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It’s the BMW 7-Series ‘Horse Edition’ to celebrate China’s Year of the Horse

The BMW 7-Series Horse Edition (pictured) heading for the 2014 Beijing Motor Show China is a huge car market for premium brand, so with the Beijing Motor Show on the way we’ll no doubt be seeing a raft of China Specials revealed as car makers seek to appeal to China’s still deep-pocketed buyers. Cars like the Ferrari 458 Italia China Special Edition, Audi R8 China Edition, Porsche 911 Turbo S China 10th Anniversary Edition and Aston Martin’s ‘Dragon 88′ special editions of the DBS Volante, Virage Coupe and V8 Vantage S Coupe are just a few of the China Specials Western car makers have bolted together to tempt the Chinese to part with their cash. Now we have another with the BMW 7-Series Horse Edition, which might sound like a special edition Land Rover Discovery but which is in fact a titivated 7-Series to celebrate the Year of the Horse.

AutoWeek Design Forum: McLaren evolves with carbon fiber

McLaren Automotive design boss Frank Stephenson detailed his company's transformation from strictly racing to producing road-going models on Thursday at the AutoWeek Design Forum. McLaren is launching the highly anticipated MP4-12C this year, and the company has been hard at work refining the use of carbon fiber, which it pioneered in the iconic McLaren F1. The company cut the amount of time required to design a carbon-fiber tub from 3,000 hours for the F1 to a mere four hours for the MP4-12C.

McLaren 12C Spider gets public debut at Pebble Beach

McLaren has given the convertible MP4-12C – the McLaren 12C Spider – its first public outing at Pebble Beach. It’s a month since we had the reveal of the McLaren 12C Spider – the very appealing trick roof version of the MP4-12C – but we hadn’t actually seen it in the flesh. At least not until this weekend when McLaren gave the 12C Spider a public outing at Pebble Beach.