Imola Red Z4M Coupe, UK

S

Screamer

Member
 Flintshire
Hi all,
Took me a while to get round to it, but here's my new car:

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Not bad for 23yr old, eh? Can't quite believe it myself..! :D For the specs, see my sig 8)

I'm over the moon with it - I had a Brilliant Black Mazda RX-8 PZ (special edition with suspension tuned by Prodrive + some cosmetic mods inc a boot spoiler and superlight OZ wheels) prior, and other than the obvious lack of an extra 2 seats, the Z seems to have the RX beat at everything. To be honest, the RX only felt properly good when being driven hard - the interior was more than a bit tacky (well, everything back of the dash was nice, but the dash itself, the bit you saw, was naff), the driving position didn't go nearly low enough to feel sporty when you weren't giving it the beans, it didn't give you that nice 'loads of power' feeling when driving normally because the rotary engine had no go ouside of 5000rpm, there were pleny of missing options (cruise, iPod, auto lights/wipers, trip computer, nav on the PZ wasn't available and was so rubbish on normal models that it wasn't much of a problem, etc, etc) and it just felt a bit cheap and rough around the edges (the fancy backwards doors, for example, overlapped with the front doors when closed, but therefore also rattled a lot). I'm not saying that the Z4MC is fantastically well-made, but it certainly feels better, and having obtained the BMW TIS system on CD, I feel like most rattles can be self-fixed if I feel like it.

Actually, that reminds me - the TIS system i've got on CD covers Z4's upto 2006, so it's the pre-facelift, non-M's, and none of the coupe models... Does anyone have a TIS CD that's for the most recent models?
 
Hi. Welcome to the fold!

I had an RX-8 for a year. Pre-ordered it about 6 months before they launched, but was so disappointed with the car when it finally arrived. I thought the interior was pretty good... certainly a lot better than the usual Jap-car affair. The gauges were very slick, and the piano black finish nice. Obviously the trick doors had a lot of wow factor. I didn't have any issues with rattles and suchlike, but I only kept the car for a year and 18,000 miles so maybe this affected them later in life. It was the performance and fuel consumption that just ruined the car for me. It was supposed to be a sports car, and yes, it handled very well, but I got tired of wringing its neck for the modicum of performance it would give you when it did. I suppose it wasn't a complete slouch, but when you average 18-20mpg I want to see performance to match! I get 21mpg+ out of the Z4MC and an RX-8 wouldn't see where it went!
 
Welcome to the forum. :thumbsup: Very nice exterior color, not so crazy about the tan interior, but that's only my opinion. :)
 
Only just came back to this thread after posting... Thanks for all the welcomes/comments guys!

