Global Crisis

The BMW Car Club of America is a large organization that is well known for their extreme enthusiasm for BMW automobiles, particularly the ones that are fast or modded to be so. It's unknown how many of the existing members feel about the i3, but my guess is they will be hard pressed to accept it into the family of "performance" cars, unless of course they have the chance to drive in one.

Such was the case for Satch Carlson, BMW CCA member. Satch posted his story called "Satch Meets the i3" on the CCA website recently and described how he was converted from an electric drive doubter to a believer in one short ride.

He starts the post off with saying: "Okay, I liked it a hell of a lot more than I expected to". Satch goes on to tell the story of how he was riding in an i3 when a journalist driving a MINI Cooper S pulled up next to them and challenged them to a race. The i3 with at least two passengers beat the Cooper S much to the surprise and enjoyment of Satch. He commented on the torque and how much fun it was to ride in, and summed up his experience by saying "the fact is that this here little hot rod is ludicrous fun".

This is what I've been saying for four years now. These cars are FUN! The instant torque is really addictive and driving electric electric quickly becomes the drivers preferred method of propulsion for many people once they have had a reasonable amount of time behind the wheel of one, especially one with power. The i3's 0-60 time is about seven seconds. That's not M3 power by any means, but what it does have is instant neck-snapping torque at speeds up to 60mph, and makes it a blast to drive at these speeds. Yes, the power dips off at higher speeds, but for stoplight to stoplight fun, it's really hard to beat.

I understand there will be apprehension from the BMW loyalists that are so conditioned to hearing the rumble of the exhaust and equating that to power and fun, but they'll eventually come around. We just need to get them to drive the i3 for a while and like Satch, they'll find themselves with an "EV grin".

Is the i3's performance good enough for CCA mambers to welcome it into the family?