The Z in Z1 supposedly stands for 'zukunft' or 'future', which is somewhat ironic, because the Z1 fell so far short of BMW's sales expectations that it could have been forgiven for giving the whole two-seater lark a decisive knock on the head.
Fortunately it kept at it and eventually delivered the commercially successful Z3 and Z4, but back in the late 80s when BMW gave the world its first glimpse of the Z1 it reckoned that it had 35,000 orders lined up. That may well be true, but the reality was that when the time came for people to actually buy their own only 8,000 were sold and at least 6,000 of those stayed in Germany.
But what was a commercial flop at the time now makes a Z1 quite an exclusive proposition, and if you're tempted in a way that at least 27,000 others weren't at the time, this particular BMW Z1 looks like a good bet. It's even been signed by the man who designed it, Harm Lagaay, who also penned the 924, 968, 993, Boxster, Cayenne, 996, and Carrera GT for Porsche.
The vendor (who knows a thing or two about Z1s and has even
built his own V8 version
) had the car signed by the celebrated Dutch designer on a trip back to Munich, but has used the car little in the few years since then, hence its sale. It's one of only 100 cars finished in Purblau with a black interior and comes with a very rare and equally cool set of RLE Alpina alloys, an LSD, Alpina steering wheel, stainless exhaust, and of course the Wiesmann hardtop.
It seems that colours are fairly important in the Z1 market, and Purblau is apparently not far behind Fungelb (fun yellow) in terms of rarity, although it probably ranks a little higher in the desirability stakes.
The asking price is £25,000, which isn't cheap even if you do take into account the tasteful extras and the designer's moniker. For example, there are other open-topped German cars of the same period like
this Porsche 964 from our classifieds
. But although it may have broader appeal for similar money, nothing else has doors which disappear into the sills...