Spotted: a BMW Z1

The spotted specimen

In the village of Achtmaal (North Brabant), we came across this beautiful BMW Z1. It is registered on Belgian vintage license plates. You can’t just check those, so we can’t say much more about this particular example than that the dark green color looks very stylish on it. The spot is a good reason to delve into the story of the Z1 again.

BMW Z1: from concept to production

In 1985, BMW established the BMW Technik GmbH department. This department was generally responsible for the development of concept cars and new technologies. As its first project, the team decided to develop a roadster. BMW had not had such a model since the production stop of the 507 in 1959. The design team was led by Dutch car designer Harm Lagaay. Initially, a coupe version was also being worked on, but only the open roadster made it to the concept stage. The production version followed in 1987: the BMW Z1. Here the “Z” stands for “Zukunft,” or “future.

BMW Z1 is innovative roadster

Lagaay’s team made it a special design. The car is fitted with sliding doors, which disappear downwards into the sill. As a result, the rather high sills also form the side protection, allowing the Z1 to be driven safely with the doors open. The BMW Z1 was and is also a special car in other respects. For example, it has plastic body panels, which are easily interchangeable and make it possible to change the body color relatively easily. In theory then, in practice this is still quite a job. Furthermore, the roll bar is integrated into the windshield frame.

A technical innovation is that the Z1 was one of the first BMWs with a multi-link rear axle. The specific construction was called the Z Axle and was later applied to other models. The car also has a flat underbody. This is not only aerodynamic, it also immediately provides suction. Like a Formula 1 car, the Z1 is sucked, as it were, to the road surface at higher speeds for better handling. The corresponding diffuser is integrated into the rear bumper: hence the gap under the tailgate.

Drivetrain BMW Z1

Then again, the powertrain was less innovative: it – like many other technical components – corresponded entirely to that of the then BMW 325i (E30 generation). That meant a 2.5-liter six-in-line with 125 kW (170 hp), combined with a five-speed manual transmission and, of course, rear-wheel drive.

Production and follow-up of the BMW Z1

The BMW Z1 was immediately well received. Even before the start of production, 3,500 orders were recorded. Production ran from 1989 through 1991, during which time exactly 8,000 units were produced, partly because BMW could only produce a limited number of units per day. By far the most examples were sold in homeland Germany. Interestingly, examples officially delivered in France differ from the rest: they have yellow headlight lenses.

The BMW Z1 was available in red, black, green and light yellow, with the first three being by far the most popular. The interior was almost always dark gray, with only 38 owners opting for the optional red interior. Only one-off blue and orange examples were built, for Ulrich Bez (first director of BMW Technik GmbH) and designer Harm Lagaay, respectively.

After some years, the BMW Z1 was succeeded by the BMW Z3 in 1996, creating a now long line of BMW Z models.