Is BMW's topless i8 Spyder a suitable 100th year birthday present?

ON MARCH 7, BMW will celebrate 100 years of existence – a significant milestone by anyone’s standards, but how can the German car-maker suitably mark the occasion?

While the company may not necessarily want to dwell on the early years when it produced aero engines for the German war effort, in more recent years the propeller badge has attracted millions of fans to its top-quality range of cars and motorcycles worldwide and those loyal followers will be expecting something big.

The Spyder retains all of the i8 Coupe's poise and potency but with the added joy of wind in the hair motoring.

In response to arch-rival Audi’s potent R8 mid-engined super car, BMW returned fire with its i8 hybrid sportscar in 2013, but where the Audi took a more customary approach with large-capacity, high-revving petrol engines and metal bodywork, BMW delivered a frugal hybrid wrapped up in carbon.

It was a serious statement about the company’s future intentions, which are set to continue in its centenary year with a open-top Spyder version.

BMW's i8 Spyder Concept is unlikely to have changed greatly when the production version is unveiled later this year.

A year after the i8 coupe was revealed in concept form, BMW followed it with a Beijing concept dubbed the i8 Concept Spyder but after four years of anticipation, the car-maker has finally confirmed a production version is on its way.

No images of the finished product have yet been revealed but the Geneva motor show in March this year is a likely venue for the unveiling with its history of exotica debuts.

If the Spyder follows a similar trajectory of its Coupe sibling, the production car will not differ greatly from the concept that first aired in Beijing and that would be no bad thing. We are crossing everything that the fantastic upward opening doors, flowing interior and see-through engine cover all make it through to the showroom version.

Let's keep everything crossed that those striking butterfly doors make it through to production.

The Spyder is likely to share the drivetrain of the coupe with a 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder driving the rear wheels, while the front axle is dealt with by electric locomotion.

BMW has quashed speculation that both Coupe and Spyder will be treated to a 2.0-litre upgrade for the 2016 celebration models, saying that space and packaging constraints limit any drivetrain revisions, but electric tech has come a long way in recent years so a front axle update is possible.

Performance figures are yet to be revealed but the Spyder is likely to have the same electrifying but frugal capability of the fixed-top version – zero to 100km/h takes 4.5 seconds.

In its concept form, nothing was revealed regarding the critical folding or possibly removable top mechanism. BMW has already said space is a premium in the little car with only 100 litres of volume for luggage, which could limit the cabriolet operation to a compact and light lift-out panel.

Alternatively the car-maker may have designed an innovative folding hard panel or fabric solution.

Like its i3 baby sister, the i8 concept features unorthodox and more natural-looking materials as well as high-tech carbon-fibre.

BMW’s engineers were given a significant challenge to remove the i8’s structural carbon-fibre roof panel without compromising the sportscar’s taught chassis, which designers toiled with in the original coupe.

Quite where the Spyder will stow its roof and how it will get there remains to be seen.

BMW CEO Harald Krueger told German newspaper Handelsblatt that the company will roll out a convertible version of the hybrid i8 in 2016, but the company’s head of development Klaus Frohlich  disappointed fans by attempting to snub any speculation that a more significant supercar model would headline the birthday celebrations.

“A super sportscar, with traditional heavy V8 or V10 engine, it will not give of BMW,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

The i8 coupe does not reveal much through the engine cover, but the Spyder concept showed off a pair of electric scooters through a clear panel.

That commitment to more environmentally sensitive vehicles may rule out a direct competitor to Audi’s 5.2-litre V10-powered supercar flagship, but it does leave the door open for something more efficient – a hyper hybrid perhaps?

BMW has always stated the i8 would not attempt to rekindle the M1 mid-engined supercar of the late 1970s so could a resurrection of the iconic vehicle be another top-secret project due to go public on March 7?

If you thought the i8 Coupe could turn heads, just wait until BMW gives us a topless version.

There is no doubt that the i8 Spyder will be a hugely enjoyable machine that takes all the technology and pioneering design that the coupe showcased, wrapped up in a more playful convertible body, but is that enough of a birthday present to celebrate an entire century of BMW?

Daniel Gardner GoAuto.com.au

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