Saturday morning and I’m browsing Google looking for any firm that provided convertible hire. Finding firms that catered for this wasn’t hard, but finding stock was impossible. The good weather has lasted all week so people were way on the ball and way before me.

Prestige Car Hire in Hemel Hempstead came up with the goods though, providing me with a choice of either a Z4 or a 330ci, with the Z4 coming at a killer price making the choice an easy one. Besides, I’ve always found the new shape really handsome and this pretty much hit the spot for the weekend.

After a super quick transaction, I was out on the M1, hard top electric roof down (rather slow mechanism, but effective transformation!) having my scalp massaged at speed. It’s a liberating experience that is savoured by those of us unfamiliar with convertible ownership. In the three days I had the car, the roof only went up when the car was parked. I never even got to sample the car in its coupe form.

I love the design of this car, I rank it one of the best looking roadsters on the market. It’s a quality car that demonstrates BMW build standards that hark back to the 80’s. Ruler guided shutlines with roof open or closed, switch gear that feels punctual and components that want using. As an ownership prospect, it ticks all the right boxes and looks fabulous parked up on the drive with the roof in either position. Not sure black is a good colour though, the remnants of Bangles flame surfacing need a brighter colour to exhibit its lines. Personally, I’d be brave and go for a white Z4. And those wheels are amazing, filling the arches gracefully giving the effect of a very modern roadster, together with its short overhangs.

Boot space is generous when the hood is up, but once in convertible mode, the roof sits on top of any luggage as the photo suggests, making access to your gear very difficult. In order to properly get your stuff back out, you need to put the hood up again, which wouldn’t be so bad if the roof didn’t take so long to go up and down.

Otherwise the interior is very comfortable with shapely leather seats and a nice, chunky steering wheel completing the GT feel. Unfortunately my car wasn’t equipped with sat-nav which was a pain, but the sound system provided great entertainment with the punchy speakers complimented by the AUX cable in. Although the bloody sound compensation thing was irritable to say the least as the volume kept self-modulating, making for inconsistent volume.

Driving this car is a mixed affair and I get the impression it’s trying to maintain a split personality but failing at both, it’s neither a proper GT, nor is it a sports car with dynamics to match. It’s a 6 speed manual and the gearbox itself is a slick affair, with each shift smooth and easy and heel and toeing working best from the ball of your foot. However, there’s no reward to your hard work and despite the classic BMW silky smooth 3.0 6 living up to its reputation, it didn’t ever feel like anything other than an arranged marriage between transmission and engine.

Frequently I’d feel the effects of chassis lag as the elastic feel of the engine would be working against my perfect gear shifts. Whether it be wobbly engine mounts or some sort of weird gearbox bounce, the car would often wobble when startled into acceleration. It’s a throbbing lump and sounds meaty, but without menace. Sport mode would sharpen up throttle response and would exacerbate the strange chassis lag rather than fix it.

The engine felt lethargic and with a fairly 2010 average weight of 1500kg, shouldn’t have felt so. I never quite knew how to get the best out of it as it didn’t feel comfortable being revved, nor did it ever feel like it had the tractability of low down torque, sometimes even getting bogged down at low revs.

This feeling of disappointment is compounded by the inert handling. I’d imagine this is how the American classic cars handled, heavy at the nose and very little feedback through the over-servoed steering. No matter how much I’d lean into the car, it would never communicate its limit to me, feeling often unsafe and unpredictable, even in Sport + mode. It was, strangely enough, remarkably difficult keeping it in a straight line as the car would often graze the lane on the motorway, from one dotted line to the other due to its overly sensitive dead-ahead steering. And dammit, if I want to do a burnout from the slip road and paint black lines on the tarmac, that should be my prerogative. I don’t want an ECU doing the decision making for me by cutting power!

