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BMW enthusiasts have long been waiting for a true BMW sports car — one that can compete against high-end vehicles from Porsche, Aston Martin, Maserati and the likes. The closest that BMW has created so far is the Z4. But though it has beautiful proportions, it has a hard rooftop and more weight than a regular high-end sports car. Rumor has it that BMW is considering a Z2 for this purpose and a FWD platform.
Automobile Magazine reports that BMW officials has decided to develop the Z2 on the FWD platform, together with the Mini Roadster and Coupe. If this indeed happens, here are some advantages and disadvantages that BMW can consider according to the same magazine:
Initially, BMW planned to build the Z2 on the brand’s upcoming front-wheel-drive architecture. However, the mere rumor of a front-wheel-drive BMW sports car raised enough of an outcry within the enthusiast community that BMW officials are now considering two far better options. The first would be to continue developing the car on this platform, alongside the Mini Roadster and Coupe, but to take a page from Audi and make it four-wheel drive.Among the undisputed advantages of this strategy are (1) a short path to production (spring 2014 for a ragtop roadster, fall 2014 for a coupe version), (2) the traction bonus inherent to four-wheel drive, and (3) the economies of scale offered by hitching up to a high-volume architecture. On the debit side, it’s hard to ignore the usual weight, space, and cost penalties of adding driveshafts and other associated hardware.
Plan B scraps all that and pushes the launch back to 2015 or even 2016. That’s the bad news. The good news is that this route revolves around rear-wheel drive. The key is the next 1-series. Although the European-market hatchback 1-series will definitely move to front-wheel drive to compete better with the Volkswagen Golf and the like, BMW is now thinking that the coupe and the convertible should stay rear-wheel drive permanently and perhaps become the 2-series. (Indeed, the company just filed a trademark for the M2 name.) The Z2, of course, fits the new nomenclature to perfection and would share the 2-series platform. The Z2 would feature three different 2.0-liter four-cylinder gasoline engines rated from 170 to 270 hp.
