Story time!
I didn’t think to do this when I was working on my 135i or M4 some years back, but I wanted to take a moment to introduce my 2019 i8 Coupe.
I had originally driven a 2017 i8 in the spring of 2019 and was instantly in love. It shattered all of my previous perceptions of the car – it felt much quicker than advertised, cornered incredibly flat, and while the ICE didn’t sound great the car made its own unique set of noises from the electric motors.
I really, really wanted one but wasn’t comfortable buying used without knowing too much about their reliability. Having been working with some BMW dealers as a broker around the same time I was aware of the insane incentives BMW NA was putting on the cars, so I took my time and set up what I believe is the best i8 lease in the country to date. All in, I ended up with the option of leasing it for $692/m for two years, or $798/m for three years. Insane numbers for a car just shy of $160k MSRP - it actually ended up running me less than my M4 once I factored in insurance.
Almost a year and a half later – I’m glad I went for three.
The first change I wanted to make to the car were the wheels and tires. I had done a couple autocross runs last summer and immediately felt that the car was way under-tired for what the chassis was capable off. Those 215 mm Bridgestones up front just did not want to cooperate (small aside – did you know that the stock i8 tire section withs of 215 front and 245 rear are the same section widths as a stock 135i?).
Bridgestones out Michelin Pilot 4S’ in – or so I thought. I had purchased a set of Vorsteiner VFF-103s and the 4S’ (245 front, 285 rear), but UPS ended up losing one of the rears in transit. After a lot of back and forth over the course of two months I ended up just ordering a replacement while dealing with UPS HQ about a reimbursement. And then they found the missing wheel in the first distribution center the shipment went through, but at least after three months of waiting I had my wheels.
Next up came the Vorsteiner VR-E Front Lip and Rear Diffuser, as always supplied by the guys over at iND, but I decided not to get them mounted until I made my mind up on wrapping the car. Sophisto Grey is an amazing color, but I’m generally a bigger fan of lighter tones and really wanted to find something at least somewhat resembling the Silverstone II paint on my M4. After a lot of back and forth and many, many photoshop renders, I decided on a look and found a partner to execute on it.
Here’s the final result:
I also recently added some aluminum shift paddle extensions and the blue start/stop button to compliment all the blue inside the car already. Very surprised that a $25 set of Amazon paddle extensions can make such a drastic improvement in feel. I always felt that the stock non-M-DCT paddles were a little far away from the tips of my fingers, and this thankfully fixed that.
Thanks for reading!
- Silber