Loan Car for a week...[New Z4]
With the delayed arrival of my 135i M Coupé, BMW felt guilty and loaned me their 500mile brand virtually new Z4.
It is the sDrive 23i M sport - basically the entry-level model, with minimal creature comforts (heated seats, which are not very useful in Summer; and front and rear parking sensors).
A bit of research beforehand revealed that this car, despite being bottom of the range had a straight-6 2.5L engine occupying it's massive front-end. Coming from an Elise SC, I approached this vehicle as an, albeit temporary, downgrade in performance and driving experience.
I fully expected to be underwhelmed with the entire experience. I expected the throttle to be laggy, engine to struggle, seats to be unsupportive, cornering to be poor, brakes to be weak, and steering to be light and without feedback.
I was very surprised.
External Aesthetics
despite seeing Z4s at work, there is something different about seeing one that you will actually be driving. It looked muscle-car-esque and very nice. When I brought it home and left it on the drive, I was instinctively drawn to look at it again when walking away from the car. I wanted to hate it. But I couldn't. It really looked good. The ridged bonnet over the earlier Z4s really does grow on you, and I fully believe it looks better now.
The mechanical roof is a work of genius in that the vehicle looks like a coupe - the lines of the seams are very discreet and the roof mechanisms are very quiet and unobtrusive.
Driving Experience
I am not a racing driver and I don't have 20+yrs driving experience under my belt, but coming from a history of sports cars I felt this qualifies me to comment on the experience behind the wheel.
Firstly, the engine. As stated above, I expected throttle lag, a struggling engine and slowness. When I planted the throttle, I got a hint of Lotus-Grin creeping up on me. Before I knew it, I was at the limiter (guilty as charged) and looked like more of a **** than usual as the car was (un)happily bouncing off the limiter as we were propelled forwards on a wave of torque.
The driving experience did not seem too far away from the Lotus in the speed stakes - the 2.5L S6 engine easily pushing the weight of the Z4 and making serious progress fast. The quoted time is 6.6s, however, my passenger calculated 5.9-6.0sec on the manual gear box earlier today (through use of the iPhone App; then a stopwatch to double check).
This performance could either be that I rarely drove the Elise SC to it's full potential (4.4sec 0-60) or Lotus were simply extremely generous in their figures - which they overestimate, and mainstream manufacturers like BMW, underestimate.
Sliding it in the next gear was a fantastic experience. Those of you who have experienced the C64 gearbox in the Toyota Elises will know that any gear to 1st, or 2nd to 3rd are horrible changes to make, and often required you to be slightly more aggressive with your gear changes than you would usually choose to be. The gear change in the Z4 felt equally natural and simple. The short-shift stick felt like it knew where it wanted to go, and you simply had to give it permission. When in the right gear gate, it locked firmly, with no wobble or vibration at all.
Hitting regular routes I used to drive in the Lotus allowed me to test the handling and suspension through multiple corners and many poor quality and uneven surfaces. The suspension dampened ridges in the road that jarred your teeth in the Lotus yet kept the wheels firmly planted on the road without any traction control warning lights flagging up through the twisties.
I doubt that I was tackling the corners as aggressively as I was in the Elise - firstly since I don't know this car well enough, and secondly that the massive wheelbase was very different to vehicles I have previously driven...
Sat in the driver's seat, you cannot really appreciate the sheer size of the front bonnet and engine bay. Thanks to the parking sensors, I managed to avoid a potential nudge where to me, from my driving perspective, it looked as if the bonnet was a large distance from the car infront - this was not the case. The bonnet tails off, at about 2/3s of the full length of the bonnet, so you really DEFINITELY require those front sensors.
The anti-buffetting mesh between the headrests of the two seats works well to circumvent wind vortices in the cabin, but does hinder rear visibility slightly.
Visibility in the cabin is very good, especially compared with the Lotus, which was littered with blind spots, but, like with most sports cars, there are compromises and the rear mesh was that minor compromise.
