The eagerly-awaited BMW Z4 Coupé has been unveiled at the Frankfurt Show and, as many had expected, the new two-door from Munich blows its ragtop sibling away with classic GT proportions and styling.
The eagerly-awaited BMW Z4 Coupé has been unveiled at the Frankfurt Show and, as many had expected, the new two-door from Munich blows its ragtop sibling away with classic GT proportions and styling.
CARtoday.com reported last month that BMW would launch the spiritual successor to the classic M Coupé – a hard-topped version of the Z4 roadster – to duke it out with Porsche’s upcoming Cayman at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The Z4 roadster has been criticised in some automotive circles for its disjointed exterior and interior design. It was the second production BMW to show off the highly-abstract “Bangled” frame-surfaced styling as purported by the firm’s passenger car designer Adrian Von Hooydonk and the Group’s design guru, Chris Bangle.
And, after a promising start in 2002, production was scaled back drastically from 56 589 to 35 136 last year, and in the first five months of 2005, production was cut by another 28 per cent. But the Z4 Coupé, due to be launched in mid-2006, could herald a turnaround in the Z4’s fortunes…
Compared with the previous Z3 and M Coupés, which were apparently conceived by a group of BMW engineers who never expected the cars go into production (or so legend has it), the Z4 Coupé looks significantly more stylish and sophisticated. It is both stiffer and lighter than the Z4 roadster, so it promises to deliver evem better handling than the ragtop, which was underrated as a pukka sports car.
“The coupé loses the roadster’s ungainly boot in favour of an attractive hatchback that, from the rear, evokes recent Ferraris. The side profile is fast and sleek, not unlike the Lotus Exige. Never has a hardtop looked so much better than a convertible,” an American correspondent was quoted as saying on Monday.
Insiders predict that the range will offer such options as active steering, adjustable dampers, iDrive, and the new twin-clutch transmission due to replace the sequential M transmission.
The production-ready Z4 Coupé shown in Frankfurt was fitted with a 3,0-litre straight-six producing 195 kW and 315 N.m of torque. BMW claims the concept will zip from zero to 100 km/h in 5,7 seconds and reach an electronically-limited top speed of 250 km/h.
Sources say BMW also plans to offer a 138 kW 2,0-litre four-cylinder, 172 kW 2,5-litre and 240 kW turbocharged 3,0-litre straight-six, and a normally-aspirated 4,0-litre V8 in the Z4 Coupé.