Andy (sixspeed): it sounds like you had exactly the same response as me to the RX-8, but for some different, and some the same, reasons. True, the interior is much better than what's found in other (especially performance) Jap cars. As you say, the gauges were great - loved the digital speed inside the large rev counter - amazing just how big that 1 dial can become when you haven't got to squeeze another one for the speed alongside it. From an aesthetic point of view, that's 1 of the only shames with the Z4: the instruments are tiny and, as such, not particularly 'impressive'. As I say, the biggest problem I had with the interior was that all the good stuff wasn't to be seen from the front seats - when you opened the doors to see the arcing transmission tunnel: great, the front seat design with the rotary headrest holes: great, the 'own little space' feeling of the rear seats and view down to the gearstick: great... But the dashboard itself? A bit basic and clearly quite simple: big pieces of greyish-black plastic with a big hole where the piano-black covered stereo/air con unit goes. Where we differ is on the piano black: I can't stand the stuff. The way it picks up every mark and fingerprint, and then, when you try to clean it, you end up putting loads of hairline scratches in it! Ugh. It wouldn't be so bad in the Z4 because you're less likely to end up touching it, but on the RX-8, the buttons stuck directly out of the piano-black finished surfaces so you invariably ended up leaving marks. I kept my RX-8 for about 1yr 4 months: 10,000 miles, so it wasn't the age that brought the problems. That said, i'm extremely sensitive to rattles (there's one in my sat nav unit at the moment, which i'll have to fix myself/get fixed). Well, actually, i'm just extremely sensitive to any (no matter how minor) flaws (hence the hatred of piano black too). Finally, you've picked up on another of my 'things hated about the car' there that I forgot to mention originally: the performance-to-fuel consumption ratio. I don't mind having to pay for such high fuel usage as long as i've got the money to afford it (hence why I chose the Z4 M over the 3.0), but I DEFINATELY want to see something in return i.e. performance and/or flexibility. Really, I want the engine, like the rest of the car, to be at least to a certain extent, exceptional for what it is. The M's engine is just that: it can do 30mpg if you want it to, yet it can get what isn't a superlight car to 62 in 5 dead and delivers 340bhp, and has a 8200rpm (?) limit, and still delivers its best when thrashed, and yet is massively flexible (haven't tried it, but apparently 6th gear will take you from 30mph to any speed you like without much of a grumble at all!). The RX-8's rotary, on the other hand, gets attention because it's so small and that something so small produces the power of a typical V6 (although the 350z's increasingly proving that not to be the case any more)... The problem is that neither of those things make themselves known - certainly not in terms of pure performance, and it's not like you sit there thinking "the handling's great - that'll be because of the small, light engine" even if it is the reason. And that "something so small produces the power of a typical V6" line really should be "something so small produces the power of a typical V6 and consumes like a large V8"... As you say, the performance difference is unbelieveable when both cars are consuming the same amout of fuel. I went on the Prodrive driver training day with the owners club in the RX, and one of the instructors who also worked at Thruxton told me that when the RX-8's that the circuit owns and 'rents out' for experience days are driven as you'd expect them to be on such events, they easily consume more fuel and oil than the Lambo Murcielago that they also have! I doubt the Z4 M goes anywhere near that low when driven similarly. Something I worked out a while ago too: using the Z4M engine as a benchmark, given the relative quoted mpg (which, lets face it, is much more optimistic on the RX than it is on the Z4M), the RX-8 should be producing around 370bhp for it's claimed 25mpg! The biggest problems were the flexibility - when you were in the 'wrong gear', you got absolutely zero performance, and the performance full-stop: there's now a good few hot hatchbacks that are quite significantly quicker! And that concludes this episode of World's Longest Rant About A Car Not Even Featured On This Website :wink: .

Thanks for the comments about the colour and the mostly good things said about the interior... I wasn't sure what I wanted, other than not wanting another all-black interior like I had in the RX-8. I would have really liked the red originally, but i'm not sure now if, for me, the red on black in this car is a bit gaudy and a bit dark too, whereas the lightness of the champagne seems to add an airyness and goes really well with the silver accents around the doors. That said, the 'extended' version on the champaigne where the transmission tunnel is coloured too would have been going far too far - really didn't like that when I saw it. Then again, if someone was selling/wanted to swap their red seats and door cards, I think i'd be very interested :wink:

Thanks again for the welcome!
 
Screamer said:
I would have really liked the red originally, but i'm not sure now if, for me, the red on black in this car is a bit gaudy and a bit dark too, whereas the lightness of the champagne seems to add an airyness and goes really well with the silver accents around the doors. That said, the 'extended' version on the champaigne where the transmission tunnel is coloured too would have been going far too far - really didn't like that when I saw it.
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I disagree there!! :poke: :D

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Ok, ok, i'll admit that your looks very nice there Breaker... :wink: Perhaps it's because the one I saw had the aluminium trim and was starting to look like there was far too much light and not enough dark... Oh, and it was a convertible... With the top down... In the showroom :lol: . I'll also admit that the piano black looks lovely too, but I still wouldn't take it because of my apparent inability to clean it without scratching it :cry:
Where are all you UK guys based btw - it'd be nice to meet up with some of you... I'm in North Wales, right on the border between Wales and England, about 15mins from Chester.
 
Doh! Would've been great to have got to see your car, Andy (and/or expensive :wink: )... Let me know if you're ever further up my way at an event that I could pop along to :driving:
 
I can't remember what time of year, but there's a BMW show held in Gaydon each year, which was a good day out last year. I'll be along to that again when the dates are announced. Otherwise, will let you know if anything else pops up :)
 
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