The BMW I8, The future of sports cars?

While my BMW I3 was at the garage for her first small recall (a problem with the sunroof) I had a chance to drive the BMW I8 for a couple of days. Although the I8 is from the same I-series family of BMW off course this is complete different car. The car has structural similarities with the I3 because it is also made of carbon reinforced plastics to save weight. The I3 is more focussed on saving the environment and still giving the BMW feeling of driving pleasure. The I8 for sure gets a lot of head turning attention and is focussed on performance, special design with a nice environmental twist. The total concept of the I8 is quite different because in the I8 the main engine is a petrol engine with support of an electric engine and not the otherway around in the case of the I3. As you can see at the picture beneath the I8 only just fits on my driveway…This is sure not a city car but an example of the famous BMW sheer driving pleasure. In the two days I drove a little 800 km with I8, on the dutch motorway but also on the German ‘Autobahn’. That’s the convenience of living close to the German border.

On the Dutch roads you will have to be careful on the throttle because otherwise you will lose your driver’s license for sure! With average speeds of 120-140 km per hour on the dutch motorways with some fast sprints the I8 used (in average) not more than 1 litre of petrol per 15 km’s. Wow! That’s pretty nippy for such a fast car. In the real world practice both engines work beautiful together. The electric engine has also a gearbox in order to fit in the gaps of the relatively small turbo powered engine, a 1.5 litre 3 cylinder motor with 231 HP. The electric motor delivers an extra 130 HP, so when working together the complete package delivers 360 HP.

When setting the engine (and steering and damping) in comfort mode, the I8 gives proper comfort to drive to the southern part of France and back. It will use the electric motor as much as needed then, to save fuel. With the I8 in Sport mode the car changes to a fast and very nice drivable (but not too hard) sports car. The petrol engine is then always on and gets support (E-boost) from the Electric motor and the sound it makes is pretty indescribable but very beautiful. Wow I like it! It’s sounds a little bit like a V8 or V12 but not quite. The onboard sound system amplifies the sound artificial, but I never had the feeling that it was too fake. The acceleration from speeds of 80-90 km/h with the gearbox in the 6th gear is very impressive. The electric boost is working together with the turbo’s then and giving the I8 a very special sound of a jumbo jet taking off. Nice!

I had the chance to drive the I8 flat out on the German Autobahn for a pretty long time and on an almost empty road. With 256 km/h on the tacho the limiter hits in. With this speed the car still feels very stable and safe and the suspension can handle much faster speeds. I found out that when you keep the pedal to the metal (to the carbon reinforced plastics in this case) the electric power will be depleted in approximately 20 minutes till half an hour. The I8 then cannot hold it’s top speed in the 6th gear and you will have to shift down to the 5th gear. But the little 3 cylinder is also a beauty…and I am very impressed about BMW’s engineering and the very good built and designed total package. Off course at this speeds it’s not a petrol nipping car anymore. You get at most 1 litre on 4-5 km’s. The I8 I drove had almost 60.000 km’s on his tacho…That’s a lot in a little more than one year and with a huge amount of different drivers of test pilots…. The build quality is impressive, no creaks or rattles, nothing to complain.

So what’s the verdict after two days of intensive driving:

Advantages:

• Very fast and nice to drive sports car
• Beautiful and striking head turning design
• Indescribable nice sound which is unique and cannot be compared to other engines
• Good and strong built quality
• A lot of handy gadgets and gizmo’s, I especially liked the headup display, this should be a mandatory safety feature in each new car.
• In average daily driving quite economic for a sports car
• In the I8 you can drive over a speedbump without crashing your bumper or spoiler, good job BMW!

Cons:

• In sport mode a little bit too nervous
• The head turning design can be somewhat overwhelming. In this car you are not mr or mrs. anonymous
• The insane wing doors are not so practical when you want to park your car and also get out…
• Not practical: The very small luggage space and large dead spots
• Although fast it is not so fast as a Tesla in Insane mode…