PUTTING IN A SHIFT

Can the addition of a manual gearbox and a raft of chassis mods transform BMW's Z4? And does it have the measure of its manual Toyota Supra cousin?

- JOHN BARKER

FITTING A MANUAL GEARBOX TO A LONG-established model makes little sense in the context of car makers' efforts to improve efficiency and lower their corporate CO2 levels. Today's automatic 'boxes deliver better economy and performance, essentially because they have a couple more ratios than a manual and can offer a more efficient use of power and torque. Shift speeds are faster than ever too, and if it's a DCT (dual-clutch transmission) the connection feel between the throttle and the driven wheels is as good as that of a manual gearbox.

Logically, then, a manual is regressive, a backward step, and yet, at the eleventh hour, after five years in production, BMW has decided to put a six-speed manual and three pedals in the six-cylinder Z4. Rather than saying 'why?', we say 'what took you so long?' because the Z4 isn't meant to be a practical, sensible choice, and a manual might give it some much-needed driver engagement and appeal.

Until now, you could only have the Z4 with an eight-speed ZF auto and, to be honest, it seemed to fit the aspirations of the model and its customers down to the ground. Why the change of heart? Probably not market pressure because the Z4 has consistently been the biggest seller in this roadster segment. It finds a big market in Germany, the UK and the US, and while we think of America as auto-dominated, it's a market that also believes that your sports car doesn't earn the title unless it's available with a stick shift and then, when you've gone to the effort of making one, doesn't buy it. Witness the E60 M5 having a manual 'box in the US only (the rest of us didn't miss much; it wasn't a slick shift), where it accounted for less than seven per cent of sales.