BMW Z4 M Coupé 2006 Review - International

Chris Gable, Wheels magazine

OVERVIEW
BMW is out to skin a crocodile with its new Z4 Coupé -- Porsche's Cayman.

Officially on sale late this week in the US, followed in order by Germany, the UK and Australia (it goes on sale here in August), the hardtop version of the Z4 is a vastly different creature to the fixed-head Z3 which preceded it. That car's 'shooting brake' looks polarised even BMW devotees and earned it its perhaps unkind 'breadvan' nickname.

The Z4 Coupé brings more appealing fastback hatch styling...  If you've come to grips with the car's so-called flame surfacing school of design, that is. In the metal, it looks even better than it did in pre-release official photographs shown early this year.

The low-slung, lidded Z4's classic sportscar looks are the flipside of the Cayman's cab-forward design. Like the Z4 Roadster on which it's based, the Coupé sits driver and passenger well back in the car and behind the long bonnet. Yet BMW says the car delivers perfectly balanced 50:50 weight distribution.

Built in BMW's Spartanburg plant in good ol' South Carolina, USA -- where the Z3 was built and the X5 still is -- the Z4 comes in two versions only, 3.0si and Z4 M.

We'll get both levels here, although we can't yet give you any hands-on assessment of the 3.0si version. At the Z4 Coupé international launch in Portugal last week, the M version clearly was the hero car. In fact, it was the only version of the Z4 Coupé on the drive program. And, on easily the best part of the launch -- 10 solo laps of the largely unused Estoril circuit, scene of many an epic Grand Prix battle -- that was a good thing.

And, no, we can't tell you exact equipment levels and prices for the cars due here in August because BMW Australia says it will announce them closer to launch time.

Other differences between 3.0si and M Coupé include their headlights -- halogens are standard on the 3.0si, while the optional bi-Xenons are standard on the Z4 M version.

The leather M Sport seats, with power adjustment and memory setting, are standard in the Z4 M Coupé and optional in the 3.0si.

The smaller-engined Z4 Coupé comes standard with BMW's so-called Business navigation system, which can be optioned up with the Z4 M Coupé's bigger-monitored dashtop Professional system, which automatically folds down the screen when you switch off the ignition.

A telephone system is optional on both versions and can be accessed via the M Coupé's terrifically fat, multi-function steering wheel (also optional on the Z4 3.0si Coupé).

Climate control air-con is standard in both cars, although the M Coupé gets a more advanced system.

There's a luggage blind for the good-sized boot. But just as it does in the Roadster, the M Coupé loses some boot space to the bulky tyre mobility kit and battery -- they're located there because the M's quad-pipe exhaust system doesn't leave room for it under the car.

The Z4 M Coupé owner will need to reach for the mobility kit if the car's Continental ContiSport Contact tyres spring a leak. The 3.0si gets run-flat 225/40 R18 Bridgestone Potenzas.

A 10-litre capacity storage bin sits in the middle of the bulkhead behind the driver and passenger, and is flanked by two small bins which soon get filled with sub-woofers if you order the optional HiFi audio system.

Like the Z4 M Roadster already here, the Coupé gets a hard plastic dashtop and the dash itself and centre console come with carbon-fibre print leather.

You climb down into the car, especially if you drop the excellent leather seats to their lowest setting. If you hover around 180cm tall, that's probably where you'll want them, anyway. Otherwise, you'll be wondering where the top screen visibility went.

As mentioned earlier, the leather M seats themselves are terrific. They're firm but supportive in all the right places and come with under-thigh pull-out cushion extenders. And talking of extenders, there's legroom aplenty even for the lanky.

Driver and passenger sit relatively close to the doors, so there's not a lot of elbow room. Otherwise, the cabin is relatively spacious for an unabashed sportscar.

The M Coupé's multi-function steering wheel is adjustable for height and reach, and in combination with the powered seats drivers of every size should be able to find the driving position they're after.

The instruments are the same as in the Roadster, too, with black-faced speedometer and tachometer set deep in twin binnacles. The tacho works well, with an orange light section at 7500rpm which, appropriately enough, turns to red to the 8000rpm redline.

But, for our money the speedo increments are too closely spaced and don't give you the amount of feedback you need when you're up against cameras, radar and the rest.

Those systems include latest-generation Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), ASC (Auto Stability Control), ABS (Anti-lock Brake System), CBC (Cornering Brake Control), DTC (Dynamic Traction Control) and DBC (Dynamic Brake Control). There's even brake fade compensation, a tyre pressure warning system and automatic dry braking, which dries the discs on wet roads.

