A small, one-word caveat: understeer. For
all Munich’s talk of balanced weight distribution and a center of gravity just
18 inches off the ground, the front tire choice shows that BMW has been
cautious with the i8’s fundamental grip. Those tires are a weeny 215-section,
and that’s only if you choose the optional wide ones. Standard fit is a 195
front on a 20-inch rim.
I’d love to see how the handling balance
changes on thinner rubber. In most cases, on the optional tires, the i8
gradually pushes its nose wide. Nothing too unpleasant, but it’s not that
adventurous, either. The narrow paws should bring delicious steering, but with
the i8’s electrically assisted steering rack-as with most of this type -
there’s little sense of connection. You never feel blinded by it, but you can’t
read the road surface through the jingles in your hands, because there are no
jingles.
Like
the i3, BMW's traditional grille is replaced by a plastic version on the i8
I’ve mentioned the dynamic dampers that
alter their response according to the drive mode. Curiously, although I found
the ride too firm in town, it felt significantly better on faster roads.
Vertical movements are well contained at sociable speeds, and there’s little
body roll. I suspect that things grow more ragged beyond nine-tenths, but
without the luxury of track time in this evaluation, that theory will have to
remain untested. And given the car’s purpose, a test like that probably isn’t
relevant.
Or maybe it is. Once I had time to digest
some of the i8’s startling behavior, it dawned on me that this car needs to be
judged not only on its precocious cleverness, but also in the context of basic
recreational driving. BMW’s smaller i3 city car has it easier; that machine’s
rivals speak a language of efficiency, so it simply has to out-efficient them,
then more crucially, out-showroom them. But the i8 has to persuade the 911
owner that he wants to drive the car the way he drives his Porsche.
The
plug-in hybrid i8 features a conventional combustion engine as well as an
electric motor
Wait-or does it? Because this car is
undeniably fast but not a standard sports car; because BMW has decided the i8
is the brand’s first step down a new performance path and has fully committed
itself to that pursuit; because the car almost contemptuously refuses to tick
the high-cylinder- count and massive-horsepower boxes . . . because of all
this, a single drive leaves you with questions. You contradict yourself. And
you realize that, over the next few decades as the industry changes, questions
will continue to arise.
By the numbers, the innovative, brilliant
i8 is not as quick, fast, or grippy as any equivalent Porsche. And it comes
with its own dynamics, mostly entertaining but also markedly different.
Which leaves us with two last questions, at
least for now: In its own way, is this car good enough? And how does it compare
to other very good cars that aren’t meant to be The Future?
The
i8's boot offers 154 liters of storage space
For all the BMW’s newness, and for all the
fun I had driving in those canyons, I have to conclude that I would have had
more fun in a Carrera or a Cayman. Or anything conventionally propelled and
rear-driven. The sensation of trimming your line with your right foot, of
taking the rear axle to the edge of adhesion and having the car talk back to
you-in the i8, those are a little skewed. Maybe I just need more time to learn
the car. And my concerns will undoubtedly be addressed in future versions of
this machine, or possibly even this version, given the flexibility that its
computing power allows. But sports cars trade on connection, and there’s
something missing.
Of course, back roads constitute a small
part of the sports car’s life. For cruising, posing, sipping fuel with
unparalleled parsimony, and - this is the strange one-simply going crazy fast,
the i8 is a triumph. If nothing else, it represents a relocation of the core
expectation for this type of car. BMW’s work here isn’t perfect, but if you
consider the effort and the technology the i8 embodies, the ideas it forces you
to reconsider, and the smile it puts on your face, there’s only one conclusion:
This is a remarkable achievement.
