In the meantime – half a decade after the end of production – you would think that the Internet would have come up with the car together. Of course we talk about the painful, hybridized Super-ISH car, the BMW i8. But the audience is shared as always. There are those who believe that the car should have been a full EV. Another sub-section is of the opinion that all-gas would have been the right way to exchange things for a small 1.5-liter engine to the back for a Remen V8 or roaring V12. Or maybe it would have only had a larger engine, like a famous BMW -Sechs -Sechs. Well, it almost happened. The fact is that the BMW i8 started life with the glorious S85 V10 engine in a round way.
The BMW i8 BMW M1 beginnings
The BMW i8 is firmly rooted in the BMW M1 homage. In January 2008, BMW commissioned a handful of designers to outline what a modern interpretation of the M1 sports car would look like. Since the 30th anniversary of the original approached, it was as suitable as any other time. Designer Benoit Jacob had the winning design, and the M1 homage should be built for the upcoming show in Villa d’Este. You may know better than Concorso d’Elanza. Which, as should be noted, was only eight weeks away at that time. The M1 homage – what would be at some point in the i8 – was constructed from the start with the intention of being an ongoing concept.
In particular, the car in the Villa d’Este had no running equipment. Of course, it was out of the question to question yourself. For this purpose, the designers were not even certain whether the synthetic wood from which it was made (epowood) would create in spring on the cold nights and hot days of Italy. However, this was not the reception of the M1 homage through the crowd. You loved it. The next step was, of course, to pack an engine under the rear. And some suggest that the S85B50 was the plan all the time.
What happened to the V10 Powered i8?
In his book BMW from design, Steve Saxty contains a mention by Jürgen Steinle. He was head of designing technology for the M1 homage. In this blurb, Saxty claims that Steinle “is realistic and able to pack the importance of the model for proportionality and able to pack human inmates and S85B50”. Obviously, this never happened, and Saxty attributes the financial crisis with a large part of the reason for the reinvention of the M1 homage as an i8. Of course we agree. Since many Nesteier overnight and the gas prices that came towards the moon, the Hommage V10 M1 could never have happened.
It is now important that the BMW’s own websites for the M1 homage “a electricity unit was never intended”. It was a “pure design study”, although at least they mentioned that V10 and V8 were certainly murmured. In Saxty’s book – only one of three excellent BMW books he wrote – none other than Adrian van Hooydonk himself wrote the foreword. In it he says: “Sometimes [Steve’s willingness to talk to any team member] We also helped rediscover some of our own design history. “Maybe this was such a case.
