Rich Rebuilds Takes His Modified BMW i8 To The Drag Strip

The process of trying to make Rich's i8 go faster continues.

Modded BMW i8

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Oct 12, 2020 at 8:22am ET

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In his quest to make his BMW i8 as fast as he thinks it needs to be based on its looks, Rich Rebuilds has made another modification to the performance PHEV. In his latest video, he not only installs a louder exhaust, but he also removes an intake flap to allow the engine to breathe more easily.

You may remember that in his previous video, he remapped the i8’s 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine. This was done in order to extract more power with the end goal of making the car quicker. Has it worked?

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Well, after fitting the aforementioned custom exhaust, Rich proceeds to take his i8 to the drag strip where it achieves quarter-mile times of around 12.2 - 12.3 seconds, with a trap speed of just under 115 mph (185 km/h). Stock, an i8 can still dip below the 13-second mark, so the modifications have made the car a little bit faster.