The indicators took some getting used to after a history of normal lever sticks - instead of levers, they are essentially electronic switches. Small Up for 2secs of right signal, Small Down for 2secs of left signal; Hard Up for sustained right signal and Hard Down for sustained left signal. To cancel a sustained signal you simply just move the stalk in the opposite direction slightly - not too much, or you simply end up swapping indicators as I did for the first mile!
In the electronic area, the Air Conditioning could get so cold, it hurt. The brakes nearly threw me through the window the first time I applied them - once again, coming from the Lotus, the brakes were slightly more sensitive being electronically assisted servo than the Lotus!!
Steering was a different experience - whilst denying me the legendary feedback that a Lotus provides, the steering was weighty, yet precise. Fast steering was easy to achieve thanks to the assisted steering.
It was nice during the torrential rain today adjusting the side mirrors from the comfort of the cabin instead of having to carefully use your bodyweight to shunt the Escort mirrors on the Lotus into position, then returning to seat you realise you over adjusted them!
Cabin Interior
Same standard as all other BMWs - the interior is faultless. Everything exudes quality and robustness, yet comfort in the right areas.
During hard steering, the seats supported very well. The folding hard-top is pretty damn good, and is totally leak free - the real test has been the weather today and I was expecting a wet-arse having come from a Lotus, but was very pleasantly surprised.
Conclusion
Overall, a very eye-opening experience. I had originally discounted Z4s due to their perceived boat-like driving experience and the typical 'hairdresser car' remarks from jealous individuals, but having driven this, I definitely change my view point.
I would definitely consider a Z4, and even the 23i model - despite being the weakest of the range, it just doesn't feel it. I cannot even imagine how mentally fast the 30iM feels, or higher.
Likes: Boot-space, Performance, Styling, Economy, Quality
Dislikes: Parking without the electronic parking distance sensors, low rev-limiter when engine is cold, electronic hand-brake takes some getting used to.
Apprehensions: Having driven the Z4, I hope that my 135iM has the same gear change and steering wheel - these two things massively improved the driving experience for me
Edit: I've now found that the 23i isn't bottom of the range, the 20i is!
With the delayed arrival of my 135i M Coupé, BMW felt guilty and loaned me their 500mile brand virtually new Z4.
It is the sDrive 23i M sport - basically the entry-level model, with minimal creature comforts (heated seats, which are not very useful in Summer; and front and rear parking sensors).
A bit of research beforehand revealed that this car, despite being bottom of the range had a straight-6 2.5L engine occupying it's massive front-end. Coming from an Elise SC, I approached this vehicle as an, albeit temporary, downgrade in performance and driving experience.
I fully expected to be underwhelmed with the entire experience. I expected the throttle to be laggy, engine to struggle, seats to be unsupportive, cornering to be poor, brakes to be weak, and steering to be light and without feedback.
I was very surprised.
External Aesthetics
despite seeing Z4s at work, there is something different about seeing one that you will actually be driving. It looked muscle-car-esque and very nice. When I brought it home and left it on the drive, I was instinctively drawn to look at it again when walking away from the car. I wanted to hate it. But I couldn't. It really looked good. The ridged bonnet over the earlier Z4s really does grow on you, and I fully believe it looks better now.
The mechanical roof is a work of genius in that the vehicle looks like a coupe - the lines of the seams are very discreet and the roof mechanisms are very quiet and unobtrusive.
Driving Experience
I am not a racing driver and I don't have 20+yrs driving experience under my belt, but coming from a history of sports cars I felt this qualifies me to comment on the experience behind the wheel.
Firstly, the engine. As stated above, I expected throttle lag, a struggling engine and slowness. When I planted the throttle, I got a hint of Lotus-Grin creeping up on me. Before I knew it, I was at the limiter (guilty as charged) and looked like more of a **** than usual as the car was (un)happily bouncing off the limiter as we were propelled forwards on a wave of torque.
The driving experience did not seem too far away from the Lotus in the speed stakes - the 2.5L S6 engine easily pushing the weight of the Z4 and making serious progress fast. The quoted time is 6.6s, however, my passenger calculated 5.9-6.0sec on the manual gear box earlier today (through use of the iPhone App; then a stopwatch to double check).
