the window), which ditches the hatchback model’s rear seat bench for a larger boot area that in the concept, was said to be around 250 liters (8.8 cu ft) compared the 160 liters of the three-door variant.

Aside from the JCW model that will make use of MINI’s latest 1.6-liter twin-scroll turbocharged engine with 211HP, the Coupe will also be offered in Cooper S form with a 184HP version of the 1.6L unit. A base Cooper version equipped with a naturally aspirated 1.6-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine with 122HP and possibly a diesel-powered model may also be in the cards.

The new MINI Coupe is expected to receive its world premiere at the Frankfurt Motor Show this fall.

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