Road Test: BMW Z4 sDrive20i

Powerful, hardcore, sports cars are a dying breed. When the end of the world arrives and we’re all washed away into the sea, Ray Leathern wonders if the little, underpowered sports cars, like the BMW Z4 sDrive20i, will be remembered?

Should you choose to describe your driving self with words like, ‘hardcore’, ‘car fanatic’, ‘petrolhead’ and ‘enthusiast’, you’ll no doubt be familiar with the overtly simple recipe needed to make a genuine sports car. Two seater, front engined, rear-wheel drive, a manual gearbox and just like that, Robert is your mother’s brother.

Should you ever actually go in search for that definitive sports car, you’d find the cupboard set aside for unadulterated thrills to be worryingly bare, unless you are a wealthy individual. Throw away the notion of your money-no-object Honda S2000, Lotus Evora and Porsche Cayman. The kind of person I’m talking about these days doesn’t have the inclination to advertise to the world they enjoy motoring. Consider the following ars when thinking of this less hardcore set: the Mercedes-Benz SLK, or the ‘cougar-mobile’ as I like to call it; how about the Mazda MX-5, or the ‘VO5-hairdresser-mobile’ as it’s sometimes known?

What you need is a car that doesn’t advertise in anyway at all that you are an enthusiast, but still gives you a lovely serotonin swilling nuzzle when you stick it on a road and play ‘who’s your daddy’ from behind the steering wheel. This is where the BMW Z4 Roadster comes to the fore. You get the dynamics and the talent, but you’re still able to subject yourself and your passengers to the nuanced glories of alfresco motoring. Panoramic views and the wind in your hair. Blacktop cruising followed by the occasional and illicit blacktop belting when the mood strikes and the road opens up. For perfect chassis balance, no roadster comes close to what the BMW Z4 Roadster can offer.

The sDrive20i model has a smaller, lighter, 2.0-litre, turbocharged engine, which should make it even better when it comes to driving balance. The technically correct layout from the 1960’s sports cars is also shared in the Z4’s short wheelbase and classically long bonnet – with the driver almost sitting over the rear wheels. The BMW Z4 Roadster has that, no matter how small the engine is under the bonnet.

I remember testing the most powerful 3.0-litre version of the BMW Z4 only a few years ago; it was breathtaking to drive and all I did in that car was fill it with petrol in the morning, thunder out of the city in search of deserted roads in the day and blast back into the city with my mates and cruise the clubs at night. Some time has passed since then and I, the Z4 Roadster, and the world have matured. So are we all still on the same page?

I should start by saying that the 2.0-litre engine in the sDrive20i isn’t as brilliant. I know the six-cylinder is a tough act to follow, because the bigger 225 kW – 250 kW engines were perfect in almost every way. Then again the sDrive20i is about R250 000 cheaper as compared to the staring prices of the others. The sDrive20i may not be as powerful or sonorous, but it is clean revving and lighter when on the move. You should do 0 – 100 km/h in 7.5 seconds, reach a top speed of 232 km/h and still return fuel consumption close to 7.0 L/100km. The 3.0-litre is a real hissing, spooling, heart starter when you nail it, but for a lot of the time the 2.0-litre can be driven at full throttle with your foot breaking through the firewall, which is also fun. At very high revs the four-cylinder’s sound does border on the zingy and unpleasant, but it does have a vocal enough bark in the middle of its rev range.

Whatever thrust you lose under the long bonnet, you regain in nimble dynamics. The bulimic engine translates to the sDrive20i feeling feather light and a lack of girth makes it less challenging to thread around a mountain pass or forest road. Where you want predictable revs and crisp power delivery, the 2.0-litre delivers its 135 kW and 270 Nm of torque just as it should, with ease.

The ZF 8-speed automatic gearbox in my test car loved kicking down and massaging my kidneys with sharp changes in Sport and Sport+ modes. The short armed paddle shifters sprout out at you from behind the wheel, demanding instant interaction and, while the gearbox is sharp enough in manual modes, its real benefit comes in stop/start traffic, when you can comfortably slip it into D and save yourself the pain and tears of wearing out your wrists and fingertips by shifting yourself.

The big 18-inch wheels (17-inch are standard) love darting over camber changes and road imperfections. This makes for a lively response through the steering even if you’re not blasting at a million miles per hour. It’s an enjoyable feeling, knowing the Z4 sDrive20i can be tamed with very little input or stress. Everywhere else though, the Z4 is exactly the same class act it always was.

The interior quality and optional specification like the satellite navigation, Bluetooth and adaptive dynamics are simply brilliant. I love the interior layout too. It’s sporty and equally comfortable. They’ve kept everything softened and this makes it a pleasure to drive on a day to day basis. You’re just subjected to less power thrills than you used to be and that’s a criticism, but ultimately not a disaster for the sDrive20i, because for more of the time you’d probably live with the extra conveniences and improved fuel consumption.

Its biggest competition, the Mercedes-Benz SLK200, with a 1.8-litre, turbocharged engine, just isn’t as good a car as the sDrive20i. It isn’t as light and nimble, or connected and communicative from behind the steering wheel as the BMW Z4. With that said and as well engineered as these cars are, I don’t think these four-cylinder roadsters are the cars that will be remembered years down the line. Roadsters must surely carry six-cylinder engines at the very least? The smaller engined models may be a circumstance of our time, but they most certainly won’t stand the test of time.

What we like…

• Interior quality, comfort, optional equipment.
• Smooth acceleration from the 2.0-litre engine.
• Nimble handling to go with the good fuel economy.

What we would like…

• The price tag to drop just below R500 000, but it is a BMW, we know.
• A more enticing soundtrack to go with the go clean fun of driving.

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