Why BMW's Bizarre Z3M Had To Be Built In Secret
There's an intriguing bit of history behind BMW's Z cars. Few are privy to the BMW 507, a sports car designed for American buyers at the behest of New York-based luxury car importer Max Hoffman and manufactured from 1956 to 1960. According to Motor Trend, BMW hired Albrecht von Goertz to design a new sports car for Americans who love a powerful engine. The 507 was BMW's first V8-engined car, and it came with a raucous 3.2-liter V8 pumping out 150 horsepower.
The 507's handcrafted aluminum body, sumptuous interior, howling V8 motor, and exotic styling came at a price. Initially projected to start at around $5,000, the 507 had a base price of $10,500 — out of touch for most buyers. It didn't matter to the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, who bought two 507 roadsters during his army duty in Germany, but for the average person (with a much smaller pocketbook), this vehicle was too expensive for its day. BMW only built 252 units of the 507, and production ended just four years after it began.
The end of the 507 also put a stop to two-seater sports car production at BMW for the next couple of decades. In 1985, the brass established BMW Technik GmbH, a team of 60 designers, technicians, and engineers to create a new two-door sports car. The BMW Z1 roadster was born in August 1986, and the Z3 roadster followed suit in 1996.
BMW Z3M Coupe: Skunkworks project
BMW intended the Z3 to be a premium alternative to the Mazda MX-5, but critics and enthusiasts found it lacking in dynamism and driving involvement, said Motorious. The Z3 was also the first BMW built and assembled outside Germany (production took place in South Carolina). It didn't matter if Agent 007 drove the Z3 in "GoldenEye," and it certainly didn't matter if the Z3 M came in 1997 with a more potent straight-six motor.
The Z3 needed a performance update, but the brass was not interested in making a high-performance Z3, so BMW's M division worked in secret. The engineers took an existing Z3 and added a fixed roof. They also shoehorned a 3.2-liter BMW S50 inline-six and a five-speed manual gearbox under the hood, with suspension and brakes from the Z3M.
The all-new BMW Z3M Coupe had the nickname of "clown shoe" for its stubby rear end, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It might have had to do with this polarizing style, but the Z3M Coupe didn't get a lot of love when it debuted in 1998. BMW only built 6,791 examples of the Z3M Coupe between 1998 and 2001, and only a handful came with the more potent S54 inline-six with 315 horsepower, of which only 269 units left the Spartanburg factory.
The BMW Z3M Coupe's quirky styling grows on you the longer you stare, and its rarity makes it one of the most desirable and collectible M cars to date — two reasons why we're head-over-heels over BMW's skunkworks M car. "This vehicle won't be everybody's darling," said Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle, former board member, BMW AG, during the Z3M Coupe's debut. "But it's a BMW through and through: sporty, powerful, dynamic."