GRT's BMW i8 to Feature 800 Horsepower 4.4-Liter V8 Engine

Kuala Lumpur: Gabura Racing Technologies (GRT) has recently announced that it will tuneup a BMW i8 to feature an 800 horsepower 4.4-Liter V8 engine. The announcement was made at 2015 Professional MotorSport World Expo (PMW) in Cologne. While we have seen several aftermarket tuners developing their own unique versions of BMW i8 but none of them have ever gutted the hybrid powertrain of the car before. It is worth to mention that the standard BMW i8 is powered by a 231hp 1.5-Liter TwinPower 3-Cylinder engine paired to a 131hp electric motorsport. The combined power output of the hybrid system is rated at 362 hp and 570 Nm of torque. The regular performance figures of the BMW i8 are so impressive in fact that the sports car makes accelerates from 0 to 100km/h in just 4.4 seconds. However, the team at GRT has other plans.

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The German autotuner has revealed that it will dropping the hybrid powertrain of the sports car to redevelop its own version of BMW i8 featuring a 4.4-Liter Twinpower V8 engine of the BMW M5 and M6. The engine will be installed at the electric motor's place and will be mated to a new 6-speed sequential transmission. But things don't stop here because GRT powertrain will get a tune-up by Alpina for an additional 200 horsepower. Calculate the figures, and you will get a new BMW i8 featuring around 800 horsepower. Unluckily, the GRT has not revealed the performance figures.

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A post on the official Facebook page of GRT Team reads: “We have revealed our secret that GRT’s super car is based on the high-tech and futuristic BMW i8. The great challenge of the project is to switch the hybrid driveline to pure racing technology. At the PMW Expo, the team of Gabura Racing Technologies gave visitors an inside view of the development process, everybody can check out the current state of the project. As we expected, there is enormous interest in GRT’s super car, so we are proud to say that the show is a great success for us.”

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