[supra93]

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...e-drive-review

The death of some cars has us in full mourning regalia and delivering teary eulogies, sometimes even pouring liquor onto a curb. But the passage of others triggers nothing more than the nodded acknowledgement given to a distant acquaintance. So it proved with the previous-generation BMW Z4, with many of us struggling to remember when it had last been on sale in the United States. (That was the 2016 model year, for the record.) It was a car that always felt more like a lifestyle accessory than a driving device, a roadster with a cumbersome retractable hard top that added weight and volume in what were pretty much exactly the wrong places. We would guess it was a sparsely attended funeral.

Creating something better, or at least more memorable, would not seem to be a particularly onerous task. Yet the development team behind the new Z4 has been working on it for five years and report that it has effectively zero in common with its lackluster predecessor. The pride the company’s engineers take in the car was plainly evident as we drove the almost-finished prototype at BMW’s Miramas test track and the surrounding roads. The team also seemed happy to have worked on a proper sports car, an increasingly marginal activity within BMW as the company expands its offering of the SUVs and crossovers fueling its growth.

Just getting the Z4 project approved took some high-level politics. The segment’s declining sales meant that BMW could not justify the considerable outlay of making an all-new car by itself, which is why a deal was struck with Toyota. In exchange for access to the Japanese giant’s hybrid technology, BMW has developed a platform that will also underpin the upcoming Supra, with both cars set to be assembled by contract builder Magna Steyr in Austria. Although it previously has been reported as a co-development, all of the core engineering comes from BMW, with the big differentiator being the headgear: The Supra is a coupe, and the Z4 is a fabric-roofed roadster.

A Concept Resemblance
The cars we got to drive were hard-thrashed development mules wearing lens-defying dazzle camouflage. We also were shown the finished car, although we weren’t allowed to take pictures of it. No matter—between last year’s Concept Z4 and the disguise-clad prototypes you can see all the important details. The production version sticks to the show car’s stacked headlight arrangement—this is the first four-wheeled BMW in recent history not to have twin side-by-side elements—and inside the kidney grilles there is a mesh finish instead of the traditional bars.

Viewed from the front or the rear, or from a narrow acute angle at each end, the Z4 looks appropriately low and muscular. Yet in profile view the ungainly length of the front overhang can’t be hidden; it was dictated by the need to meet pedestrian-impact standards without making the hood too tall. Overall length has grown by 3.2 inches over the second-generation Z4x, to 170.1 inches, but the 97.2-inch wheelbase is an inch shorter than before. The undisguised car also revealed the presence of a large and inelegant fuel-filler flap on the right-hand side.

There are no negative surprises in the cabin, where all is as expected. The Z4 gets the latest generation of BMW switchgear and infotainment, including a large touch-sensitive control screen and digital instruments. The seating position feels suitably low and offers a good range of adjustment, and taller drivers will find sufficient headroom with the fabric roof in place. The top motors up and down in about 10 seconds and stows neatly behind the seats; it can be operated at speeds of up to 30 mph.

Excitement in Hiding
We were sent out to learn the handling track at Miramas in a BMW M2. That was a brave call given that rorty coupe’s enthusiasm for the high lateral loads offered by the circuit’s selection of corners and the amusing battle for its rear wheels to find traction. After such a spicy starter there was the risk that the Z4 would seem more like a palate cleanser than a worthy entrée.

Not that the range-topping Z lacks firepower. When the car launches next year, there will be a choice between a four-cylinder 30i and a six-cylinder M40i, the latter sharing the same turbocharged engine as the M240i. This was the car we got to drive in France, although in its lesser European state of tune—apparently the presence of a gasoline particulate filter limits output to 335 horsepower, while in the States it should make 382 horses, according to BMW engineers. Both versions produce the same 369 lb-ft of torque. There will be no manual gearbox, as the engineering costs were too high given the likely low take rate, so a ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic will be the only transmission choice. The Z4 M40i will get an electronically controlled limited-slip differential as standard. BMW’s provisional numbers say it should run the Euro-spec zero-to-62-mph benchmark in 4.4 seconds.

With an engineer chaperone in the passenger seat, our first laps were conducted in Comfort mode, meaning the softest setting for the M40i’s adaptive dampers and the gentlest maps for the engine, gearbox, and electrically assisted steering. As such, the Z4 felt predictably supple, even when asked to digest chunks of the circuit’s striped curbing, with clean front-end reactions and crisp-feeling steering. But there was also noticeable front-end push in the slower turns. Even with the roof up, the engine sounded good, with a rasp to the exhaust note that’s in marked contrast to the sometimes flatulent noises produced by the four-cylinder Porsche 718 Boxster. But, on first impressions, excitement was lacking.

It turned out it was just hiding. Once we switched to the Sport setting, the Z4 transformed into something far more interesting. The steering gained heft, but not through simply adding weight—there was still a decent impression of what the front axle’s Michelin Pilot Super Sports were up to. The dampers firmed up noticeably, and the Z4 felt better lashed down and more direct in its responses, while the throttle pedal lost the elasticity of Comfort and gained an almost surgical precision.

But the popped spinach can was the electronically controlled limited-slip differential, which used the switch to Sport to declare its own personal war on understeer. Heading into corners it stayed open, the Z4’s individual rear brakes nipping at the rear axle to apply a torque-vectoring effort to help the car turn. When we got on the gas, the diff locked aggressively, maximizing traction and powering the car to a hunkered-down stance on the edge of oversteer. It felt fun and just the right amount of crude, in a way that no Z4 since the E46 M3*–engined Z4 M has.

Not that many Z4s are likely to live on track, which is why a drive on some of the local roads surrounding the test track was more telling. In the real world, the aggressive differential made its presence felt only in tight turns or during particularly spirited sprints away from intersections, but the engine’s snappy responses and the transmission’s happy knack of being in the right gear pretty much all the time continued to impress.

Rougher surfaces also gave a chance to assess how the damping coped with real roads, the answer being without too much slop in Comfort and without too much harshness in Sport. Even the roughest pavement we could find revealed no hint of cowl shake. We’re told this Z4 is about 20 percent more torsionally rigid than the last one and that it is the stiffest open-topped road car the company has ever built. Refinement with the roof up impressed as well; there’s less wind noise than we remember coming through the last Z4’s stowable hardtop. At higher speeds with the top down there is a fair amount of buffeting, though, even with a clip-in wind deflector between the seats.

Will Better Than before Suffice?
The definitive verdict will have to wait until we get the chance to drive finished cars, but even on the basis of a brief spin almost a full year ahead of U.S. sales, we can already confidently predict that this Z4 is going to be a heap better than the last one. Sales of the four-cylinder 30i will start in March 2019, with the M40i arriving in April. There’s no official word on pricing, but we’re told to expect that the 30i will be in the low-$50,000 range and the M40i in the mid-to-high-$60Ks, right in the heart of its tightly fought part of the market. We eagerly await the chance to get the whole segment together to determine whether the new BMW tilts more toward the involving end of the spectrum occupied by the 718 Boxster.