FIRST DRIVE | The new 2019 BMW Z4 M40i is a true driving enthusiast’s car

Recently the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK banned a trio of automotive ads. One was for the latest Ford Mustang in which the poet Dylan Thomas was quoted with the immortal lines, “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” The idea was that you jump into a Mustang and shake off the boredom with a bit of a charge down the open road. All good, classic motoring stuff. 

The ASA didn’t think so, or rather the 12  complainants didn’t, who stated that the ads encouraged unsafe driving because they depicted driving as a way of relieving anger. They are probably all Toyota Prius drivers, they don’t get angry, they hug it out. 

While there are nannies out there who don’t believe the majority of us are grown-up enough to know right from wrong and who clearly want to tell everyone they can’t have a bit of fun, some carmakers are still producing cars for those who want to blast down an open road with the wind in their hair and a great piece of music blaring from the speakers as the exhaust rumbles behind them. 

BMW is one such carmaker. Honestly, I was not a massive fan of the Z3 or the Z4. The Z8 yes, the Z1 perhaps and you can read about our drive in both of these icons elsewhere in this issue but the 3 and 4, nah. Some loved them, clearly not the person who abandoned a Z4 coupé at  the Gautrain station in Sandton, but perhaps they just couldn’t handle it. 

Then there’s the new Z4, the one you see here and which I drove in M40i guise in Portugal recently. Now this one I like, and that’s because while it is stacked with tech, the new Z4 goes back to basics in many respects. 

قالب وردپرس