2015 BMW i8: Is i The New M? - Ignition Ep. 115 - video Dailymotion

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]

00:06 This is the Jaguar F-Type R2.

00:10 [SOUND]

00:20 Wow, burnout machine.

00:28 [SOUND]

00:38 For the sake of example and melted tires, we've decided to start the show by

00:46 looking at the behavior of a conventional sports car.

00:49 [SOUND]

00:52 And this is, [LAUGH] this is almost like driving a car without rear tires.

00:58 [SOUND]

01:03 It's been turned into a puddle of rubber, and

01:06 I'm driving through my own smoke, and it's a laugh riot.

01:10 I mean, it's so conventional.

01:11 I got a big V8 up front with a supercharger.

01:14 I got rear wheel drive.

01:16 I push the pedal, it goes sideways around corners, makes all kind of noise.

01:21 And I've got these ridiculous carbon ceramic brakes,

01:24 which will help push the price of the car to $117,000.

01:30 That's not cheap, but man, it makes you smile.

01:34 [SOUND]

01:36 Now, that said, it also uses gasoline like it's going out of style.

01:41 [SOUND]

01:48 It's so much fun.

01:51 It's also obnoxious and completely wasteful.

01:53 But do we care?

01:55 [SOUND]

02:00 Turns out BMW cares, and they've come up with a wild looking solution.

02:05 [MUSIC]

02:15 [SOUND]

02:26 We're now cruising in the BMW i8 under full battery power.

02:31 What I'm gonna do though is I'm gonna put the stick over to the left,

02:34 which will put it into sport mode, which will fire up the 1.5 liter turbocharged

02:39 three cylinder that's sitting behind my head.

02:42 But why are we testing a three cylinder car on our figure eight?

02:48 Reason being is this.

02:49 [SOUND]

02:51 This thing cooks.

02:53 [LAUGH]

02:55 [SOUND]

03:01 I'm in a hybrid.

03:01 I'm in like the next evolution of the Prius.

03:04 And it is so fun to throw around the figure eight.

03:08 I got the traction control off.

03:10 I'm getting awesome rotation.

03:12 It digs out of corners because it's all wheel drive.

03:15 It sounds really good.

03:16 [SOUND]

03:21 It's fake, but who cares?

03:23 Listen to it.

03:24 [SOUND]

03:28 It's awesome.

03:29 And it's a little three cylinder.

03:31 Who doesn't love three cylinders?

03:33 I mean, this thing is ridiculous.

03:35 Look at that.

03:35 Slides around.

03:37 [SOUND]

03:42 Now, it's not quite as explosive,

03:45 [SOUND]

03:46 noxious, [SOUND]

03:47 rowdy as the Jaguar.

03:49 [SOUND]

03:50 But man, you know, are you a professional drifter?

03:53 Cuz if you're not, you don't care.

03:56 This thing is awesome.

03:58 It also, the peak system output is 357 horsepower.

04:04 [SOUND]

04:14 The Jag makes 550.

04:18 [SOUND]

04:23 Yet, this thing is only two-tenths of a second slower around the figure eight

04:28 than the Jaguar.

04:29 This can do it in 24.6 seconds to the Jag's 24.4.

04:35 By the way, 24.6 is a remarkable time.

04:39 The Alfa Romeo 4C, 24.7.

04:42 The 707 horsepower Dodge Hellcat, 24.7.

04:47 This is faster around a handling course than the Hellcat, than the mid-engine

04:53 Alfa.

04:53 I mean, what a machine.

04:55 [SOUND]

05:05 M used to be the innovative division of BMW.

05:23 Now, they're just kind of copycats with AMG and Audi RS and Cadillac V, right?

05:28 We're gonna build a 550 horsepower sedan.

05:31 We're gonna build a 560 horsepower sedan.

05:33 I mean, there's just nothing new there.

05:35 But this, this is all new.

05:37 I mean, this is like, essentially a Chevy Volt that can run around with a Porsche

05:41 911.

05:43 That's innovation.

05:44 [SOUND]

05:48 Yes, the name, i8, okay, you know, it's, it, yes, it's a iPhone, iPod,

05:52 Apple ripoff, but let's just assume instead of internet that the I stands for

05:57 innovation, because there's some radical thinking going on with this car.

06:01 [SOUND]

06:09 What is so innovative about this car is how light it is.

06:12 It's primarily composed of carbon fiber.

06:15 Not the fancy, hand laid, expensive stuff, but

06:17 kind of the very ugly injection molded stuff.

06:21 But who cares, it's lighter than steel and stronger than aluminum.

06:24 It's actually lighter than aluminum too.

