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Mini in the US has been and gone and challenged Porsche to a race. And it’s thrown down the Mini vs Porsche gauntlet on Facebook, wanting to go auto a auto with the rival brand. To get Porsche to accept the challenge, Mini has put together a petition, which run like this:

Dear Porsche
You’ve got a pedigree. A cachet. And lots of owners with pastel sweaters draped over their shoulders. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Your legendary handling and performance might make some speechless, but we’re not intimidated.

New deal. BMW is taking the pop-up garage route for the Mini in New Zealand. The carmaker has opened a two-storey set-up featuring an events area, a cafe, and interactive kiosks where customers are encouraged to personalize their Minis online.
“The time is right for Mini to break out of the confines of the traditional car [...]

On track. Not satisfied with appearing at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in June, Jeff Koons will also be doing laps at the Le Mans 24 Hour Race in the same month. Well, at least his Art Car for BMW will.
The artist has just released his preliminary design concept for what will be the motor [...]

Motor art. BMW has tasked Jeff Koons with creating what will be the marque’s 17th Art Car. The artist joins the likes of Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella and Alexander Calder among the roster of creatives who have worked in the BMW brand.
Koons apparently expressed his wish to work on the Art [...]

Power plus. “You have always felt driving pleasure. Now you can also measure it.” So says BMW. And it does so because it has just released its free BMW M Power Meter app for the iPhone that provides driving data such as forward acceleration (that’s forward g) and lateral acceleration (lateral g) as well as [...]

Car creative. What is it about Switzerland and brand birthdays (and minarets, for that matter, though we’re not about to go there right now)? Yesterday we brought you news of the Swiss celebration of 30 years of Ikea’s set of shelving universally known as Billy. Now we can tell you that BMW Switzerland tasked art [...]

Inky wheels. Mini Germany invited New York Street artist KRINK to come to Hamburg and mess with a Mini. The result is a back KRINK Mini Cooper S that just drips the guy’s ink aesthetics. “Street art and Mini have a lot in common,” the brand says. “Both are an urban phenomenon, both are part [...]

No drive. High-end car brands from the US and Japan simply don’t compare with their German counterparts when it comes to creating significant horsepower with social media, according to a report, Luxury Auto Brands & Their Presence in Social Media, from MH Group Communications and Forum Strategies & Communications.
The two consultancies created the MH Community Index and Conversation Index measurement methodologies to determine the size and activity level of communities around specific auto brands across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, and found that German automakers dominate the luxury auto business category in the social media.