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Originally Posted by Law
Great idea and concept but i'm not sure that BMW has much to benefit from collaborating with Toyota on a car like this.
Engine: Inline-6- most likely BMW's own as Toyota stopped building I-6's more than a decade ago. Unless they are deciding to stick a V6 in there for the purposes of compactness/space-efficiency then maybe that's where Toyota comes in, but it isn't a deal breaker for a car like this. Electric motor- BMW has already shown its capabilities through its "i" cars.
Chassis/Layout: TBD but BMW manufactures carbon fiber in house, and from the looks of the i8 and its recent portfolio, BMW has no problem creating an agile & capable chassis, be it MR or FR.
Transmission: DCT- nothing new here & although Toyota does make its own transmissions (via Aisin), BMW has been using Getrag DCTs and ZF 8ATs quite successfully in its recent lineup so unless Aisin/Toyota has something more to offer here, i don't see where BMW can benefit.
Brakes: Again, not rocket science here
Active Aero: Here is probably the only thing that might benefit from a collaboration. Although i'm still skeptical about its implementation post-concept but it is possible as the trend towards MPG & efficiency becomes increasingly defined. Perhaps Toyota knows something BMW doesn't and vice versa here
From the looks of the potential specs, BMW can easily just drop an inline-6 into a chassis based on the i8 platform and have the wanted results sans active aero. So at this point, i'm really questioning what Toyota has to bring to the table.
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Good point - goes back to the "why isn't there an Mi8 question" to which the answer was i and M are different ends of the spectrum/philosophy/alphabet blah.
Seems daft that a bespoke carbon chassis developed by BMW isn't utilised further, maybe the chassis developed cannot handle 600 plus BHP?