Apparently the front wheel wells can account for as much as 25 percent of a car's drag, and those "air curtains," as BMW calls them, have made a drastic reduction on that number. Air brought in through the front intake is redirected over the top of the car through the hood extractor, and flow over the top of the rear fender is pulled behind the car with the buttresses running down the C-pillar. In front of the rear wheel wells, more intakes are visible at the back of the rocker panels that feed cooling air to the engine, while two more intakes in the car's flat undercarriage provide more air. One intake cools the rear exhaust silencer. All of this adds up to a slippery 0.26 coefficient of drag.

In The Driver's Seat

Pushing the start button doesn't give the shake and rumble I expect from a sports car. Instead the button returns a chime that isn't nearly as satisfying. But at least you know it's awake. The i8 uses BMW's joystick gear selector and it seems right at home in this car. I started out in comfort mode, and tipping into the throttle seems normal. The car takes off like any other BMW, just without the noise. In all-electric mode, it feels similar to a 328 automatic, in a good way.

At lower speeds, you won't get the gas engine to kick on unless you push the throttle past an obvious detent. To be honest, driving around in comfort and e-mode, the car felt perfectly adequate. I can imagine commuting without having to fire up the engine if you live within roughly 20 miles of work. Around the normal roads of BMW's test facility, the i8 is comfortable and easy to drive. The steering has good on-center feel with a decent heft. The ride is firm, but also comfortable. The car has a planted feel but still feels like it wants to be driven faster.

In sport mode, the gas engine is always running and it sounds great. It doesn't "sound great for an I-3," it legitimately sounds great. Inside the car, you are hearing the engine plus a sound symposer, but the engineers swear that all it's doing is amplifying certain frequencies; it isn't creating anything that isn't there. Whatever it's doing, it fools you into thinking a race tuned I-6 is sitting behind you. With both gas and electric motivation, the i8 feels quick, if not fast. Keep in mind BMW rates the current M6 at 4.2 second 0-60 mph and have stated this car will be at less than 4.5 seconds.

Off the line, there is zero torque steer. Gear shifts are smooth but quick, and I can't say I really missed having a dual-clutch transmission. This power-train feels perfectly normal. So does the brake pedal. Apparently it's very hard to get a hybrid brake pedal to not feel like you're pushing on an air-cylinder for the first part -- the regenerative part -- of the travel. It isn't noticeable here. It just feels like a brake pedal that gets progressively stiffer with more applied force.

The biggest surprise may be the handling. As previously mentioned, the weight of the car is low and centralized. Even in sport mode, the suspension isn't overly stiff, but because the center of gravity is low, the body barely rolls in corners. The car is eager to turn and is predictable, with understeer being the first reaction at the limit. While driving hard, the steering is still linear and predictable. It isn't exactly overflowing with feedback, but is what I've come to expect from most electrically assisted racks. The i8 rides on relatively narrow tires: my tester was equipped with the optional sport package, which has the wider tires, and it only has a 215/45-20 up front compared to the 195/50-20 on the standard car. It doesn't help that along with being narrow, the tires are also optimized for low rolling resistance and not performance.

The drive-train computer varies front-to-rear torque split on a number of factors, one of the main being steering angle and throttle position. From the beginning to midway through a turn, the front end does little more than turn the car. Even as you pick up the throttle at the apex, the car is still predominantly rear wheel drive. At the exit, the car begins to feed more power to the front end to maximize acceleration off the corner. I only know this because an engineer described it to me while I was driving on the track. To me, it was nearly imperceptible.

Overall, I'm impressed with the i8. BMW keeps calling this a sports car. I think it leans more toward it being a a GT, but I certainly don't consider the M6 a sports car either. The i8 is without a doubt, fun and rewarding to drive. Next to something like an M6 or even the e90 M3, it feels lighter and more agile. The i8 is loaded with cool tech, but a good deal of it could be -- and hopefully will be -- transferred to the rest of the line. If I were shopping for something like an M6, the i8 would be a definite consideration and might even be the car I pick. This car, more than any M car I've driven recently, shows me that BMW still wants to make great-driver focused cars.

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