Road Star

BMW's much-publicised and long-awaited Z4 two-seater roadster is on the way - in fact it is just a couple of months away.

It will arrive in June powered by either a 2.5i-litre or a 3.0i-litre six cylinder engine, and will carry a price tag of £26,650 and £30,850 respectively.

The Z4 represents the latest in a long line of highly regarded BMW roadsters. It all began with the 328 in 1936 which won more than 130 races including the Le Mans 24 hours in 1939.

More recently, 1987 saw the launch of the Z1. This was initially designed simply to showcase new technologies with its bonded plastic floor, plastic body and electrically lowering doors but, by 1991, around 8,000 Z1s had been registered worldwide because of huge customer demand.

Built in a new factory in South Carolina, USA, the Z3 was introduced in 1995 and by the time the car finished production at the Spartanburg plant in 2002, nearly 300,000 cars had been built. The Z3 represents BMW's best selling roadster to date.

The Z4 is the next step in BMW's roadster heritage.

Specification levels, as you would expect, are high. Standard features include automatic air-conditioning, single CD player, sports steering wheel and a fully automatic multi-layer cloth electric roof (taking less than 10 seconds to retract) with a glass rear windscreen.

When the roof is retracted, an innovative new folding mechanism ensures that the foremost part of the roof sits flush with the body and acts as a cover over the folded section. Technical innovations also abound. There is electric power steering, using an electro-mechanical system which is making its debut in a BMW. Basically, what happens is that road surface steering feel and driver handling together feed information to a computer which is then able to provide the best steering feedback.

Owners appreciating the sporting nature of the car and the feedback generated by the electric power steering should also enjoy the M Sports suspension (standard on the 3.0i-litre and optional on 2.5i-litre) and dynamic driving control which is operated via the Sport button on the centre console. Press the button and there is faster accelerator response and less help from the power steering, giving the driver a greater hands-on sporting experience.

The Z4 3.0i features BMW's renowned six cylinder engine, delivering 231bhp and 30Nm of torque at 3,500rpm. This powers the car to 62mph from standstill in just 5.9 seconds and on to a limited top speed of 155mph.

The 2.5i-litre delivers 192bhp and 245Nm of torque at 3,500rpm, covering the 62mph sprint in 7.0 seconds before hitting a top speed of 146mph.

There is quite a novel engine sound system for the driver, too. All the noises from the engine intake system can be fed into the cabin, the idea being to generate a particularly sporting engine noise for the occupants - a feature that ought to be especially appreciated by lovers of true roadsters.

The Z4 3.0i features the all-new six speed manual transmission that has recently been introduced into the 3 Series coupe and convertible. The 2.5i-litre comes with a five-speed box. An optional five-speed automatic gearbox, featuring BMW's steptronic system is also available on both cars, or there is the chance to opt for BMW's six speed paddle-shift sequential manual gearbox on either engine model.

Visually, the Z4 3.0i differs from its smaller-engined stablemate by anthracite chrome headlight surrounds (as opposed to black), larger oval exhaust tailpipes, chrome kidney grilles with matt chrome grille bars (2.5i-litre has black bars) and 17-inch double spoke alloy wheels (2.5i-litre has 16-inch star spoke design).

A leather interior including a padded armrest and electric seat adjustment with driver memory are also standard on the Z4 3.0i.

For those who want more, there are several levels of optional equipment.

Whether it is Jay Z, Led Zeppelin or ZZ Top, music lovers will have the option of a six-CD unit mounted between the seats or a dash-mounted mini disc player.

Updated: 10:51 Friday, March 28, 2003