This performance could either be that I rarely drove the Elise SC to it's full potential (4.4sec 0-60) or Lotus were simply extremely generous in their figures - which they overestimate, and mainstream manufacturers like BMW, underestimate.
Sliding it in the next gear was a fantastic experience. Those of you who have experienced the C64 gearbox in the Toyota Elises will know that any gear to 1st, or 2nd to 3rd are horrible changes to make, and often required you to be slightly more aggressive with your gear changes than you would usually choose to be. The gear change in the Z4 felt equally natural and simple. The short-shift stick felt like it knew where it wanted to go, and you simply had to give it permission. When in the right gear gate, it locked firmly, with no wobble or vibration at all.
Hitting regular routes I used to drive in the Lotus allowed me to test the handling and suspension through multiple corners and many poor quality and uneven surfaces. The suspension dampened ridges in the road that jarred your teeth in the Lotus yet kept the wheels firmly planted on the road without any traction control warning lights flagging up through the twisties.
I doubt that I was tackling the corners as aggressively as I was in the Elise - firstly since I don't know this car well enough, and secondly that the massive wheelbase was very different to vehicles I have previously driven...
Sat in the driver's seat, you cannot really appreciate the sheer size of the front bonnet and engine bay. Thanks to the parking sensors, I managed to avoid a potential nudge where to me, from my driving perspective, it looked as if the bonnet was a large distance from the car infront - this was not the case. The bonnet tails off, at about 2/3s of the full length of the bonnet, so you really DEFINITELY require those front sensors.
The anti-buffetting mesh between the headrests of the two seats works well to circumvent wind vortices in the cabin, but does hinder rear visibility slightly.
Visibility in the cabin is very good, especially compared with the Lotus, which was littered with blind spots, but, like with most sports cars, there are compromises and the rear mesh was that minor compromise.
The indicators took some getting used to after a history of normal lever sticks - instead of levers, they are essentially electronic switches. Small Up for 2secs of right signal, Small Down for 2secs of left signal; Hard Up for sustained right signal and Hard Down for sustained left signal. To cancel a sustained signal you simply just move the stalk in the opposite direction slightly - not too much, or you simply end up swapping indicators as I did for the first mile!
In the electronic area, the Air Conditioning could get so cold, it hurt. The brakes nearly threw me through the window the first time I applied them - once again, coming from the Lotus, the brakes were slightly more sensitive being electronically assisted servo than the Lotus!!
Steering was a different experience - whilst denying me the legendary feedback that a Lotus provides, the steering was weighty, yet precise. Fast steering was easy to achieve thanks to the assisted steering.
It was nice during the torrential rain today adjusting the side mirrors from the comfort of the cabin instead of having to carefully use your bodyweight to shunt the Escort mirrors on the Lotus into position, then returning to seat you realise you over adjusted them!
Cabin Interior
Same standard as all other BMWs - the interior is faultless. Everything exudes quality and robustness, yet comfort in the right areas.
During hard steering, the seats supported very well. The folding hard-top is pretty damn good, and is totally leak free - the real test has been the weather today and I was expecting a wet-arse having come from a Lotus, but was very pleasantly surprised.
Conclusion
Overall, a very eye-opening experience. I had originally discounted Z4s due to their perceived boat-like driving experience and the typical 'hairdresser car' remarks from jealous individuals, but having driven this, I definitely change my view point.
I would definitely consider a Z4, and even the 23i model - despite being the weakest of the range, it just doesn't feel it. I cannot even imagine how mentally fast the 30iM feels, or higher.
Likes: Boot-space, Performance, Styling, Economy, Quality
Dislikes: Parking without the electronic parking distance sensors, low rev-limiter when engine is cold, electronic hand-brake takes some getting used to.
Apprehensions: Having driven the Z4, I hope that my 135iM has the same gear change and steering wheel - these two things massively improved the driving experience for me
Edit: I've now found that the 23i isn't bottom of the range, the 20i is!
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