4 Reasons Why The i8 Doesn’t Need An 800bhp V8

German tuner Gabura Racing Technologies was clearly not impressed with the standard i8 hybrid powertrain. Instead, it has dumped the whole lot and replaced it with an 800bhp Alpina-tuned V8. The build certainly looks very impressive, but we can’t help but think the whole thing is a little pointless.

1. Weight distribution

The i8 has been designed and built from the ground up as a mid-engined hybrid sports car. Thousands of hours of research and development have resulted in a car which has a near perfect 50:50 weight distribution. As a result, the i8 is a well balanced and playful car at the limit.

So we can only imagine what dumping a heavy 4.4-litre V8 up front will do to the handling characteristics…

2. Cutting edge technology

The i8 was never intended to be a flame-spitting supercar. Its 362bhp, 420lb ft of torque and 4.4-second 0-60 time are certainly impressive figures, but they’re nothing special in a world dominated by 1000bhp GT-Rs. What makes the BMW such an exciting car is that it showcases what the future might hold.

A turbocharged 1.5-litre transversely-mounted engine, carbonfibre tub and thermoplastic body are purely 21st century tech. So it feels kind of wrong to hot rod such an innovative car. Anyone can effectively shoe horn a huge engine into a new vehicle. We’ve been seeing tuning firms do it for years. Perhaps we’d have been more impressed had the Alpina V8 been working in conjunction with the 131bhp electric motor. I guess we can only dream.

3. You could just buy an M6

Completely reworking the i8’s chassis is not going to be an easy feat. That’s probably why they haven’t finished the project yet… And even though GRT haven’t released a price yet, we can assume it’s not going to be cheap.

So why not save your money and buy a much more appropriate BMW M6. It has the same 4.4-litre V8 as the GRT i8, but with a chassis that was actually designed for that power. Oh, and it also has a reasonably sized boot and room for some passengers. And with the money left over, you could probably afford to pay the ludicrous fuel bill for the next couple of years. Or maybe even buy an R34 GT-R. Either way, the M6 sounds like a winner to us.

4. There's probably an M version on the way

BMW has already hinted that it is working on an even faster version of the i8. Rumours from BMW insiders have claimed that the Bavarian firm is keen to show off the potential of an M-fettled version of the high tech chassis, and that another 300bhp could be expected.

The LaFerrari, P1 and 918 have shown that hybrid supercars can actually be more exciting than their purely petrol-powered counterparts. So we can’t wait to see what the M-Divison can produce. And we can almost guarantee that their answer won’t be to just stuff a huge engine into the mix.