We’ll gloss over the Z3’s quirky styling and historical underpinnings and consciousness on the principal event, the Z8 Roadster. This ought to have been the automobile to take BMW ahead into the brand new millennium however what we were given become something of an unfashionable pastiche of the 507 that by no means pretty hit the spot. It becomes a vehicle with a piece of an identification crisis – become it a Californian cruiser, an autobahn weapon, or a tack-sharp riding tool? Nobody truly regarded to know.

The onward march of time appears to have been kinder to the Z8 than to a few different machines which have had a much less than stellar vital acclaim – is it the automobile’s styling, cracking V8, or confined manufacturing run that’s kick-commenced the Z8’s appreciation society ?

Collectors now covet the Z8 – 10 or 12 years in the past those LHD-most effective machines had been sitting unloved in specialists’ showrooms – however, nowadays you’ll want at least £150k (or extra for the very great examples) to sign up for the club.
History

The Z8 become designed at some stage in the Nineties below the watchful eye of Chris Bangle, the lately arrived head of BMW’s layout department, despite the fact that its unfashionable strains had been absolutely penned via way of means of Henrik Fisker. The precursor to the Z8 become exhibited on the 1997 Tokyo motor display because of the Z07 Concept and it become absolutely motors – an unfashionable-styled roadster and an in addition nostalgic coupe.

The idea becomes a banquet of layout indulgence with its curving bodywork, extensive stance, and a flying buttress helmet fairing at the roadster and double-bubble roof at the coupe. There become no denying the similarities between the Z07 and the traditional 507 of the Fifties. Looking on the motors facet-via way of means of-facet, the Z07 become a current homage to the traditional BMW and that they shared several styling cues – the cut up the front grille, the form of the bumper, and the bonnet, the facet vents, and the raised rear shoulder line. As a way as current interpretations went it become spot on, despite the fact that on the identical time it wasn’t the maximum coherent of shapes and lacked the 507’s final fashion and grace.

Two years later in 1999 BMW unveiled the manufacturing-prepared Z8 and the largest surprise become that it had slightly deviated from the layout of the idea at all. There have been some tweaks right here and there however possibly the largest deviation from the idea becomes that the manufacturing vehicle could most effectively be to be had as a Roadster with the similarly dramatic coupe model now no longer sanctioned for public consumption.
The Z8 had all of the proper ingredients – unfashionable looks, the E39 M5’s 4941cc V8, a separate area body chassis, and aluminum bodywork – however, it additionally had an eye-watering rate tag withinside the UK of £86,650 and it become left-hand power most effective. For a nigh-on £90k BMW, its evaluations from the click had been decidedly lukewarm. It become nearly as though the Z8 didn’t have the right identification – it wasn’t totally positive if it become intended to be a side road cruiser or a returned street blaster and ended up being something of a Jack of all trades, and crucially, grasp of none.
Engine and transmission

Under the Z8’s unfashionable bonnet you’ll locate the S62 4941cc V8 from the E39 M5. No modifications had been made for its Roadster software and hence it develops 394bhp and 369lb-feet of torque. It become BMW’s first M Power V8 and at the same time as it become glaringly substantially changed for its M5 and Z8 packages it shared a lot of its structure with the ordinary 4.4-liter V8 that might be discovered withinside the 540i and 740i of the era.
Suspension and brakes

The Z8 featured an all-aluminum area body construction – not like each different current BMW – and it become selected for its lightness, strength, and surprising effect overall performance. The suspension used MacPherson struts and decrease wishbones on the front with a five-hyperlink rear setup on the rear and anywhere viable aluminum becomes used to maintain weight down.
The brakes had been taken from the BMW 750i and had been extra than as much as the process of presenting adequate preventing strength as they have been designed to gradually a -tonne government leviathan. The steerage, meanwhile, becomes rack and pinion - worth of observation as this become the primary time that BMW had selected now no longer to apply recirculating-ball steerage with a V8-powered vehicle. The engine becomes established in the back of the front axle on the way to assist the Z8 to acquire that all-vital 50:50 weight distribution.
Interior

With its all-aluminum frame searching like that of no different current BMW it shouldn’t have come as a wonder that the Z8’s indoors become truly off the wall, too. There become an unfashionable-styled steerage wheel with a slim rim supported via way of means of cord spokes and the sprint itself become successfully cut up into sections. The pinnacle 1/2 of consisted of wraparound plastic sections with the gadgets housed in a principal binnacle that become angled toward the driver.
The decreased sprint segment becomes completed withinside the identical shadeation leather-based because the seats or even the roll-over hoops had been included withinside the identical material. The sprint pinnacle itself become additionally leather-based… which made the big plastic panel that ran from one facet of the sprint to the opposite appearance even extra incongruous than it ought to have accomplished in an £86k vehicle.
As you’d assume from a luxurious roadster costing as a lot because the Z8 did, pretty much the entirety become standard. Electric leather-based seats, sat-nav (housed withinside the radio’s show that becomes hidden below a plastic panel in the front of the tools lever), a 10-speaker stereo, xenons, anthracite headlining, and air conditioning had been amongst the usual appointments.
Rivals

If you had been after an indecently speedy drop-pinnacle across the time while we had been all involved that the millennium trojan horse becomes going to result in a worldwide pc meltdown your alternatives had been exceptionally confined. Aston’s DB7 Volante ticked all of the proper containers however in spite of a 6-liter V12, it become no faster than the Z8 and possibly didn’t have the chassis to conquer the Z8 arms down either.
Ferrari’s 360 Spider joined the fray in 2000 and at the same time as it may not have had the unfashionable styling, it become a bit of a suit for the Z8 in overall performance at the same time as it become a higher steer. Porsche’s 996 cabriolets could have supplied drop-pinnacle thrills in each normally-aspirated or Turbo bureaucracy and Stuttgart’s different producer could have been ushering you withinside the route of a Mercedes SL500 or SL600 relying on the dimensions of your budget.