A sports car without a manual transmission is kind of like a roadster without a soft top.
Oddly enough, there are two such cars, each without the one thing the other one comes standard with (or at least offers).
One's a Toyota, called the Supra. The other's a BMW, the Z4. And they're both the same thing, as well as very different.
What It Is
The BMW Z4 is a roadster made by BMW, and so is the Toyota Supra, which is basically a rebodied version of the Z4. Both have identical (BMW-made) engines, including a standard turbocharged four-cylinder and an optional turbocharged inline six-cylinder.
But the BMW comes standard with a power-folding soft top.
The Supra comes only with a hard top.
On the other hand, the Supra can be purchased with a manual transmission, with the optional six-cylinder engine, while the Z4's six (and four) are paired with an automatic transmission only.
The BMW — being a BMW — also costs more: $52,800 for the sDrive30i, which comes with the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and only with an automatic transmission, and $65,300 for the M40i, which has the inline six and the automatic. The Toyota-badged (and styled) Supra is $44,040 with the same 2.0-liter four and the same automatic, and $53,000 for the Toyota-badged (and styled) Supra with the inline six and a six-speed manual transmission.
Which one suits best depends on which you prefer: the wind in your hair, or something for your left foot (and right hand) to do.
What's New For 2023
The previously optional M Sport performance/styling upgrades including firmer suspension calibrations, aerodynamic body kit and M Sport steering wheel are now standard. Both the base sDrive30i and the M40i also get a new grill. Purple metallic paint is available as well.
Unfortunately, the manual transmission that's now available in the Z4's Toyota-badged sibling will not, apparently, be available in the Z4.
What's Good
Available in-line six makes all the right sounds and delivers the right experience.
Wind in your hair is standard. (It's unavailable in the Supra.)
Fairly large (9.9 cubic feet) trunk for a roadster makes it more practical than other roadsters like the Mazda Miata (which only has about half the Z4's trunk space).
What's Not So Good
Neither the four nor the six is available with a manual, which detracts from the sports car experience.
No hard top option.
The Supra costs $8,000 less to start and does offer the manual experience.
Under The Hood
The '23 Z4 continues to offer two engine choices.
The standard engine in the sDrive30i is a 2.0-liter turbocharged four that makes 255 horsepower and 295 foot-pounds of torque at just 1,500 rpm. The M40i comes standard with a turbocharged in-line six displacing 3.0 liters that makes 382 horsepower and 369 foot-pounds of torque — output comparable to that of a 5.7-liter V8.
Which accounts for the M40i's ability to get to 60 in less than four seconds.
There is no choice regarding transmissions, at least insofar as the Z4. Whether you choose the four or the six, you have to accept the standard eight-speed automatic transmission.
On The Road
Even with the standard four, the Z4 sounds like it has a six under its hood. This isn't imagination.
It is augmentation.
BMW — and it's not just BMW — knows that people who buy certain kinds of cars like them to sound a certain kind of way. So even if the engine doesn't naturally make those sounds, it can be made to sound as if it did, by discreetly augmenting the sounds it does make via sound amplification tech, so that it sounds right.
And thus, the Z4's four does — deeper and richer than it otherwise would.
Of course, it's being in the breeze that makes this roadster something more than just sporty, irrespective of how it sounds.
The Z4 with the six is its own reward.
It performs better than some performance cars with V8s, and the sounds it makes are entirely authentic. It also works very well with the automatic, due to having even more torque, with the additional perk of making all that horsepower. There's so much of both available that it's easy to steer this thing with the rear wheels.
It's a drift king, if that's your thing.
At The Curb
The new grill is tastefully wide but not wide-open. It looks good — and so does the rest of the Z4. Classic roadster lines. Long hood, wide through the hips and tapering tail. It also has something else that most roadsters lack: a decent-sized trunk, just shy of 10 cubic feet, which is nearly as much trunk as some small sedans have and almost twice as much trunk as a Miata has.
The Rest
This car comes standard with a power-folding top, which has its pros and its cons. The obvious pro being you just push a button if you want to feel the breeze.
The cons are not being able to just throw the thing back while the car is moving (at any speed) and that the electric action takes a little longer to do its thing. But the relevant consideration is that you can drop the top — something you can't in the Z4's Supra sibling.
At least, not without a Sawzall.
The Bottom Line
The Z4 is neatly positioned in that it is much less expensive than the next-closest thing (the $65,500-to-start Porsche Boxster) and much more powerful than a similar thing (the Miata) and a very different thing from its Toyota-badged and hard-top-only relation.
Eric's latest book, "Doomed: Good Cars Gone Wrong!" will be available soon. To find out more about Eric and read his past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
View the BMW Z4 this week.
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