Forum for the entire range of BMW electric vehicles
BMW Garage BMW Meets Register Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read
BMW i8 Forums BMW i8 General Discussion

Post Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
      03-02-2018, 03:39 PM   #23
JasH
Lieutenant Colonel
JasH's Avatar
United Kingdom
621
Rep
1,646
Posts

Drives: McLaren & Ferrari & i8 & i3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Kent, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by drlonline View Post
Whilst I agreed to let "Clarkson" do the full write-up this time, here is a short spoiler-free taster for his full fat magnum opus

JasH, don't think I ever saw the promised write-up from Clarkson on this event. As I'm becoming an i8 owner this Spring, I'm hoping there will be another Leipzig event in 2018, and would like to hear more about what happened at the last one.
Yes you are correct, and in fact I chased Clarkson about it over dinner in Ghent, Belgium last weekend - another i8 event

He said he couldn't post it for some reason. I asked him to email it to me, so I could post it for him. I will chase him tomorrow
Appreciate 0
      03-09-2018, 07:10 PM   #24
drlonline
Lieutenant
drlonline's Avatar
United_States
138
Rep
514
Posts

Drives: 2019 i8 Coupe
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: L.A., CA

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by JasH View Post
Yes you are correct, and in fact I chased Clarkson about it over dinner in Ghent, Belgium last weekend - another i8 event

He said he couldn't post it for some reason. I asked him to email it to me, so I could post it for him. I will chase him tomorrow
JasH, still waiting for the PI Leipzig write-up. Has Clarkson gone totally AWOL? Will we have to wait until next year when, like his namesake, he heads off to do another show called "The Grand Tour"? You have to realize, some of us (well, mainly just me) live vicariously through you current i8 owners, which will have to do until my 2019 car arrives in another month or so. Surely you must remember how agonizing it is waiting for your new baby to arrive? So please, buy Clarkson a pint of Guinness Extra Stout and coax him to share his story
Appreciate 0
      03-10-2018, 01:37 PM   #25
JasH
Lieutenant Colonel
JasH's Avatar
United Kingdom
621
Rep
1,646
Posts

Drives: McLaren & Ferrari & i8 & i3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Kent, UK

iTrader: (0)




I can only say that I did chase him last week, and he said he would do it, or email me the text. I have no idea what he has written.

Clarkson is however about as reliable as his namesake

I will chase again.

However, I can thoroughly recommend the Leipzig event. Clarkson went to it three times!
Appreciate 0
      03-10-2018, 01:40 PM   #26
JasH
Lieutenant Colonel
JasH's Avatar
United Kingdom
621
Rep
1,646
Posts

Drives: McLaren & Ferrari & i8 & i3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Kent, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by drlonline View Post
JasH, still waiting for the PI Leipzig write-up. Has Clarkson gone totally AWOL? Will we have to wait until next year when, like his namesake, he heads off to do another show called "The Grand Tour"? You have to realize, some of us (well, mainly just me) live vicariously through you current i8 owners, which will have to do until my 2019 car arrives in another month or so. Surely you must remember how agonizing it is waiting for your new baby to arrive? So please, buy Clarkson a pint of Guinness Extra Stout and coax him to share his story
I just texted Clarkson the above
Appreciate 0
      03-20-2018, 04:14 PM   #27
JasH
Lieutenant Colonel
JasH's Avatar
United Kingdom
621
Rep
1,646
Posts

Drives: McLaren & Ferrari & i8 & i3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Kent, UK

iTrader: (0)

Exclamation CLARKSON's write-up (unedited, copy pasted by me)

And eagerly awaited here is the official review from the absolute legend myself…. “Clarkson”.
Whilst Captain Slow was adamant that Clarkson was cheating by flying direct from London to Leipzig Captain Slow certainly lived up to his name departing much earlier leaving Kent for Stansted at 04:30am leaving Clarkson behind to sort all his work affairs out and casually make his way to the airport enjoying a nice tall beer in the departures lounge before boarding his plane. Clearly Captain slow wasn’t too disheartened by this!

An interest race was on our hands but it was clearly going to be very one sided. Clarkson tought about makin them observation that if he was on the same plan as Captain Slow he would have still been first at the Leipzig event but thought better of it! There would be plenty of time over the weekend to be his typically obnoxious self! Having done the journey to Leipzig before I was clearly at an advantage to my co presenters who had chosen other routes although this was my third trip to Leipzig and *Spoiler alert well worth the extra trip! These events differ every time and this one was no exception to the rule. Here is how things were looking as Clarkson started thinking about making his way to the airport….