Both driver and passenger get front and side airbags, and there's a rollover safety system built into the bodyshell.

Two-stage adaptive brake lights glow larger and brighter than usual during hard braking and if the car's anti-lock brake system kicks in.

And then there are the extra-yard items, such as the safety battery terminal which in an accident deactivates the alternator, switches off the fuel pump, opens the car's central locking system and switches on both interior lights and the hazards.

Yet BMW's Coupé will boast more horsepower than the Cayman (252 vs 217kW) and more torque (365 vs 340Nm). Mind you, the Z4 M Coupé weighs in at 1495kg vs the manual gearbox Cayman's 1340kg.

And, where Porsche claims 0-100km/h in 5.4 sec, BMW counter-attacks with a 5.0 neat in the same discipline.

On paper, other rivals include Audi's TT Coupé V6 Quattro, which delivers less power and torque (184kW and 320Nm) in sequential six-speed form for $95,800.

Then there's Mercedes' SLK. In 350 manual-gearbox V6 guise -- with 200kW and 350Nm -- it comes in at $110,900. The more potent -- and more expensive -- 55 AMG version trumps even the Z4 M Coupé's figures with 265kW and 510Nm. At $163,500, it'd want to.

Like the Z4 Roadster, the M Coupé version comes only with six-speed manual transmission, hydraulic power steering and regulation rubber -- 225/45 front and 255/40 rear Continentals.

It also gets seriously-good 345 x 28mm vented discs front and rear and the fantastic variable M differential lock.

The 3.0si gets either six-speed manual or six-speed auto, electric power steering and 325 x 25mm vented front and 294 x 19mm solid rear discs. Tyres are 225/45 Bridgestone Potenza run-flats all round. At least, that's what they were on the display car we saw in Portugal.

As we've said, BMW claims a 5.0sec 0-100km/h for the Z4 M Coupé. The 195kW/315Nm 3.0si is said to cover the same sprint in 5.7sec, which isn't bad, either.

Both M Coupé and 3.0si have an electronically-limited 250km/h top speed.

Blip the throttle, and there's a delicious metallic howl. Plant it when you're further down the road, and it turns into a snarling, barking animal that delivers the legendary, heady M Sport rush.

Cliché or not, acceleration really is turbine-like when you want this car to sprint. Or just plain linear smooth in everyday driving. In short, it's a sports driving treat.

And a superbly tractable treat. Eighty per cent of the engine's maximum torque is available from just 2000rpm. While you're getting used to it, this is one of those cars you can leave in fourth gear for just about everything.

The gearchange feels notchy at first, especially in the 3-2 plane -- at least until the gearbox warms up -- and we continued to struggle with it on the left-hand-drive cars we drove in Portugal. That said, we'll give it the benefit of the doubt until we're on Australian roads and the correct side of the car.

BMW says spring and damper rates are basically unchanged from the M Roadster. It also says the Coupé's chassis is almost twice as stiff as the already admirably-stiff Roadster.

In combination with the impressively accurate, conventional (ie: not electric) power rack-and-pinion steering, this truly is a car for point and shoot sports driving. And stopping. Those big discs combine with the alphabet of active safety hardware for truly sensational braking power.

Ride is surprisingly compliant for an out-and-out sportster, although rough surfaces can unsettle the M Coupé's cool.

Forward vision over that long bonnet isn't as intimidating as you might imagine. In fact, the M Coupé's razor sharp response to the throttle and steering help 'shrink' the car around you.

The view out of the small rear window isn't so good. Using the rearview mirror is a bit like looking through a letterbox. The decent-sized, part-convex wing mirrors are a better bet.

The narrow, busy roads of southern Portugal weren't the ideal place to give the Z4 M Coupé a proper workout. But the autodromo at Estoril certainly was. DSC on or off, the M Coupé sat flat -- and we mean flat -- everywhere we pointed it. Especially through the long right-hand Turn 13, it's super-sweet six growling at 6000rpm, the speedo camped on 160km/h.

With the Sport button punched on and through the famed uphill left-right, second-gear kink, it was tyre smoke and drift king city with a screeching soundtrack.

Make no mistake, the Z4 M Coupé is a potent, old school sportscar bristling with new school technology.

But is it the natural enemy of the sweet Cayman? We'll have to put them side by side on Australian bitumen to decide. And that's a prospect capable of emptying the Wheels and CarPoint offices for at least an afternoon ... or two.