At last! Manual BMW Z4 M40i officially launched
BMW follows Toyota's lead with new 'Handschalter Pack'. And doubles down with exclusive green over tan spec...
How many comments have you read recently about BMW having lost its way? Plenty, surely. Too ugly, too electric, too expensive and so on. This one ought to appease the diehards: having previewed it heavily in the States, the Z4 M40i Handschalter Pack (literally hand switch, or manual switch) is a six-speed, six-cylinder, rear-drive BMW two-seater has officially arrived. It’ll only be offered in M5 CS green (aka Frozen Deep Green) with a Cognac interior, and it costs £60,000. It’s like Twitter specced a BMW - they must be happy about this, right?
Interestingly, BMW states that the manual in the Z4, though a modular transmission, has been ‘developed exclusively’ for this model, so even if everything about the arrangement looks like it’s from an old 5 Series there’s hope for a good manual. Remember Toyota went to some considerable effort developing its manual for the B58 straight six in the Supra and made a properly satisfying shift, so let’s hope BMW has taken (another) leaf out of Toyota’s book. The Z4 gets its own shift lever, guide and connection to the transmission, which all sounds encouraging; a ‘precisely defined shift action enables the gears to be changed swiftly and intuitively’. Of course, this is BMW saying this about a BMW gearbox, and they’re hardly renowned for the most tactile transmissions. But it would be appropriate if one of its last manual gearboxes is also its best.
The Handschalter Pack (we’ll just call it the manual from now on) also gets a raft of bespoke chassis revisions, further boosting its enthusiast credentials. So there are auxiliary springs on both axles, a ‘specially reinforced anti-roll bar clamp’ up front, plus revisions to the software of the dampers and steering. The final change should really be noted verbatim: ‘In order to achieve sharper handling characteristics that will be appreciated by driving purists, the development team also equipped the traction control and M Sport differential with model-specific control logic’. Marvellous news - told you they still care.
The wheels on both M40i models for this year (not that anyone cares about the auto now) are staggered for the first time, just like a proper M car, now 19-inch diameter at the front and 20s behind (where they used to be 19 at each corner). Perhaps we’re just giddy with manual excitement, perhaps the green is doing a lot of the heavy lifting or perhaps the Z4 is just ageing quite nicely, but this looks great with the big wheels at the back. The G29 front end is maybe still a bit gormless, though this is not the time to be talking about negatives - manual, straight-six, rear-drive BMW, remember.
Half a dozen old-fashioned gears rather than eight automatic ones means an additional tenth for the 0-62mph sprint (now 4.6 seconds if everything goes to plan), and a slight hit on efficiency (though 191-198g/km and 34-35.3mpg don’t seem bad at all). Outputs are unchanged from the auto, with 340hp at 5,000-6,500rpm and 369lb ft from 1,600-4,500rpm. A shame that we’re still denied the punchier 382hp version of the same six offered in other countries, though the aftermarket would only be too happy to boost a B58 as required.
Green over tan has enjoyed quite the resurgence in recent years, and it makes sense as a colour scheme for a sports car that’s so retro in its outlook. There’s a bit of Concept Touring Coupe to the interior leather, which is found on ‘model-specific sports seats’. Such is the rate of progress in BMW interiors that seeing one without the Curved Display, or an Adaptive mode, and with the traction control button easily accessible, feels more than a little old school already - surely an intentional strategy.
The Z4 M40i Handschalter is available to order from today, with deliveries expected in the spring; it costs £60,575. A 350hp Porsche 718 Boxster S is the closest competitor on power and price, at £63,800, with the flat-six, 400hp GTS from £75,300. Rest assured we’ll get them together as soon as possible. Long live the manuals!
Nice to see regardless although the single turbo engine in the Z4 has so much torque the necessity to get the most out of it from frequent gear changes isn’t there as much as say the S58.
Green over tan is a good combo but this really isn’t green over tan - it’s green over tan seats. Does no one else think it looks rubbish having tan seats when every other surface in side like door cards, dash, arm rest etc are all black?
Give with one hand and take with another.
It looks like they fitted the wrong seats.
Green over tan is a good combo but this really isn’t green over tan - it’s green over tan seats. Does no one else think it looks rubbish having tan seats when every other surface in side like door cards, dash, arm rest etc are all black?
Overall I like it though, its a good looking car. Do any B58s come with 340 HP? Thought they were generally putting out at least 360. I don't know why the underate it by so much.
For me, to make sense it would need to blow the Porker out of the water power wise or something.
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