BMW i8 - The bargain-buy "supercar" I wasn't expecting to own.

So - why go out and buy one of these?

Having sold our Aston Martin DB7 after 9 years of ownership I decided to take a break from the idea of owning a weekend classic or "interesting" car.
For decades I have indulged in owning an extra car - as long as it had done most of its depreciating before I bought it, was relatively rare and not ridiculous
when it came to maintenance and parts. I would do my own maintenance and servicing for the most part. However, with ever increasing ownership costs and future
uncertainties perhaps now would be a good time to hold back and call it a day.

I have always admired the BMW i8, but had expected prices would remain well above what I would be prepared to pay while I would still be in the market for considering
such a car. However, while casually web-browsing cars that would be tax exempt (just out of interest and to keep up to date you understand), alongside all the
usual pre-1985 cars I was expecting to see, up popped the i8. Not only that, but prices had now fallen into "Hmmmm, I could justify spending that" territory.

After looking at various examples and absolutely loving the driving experience I actually ended up buying one locally from a small car sales dealer with a very good reputation
(a justified reputation based on the subsequent service he has given us). The car we chose had the colour combinations I prefer and the right balance of history, age,
condition, mileage and price and a superb three year warranty. So there we have it; I lasted just over four months without an "interesting car".

This time I have decided to keep things simple. No major modifications (the DB7 was the last of those), just some very mild cosmetic tweeks to keep my eye and hand in.
I can't resist tinkering and I could see a number of small things I could change and/or add to set our i8 apart from the rest.
Also, breaking from decades of tradition, given the complexities (and my growing laziness) I decided not to do my own servicing. What is more I decided to continue
its full BMW franchised dealer service history (some quotes revealed that after some polite negotiating, dealer prices were actually quite competitive).
Having said all that, it's still good to see that the i8 sits nicely on the scissor lift in our garage; so perhaps I'll do the odd extra oil change after all....

What about the i8 ownership experience? Well, so far it's been a revelation. I'm so glad we went out to try one and then buy one - my wife also loves it.
Sure, there are much faster, louder, bigger engined and much more expensive "proper" supercars out there, but for me that does not detract at all from the i8 experience.
Here is a car that looks stunning, goes more than quickly enough, handles beautifully, is comfortable and easy to drive and puts a smile on my face every single time.
Add this to the very low RFL, excellent economy (40+ mpg even if you "factor in" charging), its rarity and a residual value that can't really fall that much lower given all
the above and where it is now on the depreciation curve. I'm not even worried about the HV battery which is still going strong and really only for extra boost dya to day.

Modifications.

To avoid insurance and/or warranty issues I have decided to keep changes to a bit of "gentle personalisation". The changes will be relatively few and relatively minor.

Wheels:
The wheels needed refinishing because the wheel bolts had been previously tightened by a gorilla on steroids and despite the very best efforts of a specialist
brought in, some damage occurred removing these bolts. The dealer paid for the refurb and I went for solid black powder coat, because I know from experience that
diamond cut finishes never last as well and today just about every car you see has diamond cut wheels. They're just not special these days.
I seriously considered a range of colours, but given the dark tones of the car I decided that gloss black would be the best starting point for minor "embellishment".
The refurbishment was done extremely well and included matching black alloy valves and black weights. However, there was one complication.
All-black wheels are not actually my favourite on many cars due to the "big black disc" effect where wheel/tyre boundary loses visual definition.
Now, like many i8s this one had blue accents. Many owners go out of their way to hide/cover these blue accents, but instead, I decided to "Celebrate the Blue".
To this end I spent some time doing very careful measurements and trials and used blue wrap strips to highlight the outer wheel rims to get the look I was after.
It was very fiddly to fit, but now it's done I actually prefer this look to the originals (the small gaps line up with the spoke indents and also made fitting easier).

Mirrors:
Well, I had spare wrap and so took the opportunity to add a little more subtle blue highlighting. This is actually the first car I have applied vinyl wrap to.