So the race started getting interesting as Captain Slow did what he always does best sitting down and taking his time at the airport while the Stig and his companion were hurtling across France and making strong progress towards the border.
There was a humorous moment when the Stig relinquished the controls of the i8 to his companion and almost immediately they managed to have an encounter with a digger scoop the Stig taking a rare opportunity to shout various expletives. Thankfully there was no significant damage to the underside of the car the i8 is clearly well made!
We were getting constant updates from the Stig throughout his journey and Clarkson started grumbling as he’d only just realised the weather was forecasting rain for the trip and the UK weather was glorious

The Stig was making excellent progress while Captain Slow was again living up to his name as he missed his connecting train by 10 seconds as usual refusing to run despite Clarkson remarking that he should do so as he is quite clearly a Gentleman!
Clarkson was enjoying watching all of this from the comfort of the airport lounge. The Stig was north of Frankfurt and making good time. Seeing as Captain Slow had done the quick bit we were under the impression that the race was in the bag for the Stig!

Clarkson was keeping good track of the race and making sure to record screenshots from the find my friends App. The race came really close to the wire as Captain Slow arrived at the station as the Stig was entering Leipzig.

Captain Slow was luck he had a 7 series waiting for him at the train station. Clarkson realised the importance of timing here and told Captain Slow to inform the driver he was in a race and to get a move on!
Whilst Captain Slow relaxed and enjoyed the massage seating his driver got him to the Hotel first shortly followed by the Stig. Clarkson still hadn’t gotten on his plane and seemed likely to be missing the evening meal although he didn’t mind so long as he was able to enjoy a Stein or 2 at the bar!
The lovely formula E safety car was on display in the Hotel lobby Clarkson was happy to see this as he had driven it round the Berlin Formula E track on another event previously.
. Whilst the Stig and Captain Slow freshened up to enjoy dinner Clarkson was finally making his way to Leipzig and arrive late as expected with another couple from Britain who were on the same flight he arrived to see Captain Slow complaining that he hadn’t received his Dessert yet and laughed at the dismayed face he pulled when told he wouldn’t be getting any as the kitchen had served everything. The joys of a flying buffet.

I couldn’t comment on the food at this event’s dinner due to tardiness however the previous years had been excellent the Falco Restaurant is a flagship in Germany and the cuisine is stunning.
After a good nights rest at the Westin in Leipzig we proceeded the following day to the Plant to and we had the joys of enjoying an indepth lecture about the i8 with Captain Slow asking many probing and thought provoking questions. I had other ideas and wanted to ask the BMW engineers why they hadn’t upgraded the car and increased the POWER! Yet…! My i8 has been remapped to just over 400bhp combined output without rev limiter and top speed limiter so I was naturally intrigued to get there thoughts especially as mine is a “high mileage” example.


After a lovely lunch in the Bavarie Brasserie café we proceeded to have our tours around the plant. I was frustrated as I had specifically requested us to remain in the same groups but I had been separated for the tour. Captain Slow found this hilarious and commented that he had told the organisers to split us up. I was promptly cheered up by the lovely looking host guiding our tour around the plant and promptly spent the time flirting with her and didn’t remember much from the tour. (this happens to me at most events as Captain slow and the Stig would attest to!)
The tour was very impressive and we had the pleasure of seeing the production line and asking many questions about the car this process was fascinating even being my third time at the plant. We took some time out to enjoy looking around the Frozen Yellow edition which I was very tempted by but had to remember that I had an order placed for another car and couldn’t justify another i8!


The i8’s are mostly handbuilt and the production environment is very green with massive wind turbines outside powering the plant and also providing power to most of Leipzig apparently it was a lovely experience in all.



we made our way promptly back to the hotel and then went on the music tour (seeing as there was no other option before dinner!) Despite being a little soul draining there were a few highlights and not just the French i8 owners who clearly didn’t approve of us messing around!
The tour was translated twice which Clarkson found particularly humours firstly from German to English and then from English to German. We even had a translation from English to German to English at one stage which was interesting!

Part of our tour involved getting a full frontal view on one of Leipzig’s colourful members of the homeless community who promptly began to accost the tour guide in aggressive German. Captain Slow and the Stig were trying to maintain a straight face during this while I cracked up laughing.


The Stig’s companion was back in the Hotel enjoying PornHub on the VR Headset which we felt was the best place for him! In all honesty though Leipzig is a lovely City and I really enjoyed my third tour around the place there are some lovely sights and the people (apart from the above) are genuinely lovely.


