My tester was blissfully unburdened by the iDrive controller or by the popup navigation screen. In my book, a Roadster is the purest form of transportation and requires nothing more than a steering-wheel (a meaty and grippy one at that), a short stubby shifter and three pedals. My Z4 sDrive35i delivered the goods in strides.
Beautiful on the outside, beautiful on the inside
I have so far seen very few new Z4’s on the road which makes crossing one all the more special...especially when that hunk of an inline six-cylinder engine is belching out the German alphabet. Ok, so I don’t know what the German alphabet really sounds like but when the twin-turbocharged 3.0L is whirling away intake and exhaust gases, all I know is that it sounds great. With 300 hp and equal amounts of torque, BMW made an effort for the 35i to sound as exotic as it looks.
Engaging the surprisingly progressive clutch pedal and locking the chunky short shift-lever into first is the admission price for good times. Suffering from no lag and with tons of grip, the Z4 lurches forward hitting 100 km/h in fractions of a second over five. Coming to a full stop is an equally energetic experience as the callipers clamp down hard on the big discs all the time, every time.
Almost like a BMW...
If you’ve ever driven a midsize BMW at length, you know that you can expect the full support of the chassis’ perfect weight distribution, engaging positive steering and a suspension setup that somehow miraculously manages both comfortable cruising and hard cornering. The Z4 is all this except in the front-wheel control department. I get a less connected feeling from the roadster’s front contact patches than any 1, 3 or even 5-Series. It may be nothing more than psychological but there seems to be a delay between my thoughts and what the car does when I yank on the steering-wheel.
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| BMW made an effort for the 35i to sound as exotic as it looks. |
Beautiful on the outside, beautiful on the inside
I have so far seen very few new Z4’s on the road which makes crossing one all the more special...especially when that hunk of an inline six-cylinder engine is belching out the German alphabet. Ok, so I don’t know what the German alphabet really sounds like but when the twin-turbocharged 3.0L is whirling away intake and exhaust gases, all I know is that it sounds great. With 300 hp and equal amounts of torque, BMW made an effort for the 35i to sound as exotic as it looks.
Engaging the surprisingly progressive clutch pedal and locking the chunky short shift-lever into first is the admission price for good times. Suffering from no lag and with tons of grip, the Z4 lurches forward hitting 100 km/h in fractions of a second over five. Coming to a full stop is an equally energetic experience as the callipers clamp down hard on the big discs all the time, every time.
Almost like a BMW...
If you’ve ever driven a midsize BMW at length, you know that you can expect the full support of the chassis’ perfect weight distribution, engaging positive steering and a suspension setup that somehow miraculously manages both comfortable cruising and hard cornering. The Z4 is all this except in the front-wheel control department. I get a less connected feeling from the roadster’s front contact patches than any 1, 3 or even 5-Series. It may be nothing more than psychological but there seems to be a delay between my thoughts and what the car does when I yank on the steering-wheel.
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| The twin-turbocharged 3.0L is whirling away intake and exhaust gases. |