BMW doesn’t have a major debut to hype up at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Nevertheless, it can still put on a show. The Vision Driving Experience (VDX) is there to preview the future of purely electric M cars. Although the VDX won’t go into production, lessons learned will be applied to hot EVs arriving later this decade.
It still looks otherworldly, just as it did when we first saw it without camouflage at Auto Shanghai in China back in April. It’s wearing the same fluorescent paint with light-sensitive pigments that recharge in daylight. Once it gets dark, the body’s color shifts from whitish yellow to neon yellow. At the rear, the electric super sedan features a special film that transitions from yellow to orange to pink depending on UV light exposure.
But the VDX isn’t about looks alone. As the saying goes, it’s what’s inside that counts. BMW quotes a staggering 18,000 Nm (13,276 pound-feet) of torque, though it conveniently omits that this figure represents wheel torque. The four motors produce a combined output between 1,300 and 1,700 horsepower, but the upcoming electric M3 won’t come close. Our sources suggest it’ll deliver around 800 to 900 hp.
We can’t see the five fans underneath the car during the hill climb run, but we do know their role. The extra hardware sucks the car onto the road, generating 1,000 kilograms (2,204 pounds) of downforce even when the VDX is stationary. The concept also features active aero, adding another 200 kg (441 lbs) of downforce.
When the first gas-free M3 arrives in a couple of years, it won’t be nearly as radical as the VDX. It certainly won’t match the concept’s performance or power output. So why bother? The Vision Driving Experience serves as a test bed for what BMW calls the Heart of Joy. It’s a new central computer that will come standard in all Neue Klasse models.
If the so-called Heart of Joy can handle this level of power and lateral forces of up to 3G, it’ll have no trouble managing the demands of a regular production car.
Video: Goodwood Festival of Speed / Instagram
