BMW Z4M? Sorry, it’s the Z4 M-Sport

BMW won’t be building a Z4M, instead they are testing the Z4 with an M-Sport Package round the Nurburgring

I know, these pictures look like BMW is busy testing a Z4M round the Nurburgring. But the Zeitgeist is about show rather than go, so you probably won’t be astonished to learn that rather than dropping a nice V10 in to the open-topped Z4 BMW has instead decided to offer the M-Sport Package as an option.

I suppose that at least this way you can have a Z4 that looks the part- with bigger wheels and bumpers and maybe even a suspension tweak or three – without having to bother with the big price ticket or the not inconsiderable running costs.

To be fair, the Z4 sDrive35i is not particularly slow. It will manage to get to 60 mph in around 5.0 seconds; handles well and looks so much better than the Z3 did. So it won’t be a complete case of all show in no go if you drop an M-Sport package on to your new Z4 sDrive35i.

But there is an alternative if you really want a ‘Real’ Z4M. Manhart Racing – a German tuning firm – produces a Z4 conversion in to which they’ve squeezed the V10 from the M5. They’ve even fiddled with the ECU to yield 550bhp. The result of which is a Z4 that will do o-60mph in 3.7 seconds.

That’s better.