Here we are, in a day and age where BMW has brought back the 8 Series and co-developed the new 2019 BMW Z4 roadster alongside the damn Toyota Supra revival, which sounds like an 18 year-old’s fever dream circa 2012. It’s too bad BMW is going to ruin it.
According to Klaus Fröhlich, BMW’s head of research and development, via Road & Track, there are zero plans to introduce a Z4 M anytime soon, abandoning a chance to immediately one-up the Supra with which the Z4 was codeveloped and tossing out a chance to continue one of the brand’s weirder niche legacies.
Here’s the quote from Road & Track:
“At the moment this segment is very small, and I had to fight hard to make the [new Z4] happen at all, honestly,” Fröhlich said. “It was against the finance controllers.
“But you should drive it. It is sensational,” he assured us.
Based on early impressions of Z4 prototypes from those lucky to get a chance behind the wheel, it seems like Fröhlich isn’t lying. And with our colleagues at Car and Driver reporting that the Z4 M40i should make around 380 horsepower in the US, we might not need a full-on M version.
I’m calling bullshit on that decision-making process. Listen—if if was so hard to get anybody to approve of the Z4 at all, if you’re going to go and do it, why not go all of the way? You’ve done all of the hard work, now get crazy with it! I want a Z4 M, or a Z4 M coupe!
Maybe there’s some odd complication with the development of the car and the near-380 horsepower 3.0-liter turbo inline six engine in the M40i is the best they can do. But come on, you can’t even tune that a little harder?
And just to add insult to injury, Fröhlich said he’s open to offering a manual, but there isn’t any demand for it, making it seem like it’s more than likely never happening either.
Toyota doesn’t seem to want to hold the Supra back, so why should BMW? What is there to lose? (OK, besides some money.)