Inner sill covers:
A bit too much plastic, a bit too easily scratched and not special enough for my tastes in a car like this, so I got creative to add a bit of "bling".
This "bling" may change over time as I'm still unsure if it's not too much. Will see how I feel after living with it for a while.
I also took steps to reduce the chance of scuffing the plastic during entry/exit.

The brushed stainless plates were VW badged items from AliExpress. I cut out the VW centre, widened the hole, found a suitable small BMW badge and stretched a
copper washer to act as the "i" surround which I painted the correct shade of blue. A lot of fiddly work for such a small detail, but it keeps an old retiree occupied.

Rear spoiler:
I didn't really fancy the idea of fitting any of the variants of bits of bodykit I've seen available for i8s. I have seen a surprisingly high proportion of i8s with
3rd party body kit fitted - side skirts seem particularly popular and the Maxton range features heavily - no surprise given the UK availability and reasonable cost.
Nothing wrong with these additions, they're just not for me and my individual tastes.
However, I did feel that the i8 would benefit aesthetically from something to fill in the "visual valley" between the "flying buttresses" at the rear.

A rear spoiler would address this, but after much internet searching I couldn't find a rear spoiler design that I liked or looked as though it could have been OEM.
This presented the opportunity to create something which would make our i8 truly unique and that really appealed to me (DIY vanity I suppose).

Unique among i8 spoilers was my decision for a mounting location on the tailgate glass. This was for very good reason.
The glass of the i8 tailgate goes right to the back of the car. This means the glass would hit any spoiler fitted in the usual location across the rear.
The commercially available examples have to extend far behind the rear of the car just to allow the tailgate to open and to my eye this is a visual compromise
too far and also makes accessing the (admittedly tiny) boot space much more awkward - at least it did on the car I've seen with one fitted.
To fix the spoiler I used both good quality ahesive and made covered stainless clamps with rubber gaskets to securely fix the structure to the glass.

The end result isn't perfect and I can see ways it could have followed the various lines and themes better, but it was a compromise between what I would class as
" ideal" and how much time and money I was ultimately prepared to spend. There was also the risk of spending an excess of my time and money and it all going wrong.
Anyway, overall I'm very pleased with my efforts and most i8 novices just assume it's how the car left the factory. Put it this way; I'm not going to make another one.
Though it is heartening that a number of other owners have asked me to make more.

Larger centre display screen:
I don't understand why BMW fitted the 8.8" screen when there is more than enough room for the 10.25" screen as used in the concurrent X5.
So I bought a cheap used X5 centre display screen and checked to see if it would work - which it did, perfectly. It's the same resolution, just bigger and brighter.

The difficult bit was getting the larger screen to fit securely and neatly into the i8 as the mountings and base are completely different.
I had to fabricate a new mount and then made trim pieces to cover the bottom of the bigger screen. May sound simple, but was very fiddly indeed.

The result is superb; both bigger, brighter and brings the cabin more up to date. Even the silver trim perfectly matches the i8 vent surrounds.
Notice the view of the rear spoiler in the mirror.

Audio Upgrade:
I have tweaked the audio systems in most of the cars I've owned over the decades. The Achilles Heel of the i8 Harman Kardon system is definitely the "subwoofer".
I am currently finalising a design for a custom enclosure between the rear seats.
Simply replacing the existing 6x9 driver and even adding extra amplification would be terribly compromised if using the existing space.
I will use a much higher quality (and powerful) round 8" dual coil sub with its own compact amplifier.
Designing and trimming an enclosure based around an amplified 8" sub will be a huge challenge as I want to make it OEM in style, with OEM type trim and OEM quality.
Watch this space - just don't expect quick results.

Other:
Actually for now that's all I've done apart from fitting a cordless phone charging pad into the centre console cubby, etc. I may do more small tweeks eventually.