Frankfurt 2001.(best vehicles in Motor Show)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)

BEST IN SHOW

Lamborghini Murcielago

One key question AutoWeek editors ask when choosing Best in Show vehicles is this: What's the one car people will remember from this show years later? At Frankfurt, two cars kept coming up in response: The BMW 7 Series (chosen as most significant) and the Lamborghini Murcielago. Returning to a pre-Diablo tradition of drawing car names from the bullfighting arena, the car takes its name from a bull that had its life spared by famous matador Rafael Molina ``Lagartijo'' in 1879! The bull Murcielago (the name doesn't easily roll off the tongue, but sounds great with an Italian or Spanish accent) was given to breeder Don Antonio Miura (another Lambo car name) and sired a line of famous fighting bulls. The car Murcielago replaces Diablo. A two-seat, two-door coupe, it was developed under the codename L147 and is the first product of Lamborghini's association with Audi. The 12-cylinder engine is mounted amidships, typical of Lamborghini, with permanent four-wheel drive with a central viscous coupler. The 6.2-liter engine develops 570 hp and 480 lb-ft of torque. Top speed is 330 km/h (205 mph) with zero to 100 km/h (62.1 mph) coming in 3.8 seconds. That's a kick from a bull that will remind us of Frankfurt 2001 for a long time.

MOST SIGNIFICANT

BMW 7 Series

It's bigger, it's badder and as long as you avoid looking at it from the rear, it's beautiful. BMW's all-new flagship is intended to lead BMW into the future, not only in price and features but as part of the company's strategy to expand worldwide sales by one third over the next six years. Topping the range are the 760i and 760Li (long wheelbase version), featuring a newly developed 6.0-liter aluminum V12 engine that produces 408 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque. Eight-cylinder engines (3.6-liter and 4.4-liter) that BMW says are more economical than the engines they replace, will also be offered, along with the world's first six-speed automatic transmission. Sales of the 7 begin in Europe in November, with the car arriving in U.S. showrooms in January. Watch for a host of new technologies (see News, August 13 for details) to be touted as BMW targets the ...