In comparison to the 2.7 Boxster I drove, it’s not even close dynamically. The Z4 makes up a lot of ground with that modern roof, but it had none of the chassis brilliance, nor did it have the perfection of engine and gearbox union that always distinguishes a Porsche from its peers. The Boxster was a car that I simply wanted to drive right out into the middle of the night in winter. I never had the inclination to do that in the Z4, despite its better looks, superior build quality and modern design in ergonomics – but BMW are masters at that.

So, if you want a cab to pose in (and who’d blame you), the Z4 is the more appealing, aesthetically. But if you want a rewarding, engaging roadster that tickles the spine when nobody is looking, then the Boxster is for you.

EDIT:
Bart has emailed me pictures of his new Z4. As I said, if I were to have bought this car, it would be in white and here’s the evidence. It looks spectacular!

Enjoy Bart.

Check out my hall of fame and shame and see in more detail what I mean, but after eventually contacting my 3rd dealer, I eventually arranged a test drive (Thanks to Arron Bird for the contact). I had the car for 3 days to make a decision, by the time I drove home home on the first evening, I was convinced. This is the next step for me.

Engine
This car has without doubt one of the finest engines I have ever had the pleasure of using. The press claim it to be the most technologically advanced in the world. I just thought it was exhilarating. Its silky smooth 6 cylinder engine turning into a vibrant, metallic rasp at over 6000 rpm through to the most awesome sound around the 8000rpm mark, sending vibrations through the seat of your pants, literally. Its a dangerous experience though. Addictive as it is to hear the noise on every opportunity, its always in the high rev ranges. But that’s how a car should be. Rewarding you only when you deserve it. Be a hero, it will give you a biscuit. The M3 didn’t show me all its cards you see. Which is nice. Made me believe there was so much more to it. And 15,000 mile service intervals!

Handling
It’s very difficulty for me to lay judgement on a car without being slightly too critical. I am currently used to driving cars that are perhaps of the most adhesive kind in the world. They are, after all, replica rally cars. Their sole purpose is to grip and go with the minimum of fuss. To get into a massively powerful rear wheel drive car and expect even similar levels of grip would be over optimistic. But this car was full of surprises. I would imagine, if I had the appropriate equipment, it would create as much cornering G’s as my Makinen. At one point though, the car showed me who was boss. I turned off traction control at a roundabout I know well and when I accelerated out of the roundabout, the rear end lit up and swung into a lovely powerdrift. It was totally controllable though, had it not caught me by surprise, it would have been poetic. But throwing around a £45,000 car that doesn’t belong to me isn’t my cup of tea.

Ergonomics
Perhaps the simplest, most usable and attractive voice enhanced sat-nav system, terrestrial TV, multifunction onboard computer, cruise control, electric everything. Any toy any boy would ever want exists within this car. Surrounded by lush leather, BMW’s infamous interior dash design and a lovely, grippy steering wheel ensures every drive is an event. Sat nav became quite dangerous for me though, I couldn’t stop playing with it. And blue lights!

Design
You love it or loathe it. It’s a stark contrast for me, coming from the outlandish Chow Yun Fat Makinen, destroying buildings in its wake and demanding attention from everyone within a square mile, to the almost understated, James Bond M3, smooth, cool and almost elegantly respected….by some, at least. I noticed something whilst driving the M3. People sneered at me. I was a evidently giving out the wrong signals! It is also very difficult to distinguish an M3 from say a specced up 318i coupe. To a layman, that is. To the trained eye, however, its 19″ wheels, 4 tail pipes and blistered wheel arches are unmistakably hard not to notice. A choice quote from a bunch of 20 something guys passing by “Check out that beast, its a new M3″.

It was a tragic moment handing back the keys. It reassured me that I wanted it though. A car has to be pretty good in order for me to still want to drive it after a constant 400 mile test drive. Really good. And that it was. Which is why I have sent a cheque for £500.00 to Murketts BMW of Huntingdon.

Now, what do I do during the 12 month wait?