BMW i8: Don’t mention the Nurburgring

It’s the most technically-advanced car the company has ever produced and is the first of a new breed of hybrid sports cars.

Unlike other high performance BMWs, though, the German brand will not be releasing details of the benchmark lap time for the i8 petrol-electric supercar around the Nurburgring laptime.

“This car is not about the race track,” says i8 project director Dr Carsten Breitfeld. “We are not talking about the Nurburgring. We are never going to quote a figure [for a lap time].”

“The statement for this car is real world [driving] and in the real world nothing gets close [for performance and efficiency]. It is a clever real-world sports car.”

The i8 has lapped the famous German circuit many times during development and BMW engineers hint they know what time it is capable of, but they refuse to disclose it.

Long seen as a benchmark that indicates how fast – or otherwise – a car is, BMW is steadfastly refusing to discuss the Nurburgring merits of the carbon fibre-bodied, petrol-electric i8.

Breitfeld denies it is because the i8 could run out of charge by the end of the 21-kilometre lap; the tiny 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine teams with an electric motor to deliver 266kW and 520Nm – enough to propel the carbon-fibre bodied sports car to 100km/h in a claimed 4.5 seconds.

Engineers acknowledge in extreme conditions the battery can be depleted reducing the power to the petrol engine’s 170kW – or lower, as it helps replenish the batteries.

While it’s unlikely to ever happen on a public road – tricky electronics monitor the battery’s charge and keep it topped up for later use – a long, fast track such as the Nurburgring could test its limits.

While such extreme conditions could lower its lap time – again, in rare circumstances – Breitfeld says the three-cylinder turbocharged engine has enough punch to keep the slick sports car humming along an autobahn at its electronically-limited top speed of 250km/h – without any assistance from the electric motor.

“It’s a new concept and may be in future people will change their thinking,” said Breitfeld. “Maybe the value of the Nurburgring laptimes will not be as interesting ... it would be more about fuel consumption.”

BMW’s i8 is pitched as the perfect intersection of performance and efficiency.

It is expected to sell for about $300,000 when it goes on sale in Australia late in 2014.