Fans of the blue and white flag (yes, it’s a snapshot of the Bavarian flag, not a blue and white propeller), BMWBlog.com are flying high after releasing this image of the next BMW Z4. The car appears a little disproportionate in this picture, but that’s because the picture was probably badly scanned from a marketing brochure.
Having replaced the popular Z3, the Z4 suffered a little bit of criticism from some quarters because of its design. However, it later became more popular as people got used to it. It scored very highly too with people who love great-handling cars. The new 2009 car is longer, wider and shows more brawn than its outgoing older brother. And as you can see, it will no longer feature black cloth for a roof, but hard tin, like a 3 Series Convertible and rival Mercedes-Benz SLK.
Engines featured will straddle along familiar lines; 3.0-litre with 195kW, and the 225kW twin turbo 3.0-litre found in 135i/ 335i models (shown in the picture). The M3 will lend its 4.0-litre V8 to the new baby for a spur of 309kW. A surprise could be a new small, 4-cylinder petrol turbo, possibly with two turbos, and likely to be 2.0-litres in size. Probably gearboxes are a 6-speed manual, 6-speed Steptronic and 7-speed double clutch M-DCT.
The cars will lose their i and Si monikers and instead take on sDrive. That means a 225kW version for instance, will be called “BMW Z4 sDrive35i”.
BMW Z4 will make its international public appearance on the 15th December 2008, be shown at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2009, begin sales in Europe mid-2009 and come to Mzansi in 2010.
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