RE: BMW goes wild with i8 Roadster for Formula E

RE: BMW goes wild with i8 Roadster for Formula E

Monday 13th May 2019

BMW goes wild with i8 Roadster for Formula E

As the Formula E racers get more interesting, so the safety car follows suit...



The BMW i8 is never a car that's wanted much for visual drama, its concept car looks having drawn lots of attention since its 2013 launch. They still do, in fact, particularly as a Roadster. But that's not enough for BMW, which has now taken the i8 Roadster one step further with this, the i8 Roadster Safety Car.

Really that sells the car short, as it's more an i8 Speedster than a mere Roadster, the windscreen chopped, the spoiler enormous and the roll cage prominent with the roof gone - BMW says this is the first open top safety car in history.

Thanks to the i8's carbon construction, its maker reckons that the "no major modifications were necessary" in creating this car, the most work having gone into hacking down that windscreen. Interestingly the centre of gravity for this Safety Car is 15mm lower than the road car, and it's fitted with ceramic brakes, and that front splitter contributes to additional downforce - thinking what we're thinking?


Yes, all the signs are there for a more track-focussed and exciting i8 road car, albeit in quite an extreme case with that windscreen. Of course that's not being entertained just yet, BMW happy just to boast of how "i engineers, designers and communications crew have dared to explore new horizons and create an absolutely unique car." But if M Division does need to broaden its scope into an electrified future, where better to start than with the mid-engined, carbon tubbed, £100k sports car that's already built on hybrid architecture?

For now, the i8 Roadster Safety Car will only be seen at Formula E races in its jazzy new livery, which began at Monaco over the weekend. There remains space for a passenger hot laps, too. Is this i8 something you'd want to experience from the passenger seat? Or the driver's seat perhaps, this arguably as interesting as the i8 has yet looked. Seems a lot of work for a one-off car, after all...












Author
Discussion

NJ72

Original Poster:

183 posts

97 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
Aaaand the crappest car to be driving in the next wet Formula E race?! lol

Looks funky, though.

aarondbs

843 posts

145 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
NJ72 said:
Aaaand the crappest car to be driving in the next wet Formula E race?! lol

Looks funky, though.
As this is an electric series I don’t think they race in the wet. Water and electricity are not great bedfellows. I have a hybrid and I’m always very careful to use the petrol engine only in the wet.

Greg the Fish

1,410 posts

65 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
rofl
aarondbs said:
As this is an electric series I don’t think they race in the wet. Water and electricity are not great bedfellows. I have a hybrid and I’m always very careful to use the petrol engine only in the wet.

DanielSan

18,745 posts

166 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
aarondbs said:
As this is an electric series I don’t think they race in the wet. Water and electricity are not great bedfellows. I have a hybrid and I’m always very careful to use the petrol engine only in the wet.
Not sure if serious?

phil4

1,203 posts

237 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
Do they still have the petrol engine fitted and working?

I swear I've heard this in the previous races, and seems at odds with the Formula-E idea.

1781cc

575 posts

93 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
aarondbs said:
As this is an electric series I don’t think they race in the wet. Water and electricity are not great bedfellows. I have a hybrid and I’m always very careful to use the petrol engine only in the wet.
Brilliant, this has made my day!

aarondbs

843 posts

145 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
1781cc said:
Brilliant, this has made my day!
Pleased to serve wink


Ed Straker

221 posts

142 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
aarondbs said:
As this is an electric series I don’t think they race in the wet. Water and electricity are not great bedfellows. I have a hybrid and I’m always very careful to use the petrol engine only in the wet.
PMSL! rofl

robsprocket

109 posts

177 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
Overkill, a mobility scooter would've been plenty fast enough as a Formula E safety car.

Gameface

16,565 posts

76 months

Monday 13th May 2019
quotequote all
There's been convertible Corvette pace/safety cars in the past.