Driving BMW’s all-new Z4 roadster before its release.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:08 I forgot your name, I'm sorry.
00:09 >> Follian.
00:10 >> Follian, Chris.
00:11 [MUSIC]
00:29 >> Hey everybody, Chris Walton from Motor Trend.
00:31 Quite a treat today.
00:33 We're driving prototype Z4, 2019 BMW Z4 M40i,
00:38 at a very remote proving grounds in Provence, in France.
00:45 And I have one of the engineers with me, Florian.
00:48 He's responsible for the chassis dynamics of this car.
00:51 And wow, it's been a while since I've driven a Z4, but
00:57 this feels completely different from any previous Z4.
01:00 And it's grown quite a lot.
01:04 It's a much bigger car than it was, but it's also much sportier.
01:07 There are numerous chassis enhancements that we looked at earlier when the car
01:13 was up on the rack.
01:14 [MUSIC]
01:19 The new engine is a turbocharged, single turbo,
01:23 four-cylinder, four-cylinder, four-cylinder, four-cylinder, four-cylinder,
01:29 four-cylinder, four-cylinder, four-cylinder, four-cylinder, four-cylinder, four-cylinder, four-cylinder.
01:34 That's even more than the previous 333 horsepower M motor that was an inline six,
01:40 naturally aspirated, but holy smokes, God, it's such a good engine.
01:45 [MUSIC]
01:48 Wow, this feels like an M car without, you know?
01:53 >> It has the same speed, to be honest.
01:55 So if you really run against the clock on this track, you'll be faster than the M2.
02:02 >> Really?
02:02 >> Yeah.
02:03 >> Wow.
02:04 >> And most of the tuning of this car has been done on Nürburgring launch life.
02:08 >> I can tell.
02:09 The one we're driving today is the M240 version,
02:13 which is the inline six, twin scroll, single turbo, which makes 382 horsepower.
02:21 It's a lot more than the M2 I've been driving for a year, which was 365 horsepower.
02:27 And they've upped it since then and put it in a small roadster like this.
02:30 And it's very entertaining, very, very fast.
02:33 [MUSIC]