Supercar Battle: YouTuber Compares Audi R8 to BMW i8
The Audi R8 is fast, loud and stylish but cool factor and impressive hybrid tech are both on the i8’s side.
If you’ve been a follower of James Neese, aka The Stradman on YouTube, then you’ll know he loves supercars. His Audi R8 has been a key player in his vlogs for ages, but it was time for a little switch up, and he decided to borrow a BMW i8 and see how it would potentially compare.
Of course, the i8 is fundamentally different from the R8, being the BMW is an all-together new approach to what a supercar should be. Gone is the big engine, and instead a three-cylinder hybrid combo takes its place. As BMW calls it, Efficient Dynamics. But Neese soon discovers one of the unique attributes of this set up, saying, “fun fact about the BMW i8. That exhaust note you hear inside the cabin? It’s fake. It’s coming out of the speakers.”
That’s the new wave of hybrid technology though. And compared to Neese’s Audi, the BMW supercar seems to be made out of stuff from outer space. Not only is it colored like a space shuttle, but the separated rear buttresses, methods of construction, and materials used make the i8 a true vision of the future. And given the way the light weight i8 drives, that’s not a bad thing. But the only way to really discover the i8 is to drive it like a daily, so what better way to discover a car than with a road trip?
Of course, Neese is still an enthusiast, and has one thought almost immediately. “It begs the question; could you straight pipe an i8, or could you fit a ski box on an i8?… Could this be the perfect replacement for the R8?” Neese wonders.
While they compare, it’s still an “apples to oranges” kind of comparison. That could be because no other car company has yet come out with anything quite like the i8.
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