The 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed celebrated numerous premieres both worldwide and local. From the BMW corner we can mention the worldwide premiere of the Pistonheads special M4 and the UK premiere of the i8 and the M5 30th Anniversary model.
All of them are brilliant pieces of engineering brilliance but out of the group we have to mention the i8 that is simply the biggest achievement in BMW’s corner in the last 30 years, at least.
Developed as an exciting green alternative to the i3, the i8 has specs that make numerous sports car sweat in angst and less than half the environmental impact as they do. To be more precise, the i8 will release just 49 grams of CO2 into the atmosphere for every kilometer covered, while other cars with similar performance won’t get below 200 grams. That’s the difference we’re talking about.
Not to mention that the car will do up to 121 mpg (2.1 l/100 km) on a combined cycle is something other sport cars can’t even dream about. That being said, the i8 seems like a best buy but how does it drive?
Well, for testing purposes Goodwood Road & Racing’s Andy Craign stepped behind the wheel of the BMW and drove it up the Goodwood hillclimb in a UK premiere. The best part about it is that he filmed the whole experience to share it with us.
Being a petrolhead himself, he knew that the audience wants to see how the run looks like from behind the wheel and installed a GoPro camera right in front of him. The resulting video is absolutely brilliant, check it out, below.
The i8 has two powerplants under the skin, one 1.5-liter 3-cylinder turbocharged unit at the back making 231 HP and 320 Nm of torque and an electric motor up front making 131 HP and 250 Nm of torque, for a grand total of 362 HP and 570 Nm (420 lb-ft) of torque. 100 km/h (62 mph) comes up in 4.4 seconds thanks to the all-wheel-drive system. Prices start at GBP99,845 in the UK.
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