Mini Paceman Adventure pickup

Yes you read the title correctly, it says Mini and pick up in the same sentence. It came around by BMW apprentices at Munich and Dingolfing working in collaboration with their instructors to build a ‘creative vision' for the Mini brand. They did so by chopping the hideous end off the Mini Cooper Paceman S and removing the bench seat giving a Mini Cooper actual cargo space. On the roof is a 'off road' style roof rack that houses a spare tire or as Top Gear suggested "a gun turret, if you're equipping it for the impending apocalypse."

 The chassis was modified to give the car more ground clearance and was also equipped with Mini's ALL4 four-wheel-drive system affix to a turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine bringing forth 184bhp. In the standard Paceman S it will do 0-62 mph in just 7.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 132 mph. Now imagining doing that in a pickup!

You would not find this thing rock crawling, but it would do great on a desert road or crossing a river because they even attached a snorkel to allow deeper water crossings. They added a plethora of lights on the roof and bumper plus off road tiers. Unfortunately this radically awesome Mini will most likely not reach production, which makes me sad because I love that green.

BMW M1

In 1978, BMW started production on their only mid-engine car they ever built. It was to be a joint operation between Lamborghini and BMW, however, due to some unnamed issues, BMW ended up making the car on their own.

The car that BMW ended up making was a 2,866 lbs, two door sports car with a 3.5 L straight six that produced 273 hp. It could reach 162 mph, which was quite speedy in 1978. Turbocharged racing versions had upwards of 850 hp, whoa. Mated to that straight six was a proper 5-speed manual gearbox, this car just keeps getting better.

However there are two problems with it. First, there where only 456 units made plus seven prototypes making it one of BMW's rarest cars. Also production for the M1 was halted in 1981 meaning that finding one is probably impossible. However if you do manage to find one, it would cost upwards of $150,000. Or if you would rather take a ride in a DeLorean back to 1978 it would cost $115,00 or $416,774.46 in 2014 money.

If you put those problems aside, this is a beautiful car. The interior may not be pretty or high-tech, but it is a super car so who cares. The exterior is sleek and very modern, specially for 1978. There is a lot of modern BMW in this car. If I could choose a car that I have done in the past couple of months to be able to have to look and drive, this would deffently be in the top five.

(And no, red was not the only color it came in.)

2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA45 AMG Coupe Concept

I know the last two post where Mercedes, but they have a lot of cool cars coming up. The GLA is a awesome cross between a tall station wagon and a small crossover. Then there are three letters, that are optional, at the end of the name: AMG. That just made a pretty cool car; awesome. Because now you have a 4 door hatch back with 355 horsepower and 332 lb-ft of torque from a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4. That power is sent to a 7 speed dual clutch gearbox and on to all four wheels by a "fully-variable AMG Performance 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system", which will launch the GLA from 0-60mph in just 4.8 seconds. The AMG version also has stiffer suspension and a high performance system.

Of course its also loaded to the brim with groundbreaking technology that will keep all four tires on the ground, moving you away from that tree. It also looks spectacular from every angle, specially for a small crossover. However it uses the chassis from the CLA, which means very little rear leg room and a small trunk, but you'll forget about that when you stomp down on the throttle. If I had the $31,000 for the base package I would buy a Mazda CX-5, but if I had the $47,450 for the AMG, I might consider it.