Three months after the premiere of the BMW Zagato Coupé, BMW and Zagato turned heads again at the 2012 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Created in just six weeks, the BMW Zagato Roadster represents another masterful example of the traditional coachbuilder’s art and an elegant take on the sporty, masculine, modern car.
The decision to launch another collaboration between BMW and Italian coachbuilder Zagato, was made only a short time after the BMW Zagato Coupé took its first bow. Encouraged by the positive reaction to the Coupé, Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design, and Andrea Zagato soon agreed to another partnership project.
Andrea Zagato said at the unveiling: “BMW is a high-achieving carmaker boasting a vast well of knowledge and technical capability in this area. When you combine that with our expertise in the creation of micro-series cars and our streamlined production processes, everything is in place to produce a beautiful model like the BMW Zagato Roadster.”
The BMW Zagato Roadster adds the fineries of the Italian “dolce vita”, to the competent German engineering beneath. Its designers having succeeded in lending the car its own distinct character without blurring its family ties to BMW.
“This car is not designed only as an elegant convertible, but also as a masculine and extremely dynamic sports car which evokes a powerful driving experience” says Zagato chief designer Norihiko Harada, describing the design philosophy behind the BMW Zagato Roadster.
The sweeping bonnet and long wheelbase pin the driver back towards the driven rear wheels, that is a given for any Z4 Roadster. The low down, ultra-sporty position inside the cockpit, carries with it the taut, hallmark BMW surface treatment and Zagato’s clearly defined distribution of visual mass around the driver. This lends the BMW Zagato Roadster an athletic appearance – poised, fast and eager.
