Granted, BMW i8 is not really a car you would use on track days. But it is a BMW, and those three letters have always been synonymous with great driving pleasure on the road and the track. So to see if the i8 has any real potential in that area, Autocar’s Steve Sutcliffe went to the race track with it, and pitted it against the M4.

Now this is some tough competition for the BMW i8, as the M4 Coupe is, without question or a shadow of doubt, one of the greatest track cars you can also use comfortably on the road. Let’s see how things pan out:

So the BMW i8 may not be a full-on track car, but think of it this way: if this is BMW’s first stab at making a sports hybrid with this kind of potential, the next one, the i8S, could be a pretty much flawless, multi-talented machine. All they have to do is lower the weight of the electronic stuff in it, and maybe inject it with some of that M4 magic that makes the chassis so sweet!