Why is the bmw i8 so slow
The BMW i8 is slow! Why do I hear this so often?
[Music]
hi I'm Pat and welcome back to the
channel if you're new to the channel
please subscribe click that Bell for
notifications because I'll be talking
about BMW i8 content a lot on this
channel today I wanted to talk about
something that has been on my mind a lot
since I've owned the BMW i8 and that is
hearing people in public and seeing
comments on the internet that say the
BMW i8 is slow I heard it so much and I
read it so much I actually started
believing it and I would tell people
that would come up to me asking me about
performance of the car I'd say well it's
pretty slow it'll do 0 to 60 and 4.2 and
in the low 12s in the quarter-mile and
most of the time that's meant by
confusion a lot of people think that I'm
kind of crazy that I say it's slow and
it has those kind of performance figures
but a lot of the automotive enthusiast
community seems to believe that this car
is slow probably more of a thought
process of it's slower than it looks
like it should be and what I mean by
that is the car looks like it should be
much faster than it really is okay but
it doesn't answer the question as to why
some people would say the car is slow
and it's sort of wait on my mind for
some time I really wanted to better
understand what was in the same
performance category as the BMW i8 now
this is the 2015 model 357 horsepower
420 pounds-feet of torque so the latest
model is a little bit faster well five
or ten more horsepower
not not any more torque and that is
because they made some modifications to
the electric motor but the gas engine
that's combined with the electric motor
is giving you those peak numbers far
horsepower and torque our concern now
what does that mean to me the fastest
car I ever owned before this was a c5
Corvette the 1997 model and I want to
say that was 345 horsepower and roughly
the same amount of torque and then I put
long tube headers and x-pipe free-flow
cats and and got another maybe 45
horsepower out of it I don't know how
much more torque and that felt pretty
fast
and it could run a 14 second quarter
mile because I raced it and I don't
remember the 0 to 60 times but to me
that felt fast so when I got this thing
and said well it's only 357 horsepower
no this felt like much more horsepower
to me and the experience behind the
wheel the car is sometimes it will get
scary if I try to push it and I have to
back off so it feels like it has enough
power to easily beat that c5 Corvette
and it should on paper but I wanted to
do a little bit more research and see
what other vehicles compared to it so I
went online and I spent a lot of time
trying to see what 0-60 and what
quarter-mile times the I ate compared to
as far as other vehicles and right off
the bat I wanted to see what the
difference was between this and the c7
Corvette the latest model of Corvette
because it was produced around the same
model year 2015 and when I go on a
Corvette forum I'm seeing numbers a 0 to
60 between 3.8 and 4.2 ok and
quarter-mile times of 11 3 to 12 5
respectable now when I look at the i8
numbers that were posted online I'm
seeing 3.8 to 4.3 so roughly the same 0
to 60 time at quarter-mile times at 12 1
to 12 9 so the quarter-mile times are
slower and the reason for that is
because the electric motor in the front
of this car will not produce full power
after 5 seconds and that is because of
the amount of heat that's generated so
it has to cut back on the amount of
power that's coming out of that front
end
or that that front motor now is a stock
c7 Corvette slow are you gonna go to
Corvettes of Carlisle and go man look at
all these brand new slow c7 Corvettes no
and nobody looks at a Corvette and says
man that thing's slow I mean maybe you
know like a c2 compact to the 50s and
early 60s here you know and those look
slow well once you get into a 63 on up
just the appearance of the car looks so
much faster and compared to other models
that produced in the same years of other
vehicles they're they're equivalent and
as far as top performance is concerned
so I would never look at the car oh man
that thing's slow how about I researched
the the 2015 Mustang Shelby gt500 Super
Snake 0 to 60 and 3.9 quarter-mile 12.3
all right so is that slow how about the
current mustang shelby gt350r
seeing zero to sixty times between three
point nine and four point one and a
quarter mile in twelve to twelve point
four is that slow you know don't buy a
gt350r because people are gonna look
down on yet that's really a slow car no
I mean it's just it's crazy so you know
I went down the list then other cars
that were published online and I can
link to some of these in the description
but I'm not gonna provide proof of
everything that I found online it's just
going to take a lot of time but here are
other models that had similar 0 to 60
