Over the weekend I attended ArtCenter College of Design’s yearly Design Invitational show, this time held at the school’s new Mullin Transportation Design Center in Pasadena. In addition to showcasing the campus and student work with an art fair, the event includes a car show full of cars owned by teachers and alumni alongside cars designed by teachers and alumni. While looking at a gorgeous BMW Z8 at the show, I noticed an option I had never paid attention to before: it had an elaborate leather-wrapped removable wind deflector.
It seems like every Z8 got this wind deflector from the factory, with the leather color-matched to the rest of the car’s interior. (Our resident Z4 owner Andy Kalmowitz says BMW’s smaller roadster got a similar setup.) The cover slips over the Z8's gorgeous roll hoops, with mesh sections behind the open centers, and between the hoops is a central mesh panel that attaches or can be removed with a pair of metal snaps.
Most wind deflectors are pretty simple things, especially these days; usually it’s a plastic rectangle with mesh in the center that flips up or slots between the roll hoops, more function than form. The Z8's unit, meanwhile, looks so seamless that I didn’t even realize it was a separate piece at first. It’s a really elegant solution for something that usually seems like an afterthought. Was there an easier way of doing it? Probably. But for the design-forward Z8, I’m glad BMW went with something more complicated.
If you’ve got a Z8 with a missing wind deflector, get ready to pay up. A replacement will run you around $2,500 if you purchase through an official BMW dealer, and there’s a NOS unit on eBay in Germany for a ridiculous $5,500.