The weather must be getting nice in Germany, because BMW is testing Z4 prototypes at the Nürburgring with the top down. And we're not sure if it's the nice weather or something else, but BMW has also become more lax with interior camouflage. This particular prototype hardly had anything covered, allowing us to see the production-ready interior.
But before we dig deep into the interior, let's take a quick look at the outside. It doesn't offer many revelations, but we can see that the top just folds on top of itself, using the outside fabric to function as a cover. This should make for a quickly closing top that isn't overly complicated. We can also see that this is a more aggressive-looking model than some we've seen previously. The lip of each lower grille opening juts down farther than those of previously seen prototypes. There's also additional vents on each edge of the rear bumper. If we had to guess, this is probably the higher-performance model. It's probably not a full M model, but it may incorporate M somewhere in its name, a la M240i, M750iL.
Moving to the interior, we see that it's very much a BMW interior, but updated for the modern era. It has an enormous infotainment screen at the top, and the instrument panel also uses a screen. Unlike current BMW instrument screens, this one has no plastic additions to simulate the look of physical gauges. It also doesn't have the traditional round shape for the dials that current panels have. Instead, the virtual dials have a hexagonal look, much like the design in the Z4 concept. The steering wheel, shifter, and most of the switch gear look to be typical BMW, and it's all arranged in a plain center stack canted toward the driver. The vents have a bit more detail and are more geometric than other BMW vents. There's also clearly a lot of red leather accents buried beneath what coverings there are in the car.
We're still expecting to see the production Z4 revealed sometime this year. At least one version will be powered by the same turbocharged inline-6 as the Toyota Supra. There will likely be a turbocharged four-cylinder engine also available, and both engines will be coupled to automatic transmissions.
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But before we dig deep into the interior, let's take a quick look at the outside. It doesn't offer many revelations, but we can see that the top just folds on top of itself, using the outside fabric to function as a cover. This should make for a quickly closing top that isn't overly complicated. We can also see that this is a more aggressive-looking model than some we've seen previously. The lip of each lower grille opening juts down farther than those of previously seen prototypes. There's also additional vents on each edge of the rear bumper. If we had to guess, this is probably the higher-performance model. It's probably not a full M model, but it may incorporate M somewhere in its name, a la M240i, M750iL.
Moving to the interior, we see that it's very much a BMW interior, but updated for the modern era. It has an enormous infotainment screen at the top, and the instrument panel also uses a screen. Unlike current BMW instrument screens, this one has no plastic additions to simulate the look of physical gauges. It also doesn't have the traditional round shape for the dials that current panels have. Instead, the virtual dials have a hexagonal look, much like the design in the Z4 concept. The steering wheel, shifter, and most of the switch gear look to be typical BMW, and it's all arranged in a plain center stack canted toward the driver. The vents have a bit more detail and are more geometric than other BMW vents. There's also clearly a lot of red leather accents buried beneath what coverings there are in the car.
We're still expecting to see the production Z4 revealed sometime this year. At least one version will be powered by the same turbocharged inline-6 as the Toyota Supra. There will likely be a turbocharged four-cylinder engine also available, and both engines will be coupled to automatic transmissions.
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