- A YouTuber wants to put a 3.0-liter six-cylinder B58 turbo engine in the BMW i8.
- The sleek coupe came from the factory with a rear-mounted 1.5-liter hybrid powertrain with the electric motor in the front.
- The project requires the design of new subframes to accommodate the new drivetrain.
The BMW i8 looked like a supercar, but never really had the performance to back up that look. It had a 1.5-liter turbocharged plug-in hybrid powertrain that delivered a combined 360 horsepower in its final model year. Now YouTuber Trevor Elam is correcting BMW’s biggest mistake by replacing the hybrid with a B58 3.0-liter straight-six engine.
The project is just getting started, with Elam’s first video showing the removal of the i8’s original drivetrain. This involves removing the battery to create a transmission tunnel in the space between the seats and designing new subframes for the vehicle.
The six-cylinder in-line engine goes in the front, where BMW had placed the electric motor. The engine comes from a 2017 BMW 340i xDrive and should be largely behind the front wheels. The turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six made 320 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque in the sedan, but the plan is to tune it to 700 horsepower.
It is unclear how the inline-six will affect the car’s weight distribution and handling, but the hybrid powertrain offers enough space to make the necessary hardware adjustments. We hope the project doesn’t encounter too many unforeseen obstacles, because we would like to see the i8 with a real straight-six.
Taking Motor1s: The BMW i8 was the right car with the wrong drivetrain when it came onto the market over a decade ago. The automaker tried to use its futuristic design and high-quality construction materials to drum up enthusiasm for hybrid powertrains, along with the i3, but all everyone wanted from the sleek coupe was a true, high-performance BMW powertrain – and now we can finally get it.
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