I attended this event in London last week, courtesy of BMW UK.
Usual great standard of event, all courtesy of BMW.
Nice hotel in Regents Park, with secret bar where we were plied with plenty of drinks
The Art Fair was excellent, with special guided tours for us. And a Ruinart "champagne masterclass".... delicious
This was followed by a reveal of the i8 Roadster. No NDA this time, so I can discuss what we saw and were told this time
(I had already seen the i8 Roadster in Munich months ago.)
However the UK personnel showing the car knew very little about it, in contrast to the people at Munich (who designed and engineered it).
It was the same car in the new bronze colour. It has the lightest wheels available for an i8, but I don't really like the slightly "square" design. I would not have these wheels anyway, as they are narrow, which probably explains their weight.
The i8 Roadster exterior looks very similar to the concept car
It is stunningly beautiful with the top down
Really truly beautiful
When it was revealed, the car had a laser light show that shot beams at its edges and lines, and wheels with millimetre precision. It looked so amazing I wanted my road car to do this
It was like a car from Tron, right in front of us.
With the top up it is not quite as beautiful as the coupe, and the engine cover looks far too long. It is clearly compromised by having to share the longer wheelbase of the coupe.
The rear seats have been removed and some storage space created there.
The roof is fabric, but suits the car and is good quality. The mechanism was broken in London, but I have seen it go up and down previously and it is smooth, quick, elegant and quiet. This was (very visibly) a prototype car so the broken mechanism did not concern me.
The seats are a HUGE improvement over the current seats, with much greater support and comfort, and also memory.
The instrument displays, iDrive etc are newer generation and improved. The gear indicator issue has been fixed, and the gear indication now appears in the HUD and rev gauge.
There is a fancy "i8" projected image displayed on the road when the doors are opened.
The UK personnel were unable to answer any of the questions I asked i.e. exactly how much more power does it have; how much more range/charge etc.
I can however state that they confirmed the ICE has the same power output, but the electric motor has more power. They said it was a new design of motor. I am not convinced by that however, and suspect the extra power is simply a function of the higher battery power density i.e. this allowed the motor to be driven harder with more current.
There was no hard sell, or indeed, any effort to sell the car or take orders. Very classy approach by BMW
After this we were chauffeured back to the hotel and had an extremely huge and delicious dinner at Asia de Cuba. So many... delicious.... calories
and lots of wine and drinks until late after midnight
After breakfast, I managed to fit in a walk in the morning to Chinatown for a little shopping before getting back in my i8 for the drive home, and on to the next i8 event the next day - in Belgium