BMW Z4 SDrive20i Steptronic

Less power but more appeal: the four-cylinder Z4 is an altogether better balanced package than its big brother

- Gareth Dean, Wilhelm Lutjeharms, Nicol Louw & Ryan Bubear

Now that we’re well acquainted with the long-awaited rear-wheel-drive sportscar collaboration between BMW and Toyota – see our test of the Z4 M40i in last month’s issue – it’s time to dial things back and see what its mellower four-cylinder stablemate is all about.

While the subjective sentiment around the CAR office is that the punch and snarling timbre of a BMW inline-six has few parallels, in the Z4’s case it actually may not be the best powerplant in this application. The 2,0-litre four-cylinder turboprop's 145 kW may not sound like much, but allied as it is with a useful 320 N.m of torque chiming in at just 1 450 r/min, it feels deceptively punchy. Indeed, the 6,53-second 0-100 km/h sprint time it posted on our test strip managed to raise an eyebrow or two. With peak power available relatively low (4 500 r/min) in the rev range, the engine feels tractable and responds quickly to inputs from the paddle shifters. Consequently, overtaking fast-moving traffic isn’t the hope-and-pray exercise you’d expect.