Here’s something I bet you didn’t know. The new BMW Z4 was designed by women. Yes, two ladies named Juliane Blasi (32) and Nadya Arnaout (37). Blasi was chosen to do the exterior while Arnaout took care of the interior. The pair was quite excited when their initial sketches were chosen from dozens of others by BMW designers back in 2005.
The final result is what you see here, the roadster which I got to drive along some sweet Cape roads yesterday. It is long at 4.2 metres and has an interior width of 1.4 metres (seat edge to seat edge). Roadsters are classically very long on the bonnet and short at the rear such that the passengers are almost sitting on the rear axle. The Z4 is such a car and as such always feels like a Formula One car in the way you sit in it.
Honestly I hadn’t realised the car was designed by women until BMW’s PR chief pointed it out. Before then I had remarked to our co-driver during the 300km drive about how the car had lost its edge, how soft it had become. Of course this is not a woman thing but a directional decision taken by the BMW hierarchy on the car. Yet it is true, even the PR chief said so.
Compared to the outgoing Z4 this one is indeed softer when it’s soft. What that means is that while the 2003 Z4 was a sharp driving tool that could be hairy at times, the new car is more subdued, more comfortable, and henceforth more wide-appealing. See BMW is, like anyone else, interested in getting more bums on seats. A car like the Z4 is exclusive to a point, this much is true. But it’s also very appealing and an uncomfortable dealer test drive can certainly lead to a non-sale.
High quality materials are used throughout the interior so that it feels quite plush and yet sporty with those round dials. Some of the cars we drove had soft Alcantara leather on the door sides. The new iDrive system is fitted and it features Bluetooth connectivity for the cell phone and powerful sound for the eardrum. Apparently there is an exclusive model called Design Pure White which is more expensive than the other cars. If features an interior that is, well, pure white.
Bigger and longer than its predecessor the Z4 feels a lot more spacious inside than it actually is. Yes it’s still a two-seater but the seats can now be adjusted even more to suit all shapes and sizes. Since I started harping on about it the main point of departure for the new model has been the use of a hard (if you can call it that) aluminum top replacing the soft canvass of old. Operated by the push of a button the roof opens/ closes in about 20 seconds and folds neatly into the boot. That boot is quite large for a roadster; I was able to fit in two mid-sized overnight bags and a laptop case in it with no problems at all. It is said to be able to fit in two golf bags too! BMW says the car’s overall weight is about 100kg more now but it can hardly be felt in the driving experience.
Engines available at introduction are the 3.0-litre naturally aspirated and the 3.0-litre twin turbo. A 2.5-litre starts the fest at the bottom end. Starting with the 6-cylinder 2.5-litre fitted in the Z4 sDrive23i the power is 150kW at 6400rpm and maximum torque is 250Nm at 2750rpm. It wears 17-inch wheels and is said to run from 0 – 100km/h in 6.6 seconds (7.3 in the auto) and has a top whack of 242km/h.
The sDrive30i makes 190kW at 6600 and 310Nm at 2600rpm. Start up the engine on this one and it sings for the ears. The 0 – 100km/h sprint is claimed at 5.8 seconds (6.1 auto) and it has a top speed of 250km/h.
At the top (at least for now…) is the Z4 sDrive35i with the same multi-award-winning 3.0-litre twin turbo engine found in the 335i and 135i ranges. Maximum thrust is 225kW at 5800rpm and 400Nm between 1300rpm and 5000rpm. In 5.2 seconds the sDrive35i will achieve its 0 – 100km/h. You can tell the cars apart by a few things, most notably the twin exhaust tailpipes which are clustered on the same side for the sDrive30i and are on either side with the sDrive35i.
Three gearboxes are available; a 6-speed manual in standard cars, a 6-speed Steptronic automatic and the new 7-speed Double Clutch Transmission. This is the same gearbox found in the M3 but without the expensive option of the DriveLogic which allows for several settings. Smooth and nimble the DCT is a gem, certainly one of the fastest double-clutch gearboxes I’ve ever driven. Unfortunately it’s only available in the sDrive35i.
But the real story of the Z4 is in its pricing. You’ll pay just over R500 000 for the baby sDrive23i, which seems like quite a lot. The nice thing is that many of the things you’d expect to tick on the options list are standard with the cars. These include the extended lights package, electrically-adjustable and heated seats, a multi-function steering wheel, shifting paddles behind the steering wheel (free option), cruise control, an electronic diff lock, Bluetooth and a USB port for parking your music into.
When the Z4 came out I remarked that it had moved on from the brilliant Z3. As a package the new bulkier Z4 has now set the bar even higher on its predecessor.
BMW Z4 Pricing
Z4 sDrive23i
R506 600 (R527 400 auto)
Z4 sDrive30i
R583 500 (R604 400 auto)
Z4 sDrive35i
R682 500 (R711 200 Double Clutch Transmission)
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