Quote:
Originally Posted by Obioban
I meant any contemporary 911. The 997 came out in 2004. Certainly, yes, the i8 is faster than lots of old 911s. I'm sure it's faster than every 1960s 911, as well :P
Passing cars on tracks is proof of nothing about the car, only driver. I routinely pass GT3s, MacLarens, Corvettes, etc in my e46 M3. It is not anywhere near as fast as any of those cars.
There is more to being a sports car then 0-60 for sure. It's about feedback (i8 steering is dead), engine dynamics (i8 engine dynamics are GT like, not sports car like-- sports cars are peaky), and involvement with the machine (i8 is only available with any automatic trans and all wheel drive, and you don't have a ton of control over how the machine does what it's doing (where it allocates power, etc)).
I COMPLETELY agree the i8 is a better DD. GT cars make great DDs. Sports cars, that are real sports cars (I'd say only the GT 911s still are) are inherently pretty terrible DDs-- and even worse for road trips. The very things that make the i8 not a sports car are exactly what allows it to be great for DD use or road trips. Always accessible power (torque), automatic shifting, nice NHV isolation, effortless speed-- these are all things that make for a pleasant daily/road trip car, but detract from a sports car experience.
I'm not trying to describe the i8 as a bad car- I think it's great at what it's great at. I'm trying to explain that the reason it gets so much hate is that it's not what it looks like, so it doesn't meet the expectations people have when they see it. It looks like a sports car/almost exotic, but drives like a GT car. It's like if people went in to see Avengers, but were shown gone with the wind. Gone with the wind isn't a bad movie, but if you went in expecting gone with the wind... it's not what you were expecting.
I'm not arguing against the i8. I've been debating getting one for a long time (basically try to decide if it's ownable in the long term, as I don't really like to sell cars). But, if I do, its role in the fleet would be my DD/road trip car-- as that's where it excels.
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Do you own or have you extensively driven an i8? If not then I suggest that you're talking out of your bottom. And the i8 has had some great reviews, I could post links in here if I didn't have better things to do, but as this is an i8 forum I would've thought that you would've found them by now. The i8 is a sports car when you want it to be, a GT when you want it to be, and it looks like a supercar and it is every bit as fast as any 'normal' 911 in the real world.