The Mazda Miata gets all the credit for restarting the roadster revolution. While the Miata is an important car and made the idea of a modern sports roadster mainstream, the first company out of the gate with a modern small sports car roadster was not Mazda, but in fact BMW. Case in point: our Pick of the Day is a 1989 BMW Z1 Roadster listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealer in Richmond, British Columbia.
The story of the Z1 is as amazing as the car itself, with the first surprise being that the Z1 went from the drawing board to production in only three years. Despite being a large company, BMW was able to move this fast because it started a division to specifically develop new vehicles called BMW Technik GmbH. This was essentially a small startup inside a large company and, as a result, they had a greater degree of freedom and could act much quicker than they would have if the Z1 were a standard development-cycle BMW. The director of BMW Technik GmbH was none other than Ulrich Bez, known now for helping to launch the Porsche 993 and then moving to Aston Martin, where he essentially relaunched the company. Bez oversaw the Z1’s development until 1988, when Klaus Faust — the lead designer of the Z1 Harm Lagaay — took over the project.
The seller describes this Z1 as being painted in its original Top Red. The model introduced a number of BMW technological firsts, such as the use of full composite body panels, drop-down doors, and a multilink rear suspension, fitted to a roadster with a daring design that, at the time, was highly unexpected from the otherwise conservative Bavarian carmaker. This all-original two-seater currently shows only 8,147 kilometers (5,157 miles).
Unlike the Miata, the Z1 is powered not by an inline four-cylinder, but instead by the naturally aspirated M20B25 SOHC 2.5-liter inline six-cylinder engine. That engine delivers 168 horsepower and 164 lb-ft of torque. It is backed by a Getrag 260/5 five-speed manual transmission, which the seller states shifts smoothly.
Open the slide-down door with the push of a button and you’ll see the original camouflage with leather insert pattern interior and body-colored seat backs. Behind the three-spoke leather steering wheel are four individual gauges mounted in the BMW tradition, with a prominent 7,000-rpm tachometer and a 240-kph speedometer.
A few years back BMW loaned me a Z1 from their collection for Monterey Car Week. A fun feature of the Z1 is that you can drive the car with the doors and windows up, doors up only, or the doors and windows completely retracted. Behind the wheel with the doors retracted, it feels more like a four-wheeled motorcycle than a car. It is one of the most fun vehicles I have ever driven, and the sense of speed behind the wheel, especially with the doors dropped, is unlike any other street car I have experienced (except possibly a Morgan).
This looks to be a true collector-grade Z1, as everything cosmetically is original, and having only 8,147 kilometers on the clock means it is not even broken in yet. The engine compartment looks to be in excellent shape, with nothing changed or modified. It looks just as it was when this car was new.
This 1989 BMW Z1 is one of the coolest BMWs I can think of to drive from the spring to the fall and take to (or show at) many car events. When I parked it on the street during Monterey Car Week, it drew a crowd much larger than this example’s $85,900 asking price would seem to justify, purely because the Z1 is so neat and quirky. The fact it is also a great driver’s car with good performance and provides stupid fun behind the wheel means it is likely to be a great long-term collector car that will continue to bat above its pay grade at shows and other collector car events.
Click here to view this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com
