On starting her up I wasn’t greeted
with the deafening roar of a ‘normal’ V8
or V12 supercar. The i8 is much more
innovative than that. It boasts a tiny
turbocharged 1.5 three-cylinder engine
that drives the rear wheels with 231hp
but more importantly a 131hp electric
drive system that powers the front
wheels and it was this power source
that the car starts in. Ready to pull
away, the car was suspiciously silent.
The car has three modes: Comfort
ensures that every journey starts
with pure electric power with zero
emissions and the petrol engine kicks
in seamlessly around 40mph; ECO
PRO mode makes efficiency and
recuperation of energy the focus;
and then comes every boys dream….
Sport mode.
To activate sports mode is like hitting
hyperdrive in the Millenium Falcon.
You click the six-speed Steptronic
gear stick towards you and boom, the
engine explodes into life and you are
ready to do the Kessel run in less than
12 parsecs. The car cleverly combines
the electric and petrol systems to give
a whopping 362hp that will shoot you
like a speeding bullet from 0-60mph
in around four seconds (yes 4 secs)
and to a top speed of 155mph which
is visible in the very clever head up
display in the windscreen.
As you would expect from BMW this car
drives superbly but having arrived at our
Lewes office I was a little apprehensive
about parking the £105k rocket. My
fears were allayed as the cars multiple
cameras provided a clear view in front,
behind and surprisingly from above
thanks to some very clever technology.
Exiting the car was far from graceful
but before I had time to shut the door,
the i8 had already started to attract
an admiring crowd of people. As an i8
owner for four days I experienced this
on a number of occasions whenever
I pulled up. Even a grumpy neighbour
who had not spoken to me for a year
suddenly wanted to be my friend.
After four days I was a sad to hand
the keys back and weeks later my
son Jasper still asks “Daddy, when
are you getting that racing car again?”
Soon I hope.
By Jason Edge
As a man with more children than is
advisable, the i8 is not an everyday
car but for others I could see it could
be. As you would expect in a supercar
the ‘boot’ was a relatively small space
that can hold have a dozen Waitrose
shopping bags at a push but those golf
clubs would have to go across the rear
bucket seats.
It was tremendous fun and easy to drive
and despite the needs of a family like
mine we found it quite useable too.
With BMW’s Efficient Dynamics with
eDrive this car has got to be one of the
greenest supercars on the planet and I
can’t think of many others that are road
tax and congestion charge exempt!
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