Tired but can't sleep, so I thought I would update the thread
Overall it was a great trip - guy whacking into my car apart! - 2000 miles round trip and every mile travelled was fun fun fun! The car handles beautifully, smooth and absolutely great acceleration when you need it. Whether you want to overtake a queue of lazy lorries or show some idiot in some other nondescript car who wants to play, you touch the pedal and very very quickly you are off! I now use Sport mode on all the time, I can't see any difference in fuel consumption and the throttle response and change in steering is brilliant - so much so that if forget to turn it on, the car feels very different.
I fuelled the car with the higher octane stuff - 2.6 tanks there and 2.6 tanks back - not for improved performance but in the belief it runs the engine cleaner.
The sound system (I have the higher end DSP setup) was brilliant and wherever I went I had music galore that I could hear top down and enjoy.
The aircon works well, even with roof down, naturally it struggles a bit in 34-37 deg C heat but that is hardly surprising! With the roof up you can get the cabin positively Artic!
The driving position is comfortable and even after hours of driving I didn't get any posture problems.
The iDrive system clearly has a lot of thought in it from BMW - the satnav works well, the colours that BMW uses are silly but you get used to it and you learn to manipulate the image to get what you want soon enough. It knew to get me wherever I wanted in Spain and France and never took me down a wrong route at any point. The place names spoken by the BMW lady voice can be quite funny - such as "Madrid" pronounced as "Mathrith" and quite a few others
The phone system works well, didn't quite figure out how to get DAB in Europe so gave up on it, FM was Ok but mainly I had the internal drive and my iPhone hooked up under the arm rest. This part of the iDrive is the worst in my view, selecting tracks albums etc is quite a faff with lots of button presses needed etc - but again, you get used to it.
I had my roadster bags in the back, along with a small toolkit and backpack and small bag in passenger footwell. Rey, my rescued Ratonero Bodeguero Andaluz from Spain, snored his way on teh passenger seat comfortably - so the car had more than enough space for my stuff. I found using the little parcels shelf behind the seats great to hold a little folder with passports and docs and also a place to put a bottle of water etc (although a bit hard to reach back to retrieve a bottle when driving!).
Wherever we went we got approving stares/ glances/ nods and even photo taking. At one Aire in France one dude just walked all around the car whilst I was sitting in it getting Rey all set up and took in every inch of the car as though I was not even there - a bit weird but got a thumbs up at the end of it
In Spain it was great to find out there was a community of Z4 enthusiasts doing rallies and ride arounds but sadly the dates didn't work when I was there - I will be looking out for them next time I go!
The Dashcam I have (the Spypro A119 - see other thread) worked well, other than the lens started to rattle - so I fixed that (by siliconing the lens so it can't move). It showed good quality, worked in all (hot) temperatures and worked well in parking mode. In parking mode I only get about 2 hours before the battery saver kicks in and powers the camera down - I will be getting a battery backup now as I believe the parking mode is a good feature.
In France I used the Paeage Liberte Tag (stuck on windscreen on left hand side of mirror) and it was a Godsend - especially when you use the 30 kph lane where you just need to slow down then accelerate through the gears when the gate opens and lets you through
Didn't have one for Spain so it was a bit awkward leaning over the passenger seat to pay/ get ticket but I didn't use the APs too much in Spain so not too bad.
The Eurotunnel was great, quite efficient, handled the Pet passport part brilliantly and got me on an earlier train even though I only had the cheapest ticket going.
I didn't do much speeding, the odd blip perhaps, but nothing above the 130 kmh for the most part. I was surprised at night at one point in France for one of the Matrix Displays to display (in French) "X3WKA you are going too fast" - had to do a double take when I saw my reg up on the screen - I thought I was dreaming!
Overall - thoroughly recommended - the car was clearly built for this. The roads are a bit boring in France, a bit more exciting view wise in Spain - especially in the North. When I go too Switzerland/ Italy I will surely get better views - but I can't think of a better way of doing it than in my Z4, roof down, with Rey asleep the passenger seat, music blaring ... :driving: :thumbsup:
My Zed at an aire in France, playing the tart and enjoying the attention 
oke: :rofl: