Model
Z8 2000
Make
BMW
Body
Roadster
Year
2000
Colour
Silver
Description
The E52, as it was known to BMW boffins, and company insiders, was a V8 Roadster produced for three short years from 2000, till 2003.
Chris Bangle, fresh from his post as head of design at FIAT, lead the team that styled the car – most notably Henrik Fisker, who designed the body as a homage to BMW’s 507 roadster in a style of retro-inspiration which had captivated many carmakers at the turn of the millennium.
An aluminum monocoque, fitted with a 4.9 litre V8 – derived from BMW’s portfolio of fabulous saloon engines, and in this case the same unit shared with the E39 M5, allowed the car astonishing performance; 4.7 seconds naught to one-hundred as claimed by Munich, but realized in half a second less by Road and Track! Scott Lempert’s interior was an exercise in minimalism – not just in the styling, but in the means by which secondary controls were designed and located and moderated with the use of clever multifunction controls. At the time of the car’s launch, in a seeming effort to emphasize its “instant classic” status, BMW guaranteed a 50 year stockpile of parts would be kept and distributed.