Review of the new BMW Z4 M Coupe

FUN FROM THE OLD SCHOOL

BMW Z4 M COUPE

(6.5 out of 10)

REVIEW DATE: 31 Jul 2006

BMW occasionally lets its hair down and shows us its fun side. Cars like the Z4 M Coupe prove that the Bavarians have a wicked sense of humour. Andy Enright reports

BMW Z4 M COUPE NEW CAR REVIEW

When it comes to buttoned down rectitude, it takes a lot to beat BMW. Virtually everything it does is clinically researched, endlessly analysed and ruthlessly over-engineered. Every once in a while, however, the guard slips and the odd maverick vehicle flies the nest. The old BMW M Coupe was a case in point, a car created by a bunch of moonlighting enthusiasts that somehow saw the light of day. Its successor, whilst not quite so outwardly extrovert is nevertheless the sort of car that knows how to show a driver a good time.

Few were quite prepared for the moment the Z3-based M coupe was first unveiled in 1998. I recall walking out of a press conference for the V8 M5 and seeing this bizarre vehicle sitting behind the catering tent. Suddenly all interest in the M5 was forgotten and as I walked around the car, at once appalled and intrigued, I began to get the itch to drive it.

The story behind that car is almost as off beat as the car itself. A team of petrolheads at BMW's Research and Development Centre felt that the existing M Roadster lacked focus and set about tuning it into a hard top car. Working in their own time after the rest of the staff had gone home, perhaps the lack of sleep got to them because they sculpted a car that was quite unlike anything BMW had ever produced before, its shocking and challenging shape being loved by some and hated by many others.

A lot has changed since then. The intervening years have seen the introduction of some bold Chris Bangle-designed BMWs and my read is that the public were beginning to get a little fatigued of a BMW that took three years to bed in on their eyes. Therefore, the latest M Coupe sports a shape that, while aggressive, is a little more conformist than the old model shape's bread van, clown shoe or whatever you liked to call it. The Z4 M Coupe arrived just in time to give BMW some meaningful ammunition with which to target the trio that had been dominating this market sector, the Audi TT 3.2 V6, the Porsche Cayman S and the Nissan 350Z.

"An empty race track and a Z4 M Coupe can be a life-affirming experience for the committed petrolhead"

It has back-up too. Whereas the old M Coupe campaigned alone, with the 2.8 and 3.0-litre Z3 Coupe models sold only on the Continent, this time round there are lesser models to mop up customers not quite up to the M car. It's easy to see why that could be the case. With 343bhp on tap and an old school chassis that belies its contemporary, razor-edged styling, the M Coupe is not the car if you're looking for silky sophistication. If you love perfect handling balance, beautifully weighted controls and an almost obsessive attention to detail, buy a Porsche Cayman S. It's a fantastic car. If, on the other hand, you want to emerge from every drive, giggling like a kid, sweating, slightly juiced and with a grin big enough to post a wok into, get down to your BMW dealer now.

Forget the mega money M6, this is undoubtedly the most focused car in BMW's entire line up. The top speed is still limited to 155mph but you'll zip to 60mph in 4.7 seconds and you'll need to find £42,245 for the privilege. Most would finger this car as an M Roadster with a punchier chassis thanks to the metal roof. While it's true that the Coupe is twice as torsionally stiff as the Roadster, there's more to its dynamic repertoire than mere rigidity. BMW has quietly changed almost everything that could be changed with the suspension, including stiffer springs, revalved shock absorbers and meatier anti roll bars. The steering rack is quicker and the differential has been altered to sharpen up the Coupe's reflexes still further.

The reasons for this aren't hard to fathom. The M Coupe appeals to an even more hardcore market who will want to drive it on a race track to get the most out of it and will also delight in testing its trick M-diff to the max with some serious tyre-smoking sideways antics. Adrenaline junkies will love the muscular BMW and will put up with its disastrous range, dinky boot capacity and fidgety ride. A set of R-specification sticky tyres would make this thing a devastating trackday weapon.

Driving the M Coupe requires an alteration of your normal mindset. Instead of concentrating on the perfect line through a corner, you'll instead be looking for clear sightlines where, with the DSC switched off, you can give this baseball bat of a car its head - allowing all of the power to set the back end slightly weightless, leaving a pair of liquorice stripes on the tarmac. It's certainly not the quickest way through a corner and it is borderline irresponsible but it's the best way to unearth the wicked sense of humour built into every strand of this car's DNA. Take it on a track with a decent amount of run off and you'll really have fun, although it's easy to cremate a set of rear tyres with an afternoon's committed hooning.

The Z4 M Coupe customer is a very discrete target set for BMW. In short, the manufacturer is appealing to the sort of person who would buy a TVR but are deterred by the prospect of finishing a journey with only 90 per cent of the vehicle parts they started it with. They're looking for something wild and extrovert, that sounds great and which sticks two fingers up at politically correct pretensions but which won't leave them on a hard shoulder with depressing regularity. They have it with the M Coupe. The best British sports car is now built in Garching, Germany.