Last week, BMW held the first and only pre-drives of the all-new G29 BMW Z4 which will be unveiled this August in Pebble Beach. At market launch, the US market will offer two models, the four-cylinder 2.0 liter-powered sDrive30i and the M Performance Automobile model – M40i.
Both models will go on sale in Spring 2019 as a 2020 Model Year. Sales of the four-cylinder 30i will start in March 2019 and will be priced in the low $50,000 range, while the G29 Z4 M40i will arrive in April and it’s expected to sale for a base price in the mid-to-high $60,000.
The high-end Z4 makes use of a 3.0 liter six-cylinder engine similar to the one used in the other BMW M40i models, but with different outputs in North America versus Europe. Since the stringent European emission laws now require a particulate filter, the power on the Z4 M40i was neutered to around 335 horsepower.
Luckily, in the US, the Z4 M40i will maintain its power potency and will offer the customers a whooping 382 horsepower. Both versions produce the same 369 lb-ft of torque.
Fans of manually shifting gears are out of luck when it comes to the new Z4, so the two-seat roadster will use the well-known ZF 8-speed automatic transmission. While a manual gearbox is out of the picture, the electronically controlled limited-slip differential is standard which will make the drive more dynamic and intriguing.
BMW’s provisional numbers say it should run the European version of the Z4 M40i will do 0-to-62-mph in 4.4 seconds.
To learn more about the new G29 Z4, see our test drive review.
[Source: C&D]
