For now, though, the Franco-German motor is purring away like a BMW engine.
Jezegabel's bike, built around a chrome-plated BMW R80 engine from 1984, stands nearby, ruggedly mud-spattered from a trail race in the south of France.
Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber suffered engine problems on day one in Monte Carlo.
But BMW knew an engine did less and less to differentiate a vehicle.
In this case it's a four-cylinder BMW-sourced engine providing that extra range, exhaust peeking out just behind the front-left wheel.
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But BMW pulled out as an engine supplier in 1987 before returning in 2000 as engine partners to Williams.
We were kind of, in a way, persuaded to leave tobacco by our engine partner, BMW, and I can truthfully say that since we left tobacco that we haven't looked back.
"I'd only been sitting in my BMW for 30 seconds with the engine running, so when the door was opened by a man in camouflage, I knew what was happening and stayed fairly cool, " he said.
Those nifty engine covers on Mercedes, BMW and now many others?
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It emerged Wallwork had sold a Volkswagen Touran engine and parts from a BMW 318i on eBay, and he was observed driving a Mazda Furano into the scrapyard three days after it was stolen from a car dealer.
In May 2010, she was driving her 2008 BMW 535xi wagon, and she says the engine simply stopped working.
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Rolls-Royce's relies on more efficient engine technology - jointly developed with others within the BMW group.
Unfortunately for BMW owners, this is hardly the first time that sudden engine stalls have besieged the owners of the ultimate driving machine.
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The day ended early for BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica, who appeared to suffer an engine failure as he accelerated out of the hairpin at Turn Seven - sending thick white smoke into the Abu Dhabi night sky.
That means maximum engine power, hence Michael Schumacher's warning that BMW Williams will be a force.
The 2013 Kia Rio, for instance, joins the BMW 3-series and Porsche Cayenne in offering a start-stop engine.
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Another motor manufacturing super-power, the German-based BMW, will be joining the Williams team next year, as its engine suppliers.
And its Mercedes engine is lacking power and reliability compared to standard-setting motors from BMW and Ferrari.
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When BMW redesigned its iconic M5 performance sedan in 2012, it replaced the prior generation's ten-cylinder engine with a smaller, turbocharged V-8, making the engine 25% more efficient and boosting mileage to 16 mpg from 13 combined city and highway driving.
The few hybrids BMW has introduced previously, such as the ActiveHybrid 7 and ActiveHybrid X6, which use an eight-cylinder gasoline engine instead of a six-cylinder, have not sold well.
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