Rev IT up or chill out
It’s bad enough that Canada’s prime months for enjoyable top-down driving are so short, but to be forced to keep said top in place thanks to unco-operative weather is Mother Nature’s cruel joke.
However, it does tend to refocus one’s attention. Instead of the brain going into full chill mode, blood pressure dropping 20 points as one basks in the sun and takes in the sights, sounds and smells that come with alfresco motoring, one must concentrate on the task at hand: assessing the merits of BMW’S new soft-top Z4. Bummer, yes, but not without its upside.
Key is the fact that this two-seat, rear-wheel-drive
Z4 has actually come to fruition.
Even stranger is it’s the result of collaboration between BMW and Toyota.
It appears the Z4 is pure BMW. It has the typically overstyled look, the heavy yet tight and balanced feel, the angry sound, and eager performance you’d expect.
Is it a convertible first, sports car second? Or vice versa?
Considering it’s the muscular 2020 Z4 M40i being tested and not the milder sdrive30i, I’d go with the latter.
Opting for the M40i ($76,100 to start) gets you a turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder instead of the sdrive 30i’s turbo-four, which means a solid 382 horsepower at your disposal. Yes, purists will bemoan the lack of a manual, but the eight-speed automatic transmission (with paddle shifters) knocks off shifts jiffy quick, the shorter ratios for the transmission’s lower gears greatly aiding acceleration.
It also features launch control for accelerating hard from a standing start with maximum traction. BMW claims
4.1 seconds for the M40i to hit 100 km/h from a standstill, which, considering the Roadster weighs a hefty 1,643 kg, is plenty speedy. And the engine makes the music to match its power, especially in Sport+ mode, where the exhaust snaps, crackles and pops with each upshift or downshift. Nailing the throttle elicits a bellow that, when heard for the first time, is startling. Oh, just to be clear, the Z4 in Comfort mode can be chill, allowing one to enjoy a more relaxed drive, but it’s not the M40i’s forte — it really wants to be let off the leash.
The Z4’s ride and handling is a mostly positive blend of comfort and sporty handling, the caveat being the car’s weight (balanced 50/50 front to rear, by the way), which is felt in higher-speed cornering or when making abrupt transitions.
Additionally, variable power-assist steering feels artificially heavy at speed, notably in the Sport modes (there are three) and a bit slow to respond.
That said, the M40i goes where it’s pointed, and the M Sport suspension does yeoman work soaking up tarmac thumps. Other than the adaptive M Sport suspension, the M40i comes standard with M Sport brakes and M Sport differential. Lowering ride height by 10 millimetres, the suspension includes electronically controlled dampers.
Meanwhile, the rear differential boasts an electric motor that generates a locking effect to equalize torque distribution between the inside and outside rear wheels when cornering, making it easier to power out of bends. The active differential lock is also effective in reducing both understeer and oversteer.
In addition to the power and handling mods that make the M40i a sports car, there’s a boatload of state-of-the-art features to spoil both driver and passenger.
Plunk your butt into the driver’s seat and survey all that awaits. The engine start/stop button is incorporated into the control panel on the centre console.
Ditto the shifter, the idrive controller and the Driving Experience Control switch, as well as the electric parking brake and the switch for the electrically operated soft-top roof. There’s two-zone automatic climate, automatically dimming and folding exterior mirrors, and Comfort Access, which allows the soft-top to be operated using the car key.
BMW’S latest generation of the idrive is much more user friendly, with a high-resolution digital 12.3-inch instrument cluster display behind the steering wheel and a 10.25-inch centre-console display.
The system now offers hardware upgrades, including haptic controls on the idrive controller, a tablet-like touch interface and cloud-based voice control. Of the myriad features designed for comfort and safety, several of which I appreciated and a few I ignored, the one I did not like was the lane-keep assist.
It’s a very intrusive system that tugs on the wheel with great determination should a tire sneak over a lane marking.
Like other sports cars, the
Z4 is the happy result of a belief becoming increasingly rare, where once the sun shines, the intimacy that comes with motoring top-down along a country back road — sunglasses on and the wind blowing through your hair — is celebrated. Enthusiasts still desirous of such human/ machine interaction will find the Z4 M40i a pleasing partner.