On this episode of Ignition
Category
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MotorTranscript
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]