BMW Z3 and Z4 E-Book

James Taylor

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

BMW, that most performance-oriented of car companies, had no affordable sports roadster in its line-up before 1995. Stung into action by Mazda's revival of the classic two-seater roadster, the Germany company quickly staked its claim with the Z3, a classic long-nose, short-tail design that used existing BMW mechanical hardware to good effect. This new book tells the story of BMW's Z3 and Z4 two-seater roadsters and coupes, which since 1995 have been at the forefront of the affordable sports car market. The history of the Z3 and both generations of Z4 are covered as well as full specifications of all models; the formidable M Power derivatives and a guide to buying and owning. The book is profusely illustrated with over 200 colour photographs and diagrams. Contents include: Historical background to BMW's arrival in the two-seater sports car market; Complete history of the Z3 and both generations of Z4; Full specifications of all models; The formidable M Power derivatives; Guide to buying and owning.

Leseprobe

BMW Z3 and Z4

The Complete Story

James Taylor

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2017 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2017

© James Taylor 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 277 9

CONTENTS

Introduction and Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1 A SPORTING HERITAGE

CHAPTER 2 THE Z3, 1995–1999

CHAPTER 3 THE Z3, 2000–2002

CHAPTER 4 THE M DIVISION’S Z3

CHAPTER 5 THE E85 Z4, 2002–2005

CHAPTER 6 MAKEOVER – THE 2006–2008 MODELS

CHAPTER 7 THE M DIVISION’S Z4

CHAPTER 8 THE SECOND GENERATION Z4 – THE E89 MODELS

CHAPTER 9 A Z3 AND Z4 BUYER’S GUIDE

Index

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Two-seat sports cars, especially roofless ones, were out of fashion when BMW was becoming firmly established as a maker of cars with dynamic driving qualities in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Car makers everywhere were afraid that US legislation would outlaw the sale of such cars on safety grounds, and BMW wisely held back. By the time the threat of that legislation had receded, the company had sealed its reputation as a maker of closed cars with sporting qualities.

So BMW was late in getting back into a market sector where its products had been prominent during the 1930s. The low-volume Z1 of 1988 made clear that the company was thinking about an open two-seater, but it was not until 1995 brought the Z3 that the BMW sports car in ‘affordable’ form reappeared. Since then, the company has never looked back: the 2002 E85 Z4 and 2009 E89 Z4 continued where the Z3 had left off, refining the roadster concept and making of it something that was once again central to the BMW image.

I have been interested in the BMW roadsters since the early days of the Z3, and have also followed BMW the company closely over two and a half decades or more. So it has been a pleasure to write this history of the roadsters’ rebirth – and that of the coupé alternatives that accompanied the Z3 and first-generation Z4.

I need to make one small point about the format of this book. You will see that I have devoted far more pages to the Z3 and first-generation Z4 models than to the second-generation Z4. This is deliberate: at the time of writing there was greater enthusiast interest in the earlier cars, and I felt they therefore deserved the lion’s share of a book like this. There is already enthusiast interest in the E89 Z4s, and I don’t doubt that will increase as the cars become older and more affordable. In the meantime, please treat the chapter about them as a placeholder: if this book goes to a second edition, then will perhaps be the time to go into more detail to meet enthusiast expectations.

As always, credit needs to be given where credit is due. BMW (GB) and the BMW Global Media Service have between them been enormously helpful in providing the basic material for this book. Special thanks go to Ian, Barbara and Melanie at Brooklands Books for giving me access to so many road tests in their vast library. Various individual enthusiasts have chipped in with pieces of extra information, and so have several websites and online forums. Many thanks to all of them and, as always, only I can be blamed for any mistakes in understanding what they told me.

James Taylor

Oxfordshire

June 2016

CHAPTER ONE

A SPORTING HERITAGE

As a much-admired builder of sporting machinery, BMW was in an extraordinary position for most of the 1980s. For the German car maker had no traditional sports car in its model range. Nobody doubted the performance and handling qualities of its top models, and nobody doubted the excellence of its engines, but there was no open two-seater available with the blue-and-white roundel badge.

The reasons for this were many and varied. Perhaps most important of all was that by the 1980s BMW had only just pulled off an astonishing recovery from near-extinction at the start of the 1960s, and that building such frivolities as a sports car had been put on the back-burner until the company was back on a sound commercial footing. And yet without a sporting undertone to the products of its revival, BMW would have found those years of recovery much more difficult. Competing in a German domestic market dominated by the solid and superbly engineered cars of Mercedes-Benz, and where the lower-priced sector was well catered for by the likes of Opel, Ford and Volkswagen, BMW had to be different. That sporting undertone was what made it different.

Although there was probably an element of calculation about distinguishing itself from rival manufacturers in this way, it was certainly not an idea that had been picked out of the blue. In earlier years, BMW had enjoyed a reputation as a builder of sporting machinery that had included traditional open two-seater models. In fact, it was cars like this that had made its reputation in the first place.

In the Beginning

BMW’s early years had been spent as a maker of aero engines, and the company’s name actually reflected its beginning in that industry. The letters BMW came from Bayerische Motoren Werke (‘Bavarian Engine Works’), and from 1916 the company had focused on building some of the best aero engines around. However, the opportunities to sell those engines became rather more limited during the 1920s when Germany was caught in the grip of rampant inflation and reconstruction of its military powers was severely restricted by the humiliating Treaty of Versailles that the country had been forced to sign in 1919. So BMW began to look around for additional ways of deploying its talents and its factory space.

One industry that was booming in the 1920s was that of the motor car. Everywhere that cars were being made, synergies were being discovered between the design and manufacture of cars and aeroplanes, and it made sense for BMW to look at the possibility of moving into the car industry. The opportunity arose in October 1928 when the small German car maker Dixi, based at Eisenach, ran into financial difficulties. BMW did not hesitate and bought it out and, for the first few months, continued to run the company under its original name as a subsidiary.