German Car Forum

I never saw a mention of a Z4 and a Ferrari in the same sentence before. What if BMW have a totally different view on how to deal with Ferrari? These two manufacturers are not competitors. BMW M is traditionally the competitor of Porsches. In the 90's the M3 accelerated the end of the Porsche 968, and recently the MZ4 was the direct competitor of the Boxster S.
I would think that this is what BMW need to focus on, the fight against Porsche, and a V8 or 6cyl Z4 will be far far from any Ferrari in terms of prestige and brand image, so making the Z4 with V8s won't make it go to a higher prestige segment. And you have to analyze cost/revenue of such a car.

What we need now is an MZ4 coupe that will hold its own against the Cayman S, and V8s or 6cyl from BMW are both excellent. The problem is something else, the MZ4 is still a heavy car..

Mike

Chonkoa, the videos have been posted here : http://www.germancarforum.com/bmw-vid...o-gallery.html

As long as BMW (and some others here) think, that a V8 (or another stronger engine) is superflous to the market, maybe Alpina will jump in and make some money selling the "S" instead of the "M"

Hartge already did some crazy things with the E85.

Agree very much with your last sentence Mike. The updated Cayman S will be a very formidable and focused target. Even with a significant hp advantage, a heavier Z4 "M" coupe might have a tough time keeping up in the turns. I have never been a fan of the Cayman's looks, side profile really. The Z4 roadster is gorgeous and I can't wait to learn more about the Z4 coupe.

Thanks.
You can tell I am really slow to the party.

If this car were a girl...


E89 Design video with the homie Anders Warming:

BMW-web.tv - The International Entertainment Magazine

^^I LOLed.

Nice. Nicer than the current one. When is this hitting dealerships?

Forgive me if this has been asked and answered folks, but after reading 31 pages of the E Class thread to see when it was hitting dealerships, it turned out to not be the real deal after all, and no word on when it was debuting on a showroom floor...

On another note, welcome back Naruto. And that gif is hella funny Deutsch.

In Europe it will be hitting the show room floor around March while the USA will as usual see it 3 months later, so I'd say late summer for the USA.


BTW this one won't be manufactured in the US right?

Correct.

Ahh ....page 14!, I'm late to this party.

I think it is great.


It looks slightly larger than its predecessor ...I think it's just the photos.

No you are correct. The car has grown in size and about (100kg heavier) but I cant remember the meassures.

Remember that when the Z4 M was launched, all motoring journalists I can recall, were told by engineers that where persent that this car was going after the 911, not the Cayman.

Now, it doesn't matter how one sees the who are they going after argument. The Z is the sportier car in the lineup, it should have an M version, which in turn should be the sportier, not necessarily faster M variant.

When this car is completed, it will compete with the p-car and the calif in term of performance. It doesn;t mean that the Company is going after them since the M will be in totally different price range.

wow, the blue ones...
:ba nana::banan a:
The only slight quibble: I wish there was a functional fender vent under the side marker, otherwise, bravo to the Blasi and the rest of the design team.

The interior is absolutely perfect, the best of sporting BMW (ergonomics, canting the HVAC controls towards the driver) and luxurious BMW (the quality of the wood and leather look absolutely top-notch). I want the blue one exactly like the ones in the pics, except with brown extended leather package and that dark brown bamboo.

sorry about the emoticon overload, but the pics of the blue one, I'm absolutely speechless. It translates the lines and the aggressivenss in the car so well. In the last five or so years I have not seen automobile pics where I'd want it as my desktop wallpaper, but now, well, I mean I feel like a kid again. I actually stared at the pics for 10 or 15 minutes and felt lust for a machine, which I thought was odd.
Scott, kudos to you and your talented team.

Stunning.

In my opinion, this "efficient dynamic" is one big bullshit With "efficient dynamic" they are talking about lower fuel consumption, about more clean engines... and then they put old N52 engine in it ...

But I will still buy one, because everything else is great

I am extremely curious about the why they put N52 in it instead of N53...

And, I want to know more about these different techniques they use for the direct injection, and why the N64 engine in the X6 is euro4 and the very same engine in the F01 is euro5....??????

Hopefully South drops by........

Edit; btw, this new Z4 really paves the road for a smaller Z2 roadster! They are still thinking about that one aren't they???

Yes. A smaller Z model twin sports car concept a seperate Roadster and Coupe - Four cylinders the limit for petrol and diesel but also Mild or full hybrid option - Think MINI-E and a full electric powered Roadster or Coupe
For some manufacturers the "Illusion" but for BMW , Very much planning for this to become a "Reality".

I'm not all that enthusiastic. The car is... big. Too big. Way too big.

For me, a Roadster is small and light. It's not an over-designed heavy two-seater.

It looks good, but too massive. The wheel/metal ratios seems not perfect with too much metal, the shape is too big. The side is also slightly overdone, just like the predecessor.

The front is very very impressive. The rear part is also nice, but bit bloated I find. I don't like the side at all. Overall, it's slightly bloated, which is embarassing for a Roadster.

I can't say I'm in love with it for the moment! The interior is okay, but that screen is ugly. I've never seen such a bad integration, even in the W204 C-Class it's perfect compared to here.

^Well, i couldn't care less since you're minority...

^^^It's not always the majority who is right, ya'know...

So I did look for some further information and indeed the reason seems to be the Euro5 standard:
As I mentioned EU5 does set an limit for PM emission (mass of particulate matter, German: Partikelmasse). This limit is being applicated to Diesel engines (like it's always been), but also (and that's new) for gasoline engines with direct injection. So all BMW HPI engines should be affected by this regulation, but - as I just learned - that's not true: DI engines running purely with stoichiometric combustion (lambda=1 all the time) are not affected as with these engines there's virtually no emission of particulate matter. This also makes sense: particulate matter is the result of partial combustion, which only can happen when there's an different amount of air and gasoline molecules (lambda>1). So all BMW DI engines which don't run in a lean mode, i.e. N54 and N64, can meet the EU5 standard right now.
Differently is the result for all variants of the N53 engine. This one is the only BMW engine so far with a spray-form injection. This is necessary to operate in lean mode for a certain engine speed range. The advantage of this method is even better fuel consumption than an homogenous DI engine (N54), but the disadvantage is the emission of particulate matter (just like an Diesel engine, the combustion method is similar). Meeting the EU5 standard would also mean emitting no more than 5 mg/km of PM. What is necessary to operate an N53 within that limit? Most likely a particulate filter. So that's very likely the reason why BMW went for the N52 engines.

As far as the N64 goes: My assumption is that the EU5 approval procedure wasn't ready back then. The EU5 regulation passed the European Parliament on June 20th 2007. Manufacturers have to run a car approval quite in advance of the market launch.


Best regards, south

I had some of the same reactions in the beginning too. Regarding the too much metal vs. wheel ratio at the back, maybe the explanation is that the metal folded roof plus a usable trunk space increases the height. A crease above the rear wheel seems to have been introduced to reduce that effect.

If it were me I would remove the two creases on the hood, and redesign the back not to look round. A sexy back needs to be low and wide, not round and high.



Mike