T.C. Kline's Z4 Carbon Coupe competes at SCCA Solo II Champs
Some may remember the Z4 Carbon Roadster we featured on this page a while back. Produced by Ohio-based BMW tuner T.C. Kline, the Carbon Roadster is basically a heavily modified Z4 less 500 lbs. thanks to a body completely reskinned in carbon fiber. Autoblog reader Ron D. attended this year's SCCA Solo II National Championships, at which he spotted a Z4 Carbon Coupe being campaigned by T.C. Kline himself and Alan McCrispin in the SM2 class. They fared well with Kline finishing 8th and McCrispin 5th out of 13 competitors, including the car crowned champion, a 1993 Mazda RX-7 with a rear spoiler larger than a Cessna wing (see pic after the jump).
We have no information on the Carbon Coupe, but T.C. Kline's website is flashing pictures of the car on its front page. We assume that it shares all mechanicals with the Carbon Roadster, which means the aforementioned carbon fiber reskin that pushes out the fenders to accommodate 18-inch wheels, an aluminum flywheel, custom thin wall stainless steel exhaust that ups power to 346 HP, KONI coil overs, Performance Friction brakes, and Recaro seats. The only difference we see is the roof, which appears to be naked carbon fiber contrasting with the rest of the body's bright orange hue. The Roadster was produced in a limited run of 100 units, so we'd assume the Carbon Coupe is available to buy as well, though no word on whether it costs more or less than the Roadster's $95,000 price tag.
Follow the jump for more pics of the T.C. Kline Carbon Coupe, including shots of it racing at the Solo II Champs courtesy of Ron D.
[Source: T.C. Kline]
PHOTO GALLERY:
Winning 1993 Mazda RX-7 with Cessna-sized rear wing
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Crackshot 9:12PM (10/20/2006)
You weren't kidding, that wing could make my house fly
but the Z4 carbon is a awesome looking car...i just wish i could afford it
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DPC car videos 9:58PM (10/20/2006)
This car is all race, love the brakes.
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Corey 12:33AM (10/21/2006)
That cars pretty sweet. Too bad bwm didn't offer a hardtop Z4 as well as mazda should bring the hardtop mx-5 here. Both cars without the extra weight from the flop top would be welcome.
http://www.YourFreeVideoiPods.com/index.php?ref=3559339
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Chris 1:44AM (10/21/2006)
Geez, that wing just has to be pointlessly big. It makes even the Super GT RX-7 look super tame by comparison, and that's a championship winning race car (similar to FIA GT2 class).
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Richard 11:27AM (10/21/2006)
RE: The RX7 rear wing. It is not pointlessly big. Autocross cars run at much lower speeds than race cars. Downforce is ALL important. Drag is of no concern. Plus size limitations ( if any at all ) are much, much more liberal than in Road Racing classes.
SAE Formula classes ( Autocross ) have even re-written the Aeronautical books on downforce to drag ratios and stall angles. Seems the standard rules don't apply under about 70mph.
If you want to see one of the cars that rewrote the book and started a small revolution in SCCA cars, have a look at this feature on " The Phantom". Multiple SCCA A-Mod Championship car....and still competitive to date. Now those are some " WINGS" !!!
http://www.napylon.com/Phantom.htm
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Peter 8:17AM (10/21/2006)
#4- it would be pointlessly big for a road race car, because speeds are much higher on a typical road course. Speed profile for Solo2 events is usually 30-70mph, and to generate any useful amount of downforce at the upper end of that range you need a lot of wing. 5 time national champion Andy McKee (in the Mazda) does a lot of testing and is not the sort of guy who would run that park bench for show :)
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Leo 8:33AM (10/21/2006)
that Mazda sure is an UGLY car.
the Z4 is almost as UGLY
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rv65 1:14PM (10/21/2006)
poor rx7
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TuffGuy Bill 3:07PM (10/21/2006)
Um, to all you dumba$$es making fun of the RX7 wing, keep in mind that that was the car that won the SM2 National Championship, beating TC Klines car by about 6 seconds. The RX7 driver would not have the big wing on there if it didn't provide some sort of benefit. It probably weighs quite a bit, so if the downforce didn't help more than hurt, he'd definitely remove the wing.
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terry 12:59AM (10/22/2006)
But autocross is 80% driver. I have seen a stock base mini cooper beat a couple ofz06's by a 3-4 second margin and take one of the fastests times of the day. The wing wont have that much of an effect in an autocross.
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rdike 2:18PM (10/23/2006)
80% driver? - maybe at a local or regional level. Once you get to the national championships the level of competition goes up significantly and everyone is after the same thing, winning. When a specific modification allows braking a fraction of a second later or 1mph faster through a course feature, it could mean the difference between winning and coming in 5th. Beleive me, these guys wouldn't have them if they didn't work simply due to the amount of weight they add.
With regard to the Z4 Carbon Coupe, it was one of the best looking cars there, IMHO. Tops was probably the 1970 Mustang Boss 302 (no. 55) run by Graden Obenour. What a work of art.
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John 9:24AM (10/22/2006)
Terry, this isn't a local event. Many of the drivers are as good or better than the guy in the MINI in your example. You can't get away with bringing a car that's not top-notch.
If you all think that's big you should see the wing on the champion SM car! (the sedan class)
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Hoss 11:35AM (10/23/2006)
We saw this car at the BMW Roadster Homecoming in South Carolina this past Labor Day weekend. It looks much tougher in person than the pics. Seriously bad arse ride. Think the feller from T.C. Kline said it would be ~$95k.
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Alan McCrispin 8:47AM (10/30/2006)
Hi all,
I was T.C.'s Co driver at Topeka in the Coupe. To dispel the miths...Price $98,000.00. Weight reduction-300 lbs. Hood, front & rear fenders, door skins, nose and tail are all Carbon. The roof and deck lid are still steel in these photos, as the carbon parts were not out of the mold yet but should be by now.
On the wing thing...TC is old schools and just isn't going to put one on what is really a street car. In testing other competitors found that the cheapest wing aluminum wing set to best guess angles was worth 3/10ths right out of the box...I was 4ths per course behind the 3rd & 4th place cars!
The power number is about correct as are the other specs. The car was fantastic to drive, I would have like more than the 300 seconds (6-runs) that I got in the car.
The car is going to be at SEMA (not sure what booth).
As with all of TC's projects, this was top drawer. Thank you TC for letting me drive it.
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