Dinner that evening was held at the very interesting Kunst kraftwerk which is an Art Studio of sorts set up in an old disused factory. They put on a very intriguing projector show for us which everyone remarked on although it did remind Clarkson at times of the war which he refrained from commenting on too loudly!


There were some very interesting conversations over dinner including Captain Slow virtually dominating the time of the Leipzig Plant over dinner. Clarkson promptly decided to engage in conversation elsewhere as he couldn’t be torn away from the conversation which promptly led him to place an order for another upcoming car from the “M” Division.
The Stig was enjoying the party and the music upstairs in the loft area although Clarkson and Captain slow were tired so they decided to call it a night considering how busy there day trip to Berlin tomorrow would be. They started to descend the staircase to leave the event Clarkson remarking that these were very rickety metal stairs and that someone could easily fall down. It was at that exact moment (the timing couldn’t have been any better) that he lost his footing and tumbled down the stairs almost taking Captain Slow out in the process. Thankfully I was ok but this caused much hilarity especially when the Stig found out the following day!
Picture below taken just before the “incident!”

Effectively this concluded the event and the team went their separate ways the following morning. Stig and his companion driving back to the UK and Captain Slow and Clarkson making their way across to Berlin to spend the day in an amazing City together before their late night flight back to the UK.
After breakfast Captain Slow and I headed to the airport to collect our rented car and weren’t expecting much we were tempted to ask the chauffeur 7 series driver to take us the whole way home especially when all the blinds and massage seats were lowered and turned on respectively.
Upon arriving at the rental car Clarkson was ashamed to see a Grey Ford Galaxy people carrier waiting him. It was far too big for its purpose and Clarkson didn’t hold out much hope of getting a high speed on the autobahn.
Whilst the Galaxy wasn’t fast Clarkson spent most of the journey screaming POWER! Whilst putting his foot down eventually getting the Galaxy to its top speed of around 135mph! We got to Berlin in no time!

Both Captain Slow and I had an excellent trip and enjoyed ourselves in Berlin. I’ll share a few highlights below.
Captain Slow thought he was being funny by telling everyone else that he hadn’t seen Clarkson all morning and didn’t know where he was. This joke seemed to have the desired affect with Stig and his companion acting “concerned” before the following was sent to confirm we were indeed together…

Clarkson then promptly discovered a car that suited Captain Slow down to the ground…

And Captain Slow tried to push Clarkson into a pond…

Although what goes on in Berlin clearly stays in Berlin – Clarkson experienced an interesting Massage Parlour in the Berlin City centre. Captain slow remarked on Whatsapp that he had been in twice for only a couple of minutes at a time. Clarkson was starting to get frustrated!

The highlight for Captain Slow was clearly the Trabant museum and he remarked that he would be keen to get one as a replacement for the i8. The interior being the main selling point. Clarkson agreed – expect to see a few Trabants in his car collection shortly!

We really enjoyed our day in Berlin and spotted lots of interesting and humorous things with Clarksons humour really showing through at times with his photographs..


We rounded our City centre trip off and spotted a chap with a crudely drawn phallic drawing on his chest remarking on the love he has for his mother which Captain Slow seemed strangely interested in!



In all seriousness however Berlin is a lovely City and for those who haven’t been I can highly recommend it I will be back soon but that’s because I spend a lot of time in Germany (mostly due to the autobahns!)


The final stop for our tour was to visit Classic Remise which is a Car Collection of sorts and a vintage and collectible car restoration business. Entry was free and for Clarkson this was the highlight of the trip. I had wanted to visit previously but didn’t have the time on the previous Berlin Formula E event. Below are a couple of pictures from the museum however these don’t do it justice.




We were uploading pictures of the museum to Whatsapp while we were looking round and the Stig was increasingly infuritated by these reminders of Captain Slow and Clarkson enjoying himself especially while he was queuing up for the Channel Tunnel

So the race home wasn’t really a race although the interesting race was between Captain slow and Clarkson who were travelling at similar times back from Berlin and Leipzig airport respectively. Clarkson won this race and he was happy to win something over the weekend!

Thanks again to BMW for treating us like such VIP’s the hospitality and experience was top class.
Next up the write up from the Maisach BMW i meets M Track day…..
Appreciate 0
      03-20-2018, 04:16 PM   #28
JasH
Lieutenant Colonel
JasH's Avatar
United Kingdom
621
Rep
1,646
Posts

Drives: McLaren & Ferrari & i8 & i3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Kent, UK

iTrader: (0)

Exclamation IMAGES in above write-up

I should add that Clarkson sent me it as a Word file, and it has images throughout it. But I cannot get the images to appear from a Word document.