and quarter-mile times the Alfa Romeo 4c
and 2015 Aston Martin db9 the Vanquish
and the v12 Vantage all right they're
slow 2015 audi s4 s5 and TTS in 2015 the
BMW m2 m3 and m4 M cars they're slow
all right here's one so I'm going down
the list alphabetically and the Bugatti
was on the list okay now this is a 1994
Bugatti EB 110 GT the 2015 Camaro SS
Chrysler 300 srt8 some 2015 dodge
challenger r/t scat pack and Dodge
Charger SRT 392 SE model your slow
alright so then I got it into the
alphabetically I got into the Ferraris
the 2011 Ferrari 612 scag
how about the 2009 Ferrari f430 the 2005
Ferrari 575 em Superamerica
the 2004 Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale
that's the Strad man's favorite car too
bad that's that slow the 2015 Jaguar
f-type coupe oh we got down to
Lamborghinis here on the list okay the
2007 Lamborghini Guyardo
so one of the most affordable
Lamborghinis that that people purchase
today great car but it's too bad that
it's slow you know uh-huh the 2000
Lamborghini Diablo VT and even the 1990
Lamborghini Countach the the car that I
had in a poster in my room you know the
most desirable car back when I was a
teenager
too bad it's it's it's just a slow car
2014 Lotus Elise S Club Racer and the
2016 Lotus Evora sport 410 they're slow
I got down to the Maseratis so 2015
maserati granturismo and the
Quattroporte were slower than this no
but it is a maserati it that people
expect performance from those it's too
bad that they're slow this is faster
than a 2016 Mercedes Maybach s600
or it's in the same performance as a
2015 G 65 G 63 GL 63 s550 II GLA 45 AMG
s 65 AMG SL 400 C 400 400 SL 63 AMG
if you own any of these cars I'm sorry
they're slow the 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer
Evolution the 2015 Nissan 370z Nismo too
bad it's slow we get to the Porsches
here we go the 2015 Porsche Porsche
Boxster GTS the Cayman GTS the 911 Targa
4s hmm
some newer models the 2016 Cayman gt4
same performance the 2017 718 Cayman S
and the 2018 Panamera we got down to the
ours here rolls-royce ghost Wraith and
dawn similar performance the 2009 Tesla
Roadster the 2013 tesla model s p85d
2016 Tesla Model S 90 d that's all I had
time to research similar performance so
I'm having a hard time now after hearing
how slow the BMW i8 is and reading how
slow it is to believing it's really slow
because I know owners that have a lot of
these cars and I wouldn't in a million
years go up to them and say hey I like
your car but too bad it's slow and I get
that I hear it people actually tell me
this and maybe I ought to start asking
the question what what performance
figures do you consider slow and if
that's the case what do you drive it now
because I'd like to I'd love to go for a
ride in your car sometime because i
donnelly love to feel better performance
and i'm getting out of this and i'm
being honest here i'd love it you know
if you're doing quarter-mile times in
the tens man take me for a ride I'd love
to experience it
and my battery died so I'm back anyway
no disrespect to anybody that owns any
of the vehicles on the list that I
talked about seriously I don't consider
them slow in fact when I was growing up
trying to get a car in the 12s in the
quarter mile cost a lot of money and a
lot of time and a lot of modifications
that almost made the car not streetable
it was very difficult to drive a car
that fast on the street so definitely no
disrespect to any car that has performed
in the similar category is the i8 now
that also begs the question is it
because people who've driven super cars
or who have seen the supercar numbers
are they comparing those numbers to this
car because they're in a different
league this car looks like a supercar
but it performs like a sports car
and in fact BMW labels it as a sports
car but a lot of BMW i8 owners say it's
a supercar and it has supercar features
to it the tub of the car is all carbon
fibre it's you know bleeding edge
technology
it's a mid-engine car it can potentially
be in a supercar category but it
performs like a supercar of yesteryear
so I have a hard time saying it's a
supercar I definitely will call it an
exotic due to the materials that are in
the car and how it was configured in the
technology but oh I I personally don't
call it a supercar but we'll leave that
for another another video anyway thanks
for watching I really appreciate you
stopping by checking this video out go
down in the comment box below and let me
know what you think do you think the i8
is slow and why you know if you
experienced a car that's faster or are
you just basing it upon appearance and
how you think it should operate let me
know I'll be curious to hear what you
have to say if you haven't subscribed to
my channel please subscribe and please
click that bell for notifications as
I'll be posting I ate content
thanks for stopping by and happy
motoring
[Music]
