I emerged from a bumpy right-hander and glanced briefly at the impossibly beautiful Scottish scenery, then glanced back to the other Z4 in front of me.
In front of him there was an articulated lorry with a left-hand indicator flashing – the driver signalling that it was safe to overtake. Stretching beyond the truck was an even more beautiful sight; an empty road winding seductively to a distant horizon.
The driver of the lead-car and I came to the same decision simultaneously.
Empty road – nail it.
Dropping the manual ‘box from fifth to third, having blipped the throttle to allow more uptake in the lower gear, acceleration was immediate and surprising. The huge grip at the rear provided by very low profile rubber, wrapped thin on 19” rims was enough to lift the long nose and cause the rear to drop. The top was down and the accompanying growl was breathtaking.
I had my car - the range-leading sDrive 35i, at the end of the long straight and on the next right-hand bend in seconds and practically on top of the less powerful 23i on the negative-camber bend.
This was my introduction to a deserted, technical and perfect 15-mile section in North-East Scotland, by then I already knew that the Z4 and I were going to get along just fine and that this was the ONLY road on which to test it.
Handling is suberb, throttle response is immediate (indescernible lag from the twin turbos) and you couldn’t be more in touch with the road if you were crawling up it on your hands and knees.
I arrived at BMW’s way-point in Dundonnel grinning my ‘great-car grin’, tucked into some fresh seafood and swapped experiences with the other journalists.
This is BMW‘s new Z4 – a brand new car. The outgoing Z4 had originally been designed to compete with and conquer the Porsche Boxster and Cayman but its replacement will now be gunning for the Mercedes SLK.
I‘d picked the new car up at Inverness Airport, the keys were handed over by BMW‘s Gina Barnes who selected the most powerful of the new cars for me to drive to the lunch stop and I was firmly instructed to enjoy myself.
The sun was shining, it was a perfect day, I‘d been told that the road was an excellent test route and that there was fresh lobster on the menu. I‘d do my best I suppose...
302bhp is produced by the all-aluminium twin-turbocharged mid-front positioned engine. The top speed, as with all BMWs, is electronically limited to 155mph. 0-60 is achieved in 5.1 seconds.
My suitcase fitted snugly in the boot whilst laptop and camera kit were stowed in the passenger footwell. Behind the wheel, I found myself in a cabin that felt as roomy as a Jaguar XK; the interior has been redesigned to be more accomodating.
Styling is aggressive - the front and rear draw cues from the 6-Series, the sleek flank complete with pronounced slashes, the acutely angled C-Pillars and rippling haunches are all new, yet the entire form seems to nod towards a Z8. This combination has the effect of making the brand new design, sort of... familiar.
Unlike the model it replaces, the folding roof is a super-light 8Kg two-piece aluminium affair instead of a soft-top and BMW has no plans to make a fixed-roof variant but with the lid on it looks like a coupe anyway. Roof action takes around twenty seconds and it’s slick.
The new Dynamic Drive Control (DDC) has three settings – Normal, Sport and Sport+. I spent most of my driving time on the latter - the suspension is at its hardest, throttle response at its quickest and traction control at its least intrusive. On the bumpier sections of road, you will feel almost everything but the feedback it lends to the driver is exceptional. BMW has spent an awful lot of time re-engineering the chassis, making the new Z4 significantly stiffer. With traction control still slightly in the background, exiting corners under enthusiastic acceleration gives you just enough oversteer to flatter your driving, yet provides enough grip to quell any panic.
The next day I had the less powerful sDrive23i to potter about in and having sun-burned my head the previous day, I decided to take Gina‘s advice and apply the thoughtfully supplied factor 30.
The top came down and I took a different route; I drove through Inverness centre first, gauging the reactions of the public. Many of them were from satisfyingly beaming pedestrians, turning to look as the car made barky noises on the changes but a few of them were definitely amused by the colour of my head.
I headed along the road that skirted the North end of Lough Ness, towards Fortwilliam. This was a much more leisurely route than that of the previous day but then I was driving a variant with 100 BHP less than the 35i. The DDC was set to a more comfortable ’Normal‘.
There were a good many occasions on which the car stretched its legs to overtake and I came to the conclusion that although a lot less powerful, it is still a Hell of a car.
This feels more like a Grand Tourer than the outgoing Z4; more grown-up. Not so much a roadster or a coupe but a convertible GT car.
On the right roads, the sDrive 35i is an absolute scream. It’s by no means the quickest or most powerful car I’ve ever driven but it’s all about translation. The sensory experience; the rush, the noise and the attitude of the car under pressure all combine to place the Z4 very high on my list of great motors.
Apart from being a lot of fun, it is obvious that we are looking at a cleverly targeted product. Success in pulling potential customers away from the Boxster and Cayman has driven BMW to pursue the SLK with their range-leader, whilst leaving the lower end of the Z4 range within reach of the entry-level Porsche punters.
Nice work...
It leads me to ask myself – what will this car’s eventual replacement be setting its sights on in a few years time?
Editor’s note > BMW press executives tell me that there are “no current plans” to build an M-Sport version of this car.
> BMW Z4 at a glance
Example model – sDrive 35i (manual)
Price - £37,000 approx
Power output – 302bhp
Max speed – 155mph (limited)
0-60mph – 5.1 seconds
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Paul Green
MaxedOut
actually i was flexing my fingers in itchy anticipation as i read the opening paragraph, ready to type "well if you hadn't been looking at the loverly scots countryside, there wouldn't be 24 cars in front of you!"
until I realised my error it wasn't 24 in front of you, but i'm not ashamed to admit that a convoy of Z4 did kinda make me feel a bit sweaty!
nice work, if you can get it. looking forward to seeing this one wipe the floor with the competition!
Chris
maso
tell us, was it a proper sports car or a quick convertible, easy test, did you look like you had knicked the wifes car with the roof down :)
Bob Hume
Hopefully BMW will grace us with a Z4 to test Chris and although the 23i is a great car I'm totally spoilt with the 35i - you can really feel the extra 100 brake.
I can still see it worrying the SLK but those type of customers have either owned or been aspiring to ownership for many, many years now and probably have Merc brand-loyalty in their DNA by now - looking at the strategy I suppose it's only natural that Mercedes' nearest competitor should be nipping at their heels in all of their segments.
That's very probable Paul - almost like BMW isn't allowing Z4 owners to grow out of it!
Trisha
maso
at a recent trackday i was at there was a z4, if theyre going after the "ladies at lunch" market of the slk is this going to be a rarity
lets stop the "more power" crusade and focus on "less weight" as thats what makes the fun, maybe the z1 would work better now (still not sure about the dodgy doors though)
Bob Hume
I'm not saying I'd buy one now - it's definitely not my kind of car but that isn't to say that I'm not mightily impressed by it (sorry about the double-negative).
A car shouldn't always be defined by its buyers - I know that a Hell of a lot of people that bought the SLK were ladies who lunch (it's Britney's favorite car) but coincidentally an old SLK 500 was also the first properly fast road car I ever drove. I was a Ferrari/Maserati/Aston virgin at the time and in my mid-twenties so you can forgive me for actually aspiring to the Holywood-wives-mobile for a short time!
I loved it for its chicness and out-of-reach qualities but the car itself was also owned by Stephen Emerson, a local rally driver who had a tree in Lurgan Park named after him after its disastrous congress with his ex-McHale Manta!
Captain_Grumpy
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