If a Moderator would like to attach Clarkson's original Word file here, I can send it. I cannot attach it here myself
Appreciate 0
      03-20-2018, 07:58 PM   #29
drlonline
Lieutenant
drlonline's Avatar
United_States
138
Rep
514
Posts

Drives: 2019 i8 Coupe
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: L.A., CA

iTrader: (0)

UK School System

I guess hell has frozen over, as we finally got to read the long promised report on the Leipzig PI event. Thanks to Clarkson for that and a shout-out to JasH for prodding Clarkson to issue this before the i8 was discontinued .

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the write-up, as I expected I would based on the earlier post from JasH on the previous PI event. However, Clarkson's post did raise a few concerns for me about the state of the British educational system. Not that the American system is anything to boast about, but I lost count of the number of missed punctuation marks, dangling participles and occasionally incoherent missives contained in the report. Of course, I don't know if that is a reflection of Clarkson's schooling, his difficulty in using Microsoft Word, or if it reflects a level of intoxication that was still lingering after the plentiful consummation of German libations.. Regardless, it made for an entertaining read and I sincerely hope I'll be able to join you guys at one of the future European PI events after I officially become an i8 owner next month. I'll be sure to hone my foreign language skills before I come over, as I know how proud you Brits are of the English language.

Speaking of my car, I got the news today that it is now on a ship heading for California, with arrival at the Ca. port expected April 13. I'll be sure to post a full report with pictures once it arrives. An interesting note is that taking into account the time from arrival at port to delivery at my dealer, it is very possible that I will pick up the car on or about April 22. And for those that don't immediately recognize that date, it happens to be Earth Day! How appropriate is that for timing to pick up an eco-friendly sports car .

Cheers (see, I'm already starting to speak British)
Appreciate 1
JasH621.00
      03-21-2018, 11:33 AM   #30
JasH
Lieutenant Colonel
JasH's Avatar
United Kingdom
621
Rep
1,646
Posts

Drives: McLaren & Ferrari & i8 & i3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Kent, UK

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by drlonline View Post
dangling participles


And Clarkson's dangling participles are legendary.....in his own mind
Appreciate 0
      03-21-2018, 01:14 PM   #31
JasH
Lieutenant Colonel
JasH's Avatar
United Kingdom
621
Rep
1,646
Posts

Drives: McLaren & Ferrari & i8 & i3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Kent, UK

iTrader: (0)

Post The secret car - see Post 1 in this thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by drlonline View Post
I imagine the other new car you saw and ordered might be the i5, which I understand will be revealed at the Frankfurt show next week.
As I said, it was an M car, not i car.

This might be it: https://carbuzz.com/news/the-410-hp-...al-reveal-date


If so, I am VERY disappointed, as BMW have greatly dialed it back. The development car was a LOT more extreme than this, and more expensive.

However, I do suspect there is another much more extreme variant due. That would be the car that was described to me.

Last edited by JasH; 03-21-2018 at 02:48 PM..
Appreciate 0
      03-29-2018, 02:17 PM   #32
JasH
Lieutenant Colonel
JasH's Avatar
United Kingdom
621
Rep
1,646
Posts

Drives: McLaren & Ferrari & i8 & i3
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Kent, UK

iTrader: (0)

Exclamation CLARKSON's write-up (unedited, copy pasted by me)

WITH Clarkson's images this time!!!


I realised I could print to PDF, then attach that
Attached Images
File Type: pdf Clarkson.pdf (2.16 MB, 100 views)
Appreciate 0
      03-29-2018, 02:30 PM   #33
drlonline
Lieutenant
drlonline's Avatar
United_States
138
Rep
514
Posts

Drives: 2019 i8 Coupe
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: L.A., CA

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by JasH View Post
WITH Clarkson's images this time!!!


I realised I could print to PDF, then attach that
Even funnier with the pics. That's the great thing about the Pretty Damn Funny (PDF) file format, one can include all sorts of things in it, including, for example, hot links to prestigious tourist sites, like that Thai Massage Parlor.

Hoping to meet up with you guys in Munich in July. I assume your usual gang will be going. Since I won't be bringing my car (won't fit in carry-on), I thought I would request one of the first production M8's, which I suspect should be available by then. Reasonable request, don't you think?
Appreciate 0
Post Reply

Bookmarks

Tags
leipzig, pure impulse

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:24 AM.




bmw
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
1Addicts.com, BIMMERPOST.com, E90Post.com, F30Post.com, M3Post.com, ZPost.com, 5Post.com, 6Post.com, 7Post.com, XBimmers.com logo and trademark are properties of BIMMERPOST