The designer of the new BMW Z4 roadster has confirmed there are no plans to offer the newcomer with a retractable hard-top.

Speaking to GoAuto.com, Calvin Luk said the latest-generation Z4 was designed from the outset with a fabric soft-top rather than the sort of retractable hard-top employed by the preceding E89-generation model.

“From the beginning we knew that it was going to be a soft-top mostly just because of the performance advantage in terms of the weight, so we didn’t need to mock up an alternative to that,” Luk told the Australian publication.

He suggested the decision came from the Munich-based firm’s engineering department rather than the designers.

“More coming from engineering. I think mostly engineering, there may have been some market feedback influence on that, but I would expect it to be engineering – performance-related,” he explained.

In addition, in May 2019, the head of BMW’s M division confirmed there were no plans to build a full-fat Z4 M, suggesting such a project would have simply cost too much to be viable.

In South Africa, the new Z4 is offered in base sDrive20i guise (with 145 kW and 320 N.m from its 2,0-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine) and flagship M40i form (with 250 kW and 500 N.m from its 3,0-litre, straight-six turbocharged petrol unit).

Original article from Car


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