06:25 [SOUND]

06:32 This car weighs 3,300 pounds.

06:34 That's about the same as a 911 Carrera S.

06:38 It's about 100 pounds less than a Corvette Stingray.

06:41 And that's one of the reasons why you get the performance of those two sports car

06:45 icons.

06:46 In fact, this outperforms BMW's own M6.

06:50 It's incredible.

06:51 [SOUND]

06:58 As we learned on the figure eight, this car is sweet.

07:01 It just handles so well.

07:02 [SOUND]

07:05 When you have a chassis that is so stiff, it just, it, it's almost infinite benefits

07:11 for the steering.

07:12 It just makes the car steer better because nothing is flexing.

07:16 The other thing is, this car not only handles well, but it rides incredibly.

07:21 Reason why?

07:21 Well, you have so much stiffness here,

07:23 you don't need to put a lot of stiffness into the shocks.

07:25 So, the shocks are relatively soft, but you have this stiff tub, and

07:30 it just, the whole thing works together so well.

07:33 You wouldn't know it, maybe, and you wouldn't think it, but what a sports car.

07:36 [SOUND]

07:40 What's crazy to me is that the, the front axle is being powered,

07:44 the rear axles are being powered, but they're not mechanically linked, you know?

07:47 So you have this computer that's doing all the work.

07:49 So, you know, the, the typical naysayers, oh, you can't turn everything off,

07:54 it's a computer doing all the driving.

07:55 Thank God, but look how it drives.

07:58 [SOUND]

08:02 I mean, this thing is incredible.

08:03 [SOUND]

08:07 We've gotta talk about the i8's radical design.

08:11 Now, not to brag, but I've driven Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces,

08:15 Bentleys, Bugattis, Maseratis, even a couple of Paganis, and

08:19 no car on Earth gets the reaction this thing does.

08:23 It's just visceral when people see it.

08:26 And I love how bold it is, how adventurous BMW was for putting this on the road.

08:32 Do I think it's particularly good looking?

08:35 Not really.

08:36 There are some good angles.

08:37 The front, for instance, I love how low and how wide it is, and

08:41 especially if you're driving another car and you catch it in your rear view mirror.

08:45 It just looks imposing.

08:46 It's got that classic BMW shark face, like a E24 6 Series.

08:51 Totally cool.

08:52 Then of course there's these wild doors.

08:54 They're made of carbon fiber with a lightweight aluminum skin, and

08:58 they weigh absolutely nothing, and man, you show up anywhere with these.

09:02 Makes a big splash.

09:03 Word of caution, though, let's say you're parked, and

09:07 another car pulls in right about here, you've got a real problem,

09:11 because then you can't get out of your own car or get into it.

09:14 Hot tip, make sure you go to the end of the parking lot and

09:18 park away from other people.

09:20 [MUSIC]

09:25 To me, the most shocking part of this car is the gas engine.

09:29 It's a 1.5 liter turbo charged three cylinder with an eight

09:34 horsepower torque fill electric motor.

09:36 [MUSIC]

09:38 But what trips me out about it is that if you would have told me back in the 80s

09:44 that one day there would be a 1.5 liter anything with three cylinders

09:48 that can keep up with a Corvette, I would have laughed at you.

09:53 It's such a breath of fresh air to drive this thing.

09:57 Because they did such a good job, they could have done a half-assed job, but

10:00 they absolutely didn't.

10:02 [MUSIC]

10:05 Is it perfect?

10:06 Far from it, but what a first effort.

10:09 [MUSIC]

10:13 People have been predicting the death of the sports car for

10:16 as long as they've been around.

10:18 And why not?

10:19 Sports cars are socially repugnant, designed to do highly illegal things,

10:24 mostly impractical, and no friend to our precious environment.

10:27 [MUSIC]

10:33 Until now.

10:35 BMW's iDivision has turned the very notion of a sports car on its head.

10:39 The i8 is an incredible first step towards a sustainable, yet

10:43 still just as fun to drive future.

10:45 [MUSIC]

10:47 Your key takeaway is this, I is the new M.

10:51 [MUSIC]

10:59 Now I'm gonna ruin the i8 design forever for you,

11:02 because once you see this, you can't unsee it.

11:05 But take a close look, and it seems to be dilated and

11:10 trying to excrete a silver Porsche.

11:12 Hey man, everybody poops.

11:15 [SOUND]

11:25 Whoa, I went upshifted.

11:27 [MUSIC]

11:35 Wow.

11:36 [SOUND]

11:41 That was a pretty good burnout.

11:42 >> That was awesome.

11:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

2015 BMW i8: Is i The New M? - Ignition Ep. 115

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