IT was a night of numbers at Heineken Zero to Drive held at the BMW/MINI showroom on Lady Musgrave Road in St Andrew on Wednesday, March 9.

The occasion hailed Heineken’s non-alcoholic drink, Heineken® 0.0, as well as the unveiling of the BMW M340i bought by social media car afficiando Nick Lue.

“We’re happy for the collaboration and planning many more of these events,” said Amoye Phillpotts-Brown, Heineken brand manager.

She highlighted the benefits of Heineken® 0.0, its zero-alcohol content allowing partygoers to enjoy the taste of Heineken, but not suffer the effects of alcohol, especially behind the wheel.

Sloane Jackson, head of business, ATL Autobahn, the arm of the ATL Automotive Group responsible for the BMW and MINI brands, welcomed the partnership with Heineken while discussing the zero emissions future for the both marques.

“We’re now going to be doing electric vehicles a lot more affordable because they’ve now reduced the tax from 30 per cent to 10. What that means for BMW is that we’re going to land a lot more electric cars,” said Jackson.

With the brand already settings sales records during its tenure under the ATL banner, Jackson expects that to continue as they transition to having a wider model range of battery-electric vehicles for sales, beginning with the all-electric MINI Cooper.

“We have the MINI electric on the way. We have the i4 on the way. We have the iX3 and iX available,” said Jackson.

However, the star of the evening was Lue’s debut of his BMW M340i. Lue, one of Jamaica’s top YouTubers and head of Fresh Panda, has developed a significant following for his outlandish styling of high-performance cars for various local celebrities.

“It hits different to know that I can be here at the BMW showroom,” Lue said.

The base BMW M340i starts at $15 million and sits just below the M Division cars with a turbocharged in line three-litre, six-cylinder motor that generates 374bhp. 100km/h can be hit in 4.4 seconds with launch control and the top speed is 250km/h. Lue added his touch, morphing the high-performance 3 Series from stock to shock. The factory black colour was covered by a neon metallic green vinyl wrap, his company’s speciality. If the colour change wasn’t enough, the lines of the sedan were altered with a body kit and wheels. The front bumper now resembles that of the BMW M2.

“I decided that I wanted to give it a more aggressive look from the front because I want to stand out,” explained Lue.

To further the aggressive theme were a front lip, side skirts, bonnet spoiler, and a lower rear diffuser all done in black to contrast the bright green. The wheels, also black, were swapped for 20-inch Rohana RFX10 on Falken tyres. Lue runs a staggered setup with wider rims 20×10 inch at the rear, and 20x9inch rims on the front. The black contrast theme extends to the badges and the roof.

“We opted to leave the top in black because it matches the gloss black of the side trims because it has the night package that deletes the chrome,” said Lue.

He added he was happy to be a part of the Heineken Zero to Drive event.

“I just want to big up Heineken Zero for actually making this happen. This is a big thing for me. I don’t people will understand that I’d never dreamt I’d be on such a platform to showcase my car,” he said.