There may have been a time when the notion of a hybrid – perish the thought – setting a blistering Nurburgring lap time would have seemed unthinkable. But that was long before the Porsche 918 Spyder raised the bar at 6:57 back in 2013.
Now it’s the BMW i8’s turn, and turn its wheel in anger it has in this latest video. Posted by legendary Bimmer tuner AC Schnitzer, it shows a modified version of the Bavarian hybrid sports car lapping the Green Hell in 8:19.8.
That may not be enough to set a new record, and as you can see from the video, it’s not enough to keep a Nissan GT-R at bay. In fact, it’s over a minute slower than the 7:08.7 that the GT-R Nismo posted in 2015, and over half a minute behind BMW’s own M4 GTS (7:27.9), and even further adrift of Schnitzer’s ACL2 (7:25.8).
Still, the tuner says it’s the fastest an i8 has ever gone around the Nordschleife. And considering that we’ve never seen a time for the model before, we have no reason to doubt it. To get there, ACS tweaked the suspension (dropping it by 25 millimeters at the front and 20 mm at the rear), upgraded the wheels, and fitted a new carbon-fiber aero kit. Just imagine what it’d do with a bit of powertrain enhancements, too.