Drifting the BMW i8 in snow

Jalopnik takes the BMW i8 to Lime Rock Park’s snow autocross to see if a roadgoing spaceship can handle powerslides on the slick stuff.

While it wasn’t built for the race track, the i8 and its three driving modes configuration – FWD, RWD and xDrive – does quite well drifting on the short snow course.

Here is an excerpt from Jalopnik’s review:

That’s why we took the i8 to Lime Rock Park’s snow autocross, which is basically a short course on Lime Rock’s infield that has been specially prepped for snow autocross. It’s smooth and fast, and best of all, it’s the perfect place to drift a car with basically no consequences.

Put the i8 in sport mode, turn off the traction control, add snow, and you get a drift machine. Most of the time it feels rear wheel drive, with the 1.5 liter inline-three sending all its power out back. But if you get into an oversteery moment and put your foot down further, the front wheels start to go too, which makes for a car with changeable handling characteristics.

It’s surprising when you start, but not that hard to get used to. In fact, it can hold some ridiculous and long slides. The only issue is the six-speed automatic gearbox, which will upshift automatically no matter what mode you’re in. So a great slide in second gear will suddenly become dull when it shifts to third and you lose all your torque. Then you lose all your slide.

Here is the video:

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