Victorious football club buy a new i8 for every player in the club
Remember the hysteria that Oprah caused when she awarded her entire audience with a car each just over a decade ago? I think this tops it ...
Following Leicester City FC's fairy tale 2015–’16 English Premiere League win, the club's chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha decided to reward his players with something a little different — a new BMW i8. Each.
That's 19 of BMW's surprisingly lovable flagship plug-in hybrid, all painted in the same Protonic Blue hue. In fact the only discernible differences between the cars are alternative sets of wheels.
It's been reported that Srivaddhanaprabha, who's said to be worth $3 billion USD, spent almost $3 million NZD on the 19 cars. Now, Oprah's giveaway Pontiac G6s cost almost twice that number, but ... those were depression on wheels. The i8 isn't.
Is there a problem with this? Not really.
A lot of people, no doubt fueled by Top Gear and the infamous 'cool wall', love to throw any car regarded as a 'footballer's car' under the bus due to their association with sports stars that supposedly have no idea what the car they own can do. It haunts most Audis, Bentley, and indeed most BMWs (particularly anything with an M-badge attached).
But the i8 doesn't really fit into the same category as most of the aforementioned cars. It's expensive and a BMW, sure, but it's also light, quiet, sophisticated to look at, and subsequently one of the classier cars with a German badge bubble-gummed to its rear end.
And that class transcends and outlasts the inevitable champagne spills and crashes on quiet country lanes in the middle of the night while showing off that these i8s will be subject to.