Of all the cars to come out of the retro design boom from the turn of the millennium, few have aged as gracefully as the BMW Z8. And even fewer have appreciated in value to the same extent.
Styled to resembled BMW’s classic 507 roadster from the late 1950s, packing 5.0-liters of M5 V8 under the hood, and immortalized on film thanks to a co-starring role as Pierce Brosnan’s sidekick in The World Is Not Enough, the Z8, on paper, at least, seemed to have it all.
And judging from the prices the cars are currently changing hands for, plenty of people still agree. Hagerty Insurance’s valuation tool suggests a Z8 is worth $163,000 in good condition, $209,000 if it’s excellent, and $273,000 in concours-winning fettle.
See the Z8 in pictures, or even better, in the metal, and you might well thinks it’s worth every penny. Drive it, and I’m convinced you’ll think otherwise. This is not a maverick, provocative opinion. Journalists who drove the Z8 when it was new were also left a little underwhelmed by how surprisingly un-sporty this flagship BMW sports car felt.
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Which also makes the rise in values interesting. I can’t think of many cars, or at least not many relatively modern cars that left critics so underwhelmed, that are now so desirable. Maybe current prospective buyers, much like me before I’d driven one, didn’t want to believe those reports. How could it not be incredible to drive when it looks that good? But I finally popped my Z8 cherry a couple of years ago at the launch of the current Z4, and had to accept the truth. The Z8 just isn’t that fun.
M5 Power, 318i Wimper
First, there’s the engine. Lifted from the almost universally loved E39 M5, it’s a 5.0-liter naturally aspirated V8 that makes 395 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque. Even in the M5, I never thought this S62 V8 was anywhere near as exciting or characterful as the V10 that came later, or the V8 that went into the 2008 M3. But it’s still a great engine, big hearted and thankfully, you’d think, connected to the M5’s six-speed manual transmission.
It was also plenty powerful enough to push the Z8 to 62mph in 4.7 seconds according to BMW’s figures, and to 60mph in just 4.2 seconds on Motor Trend’s watch. So why did it sound so muted? What noise the Z8 does make is great, but it’s crying out for some extra volume.
But it’s the chassis that really disappointed period testers, and coming to it as I was, in the modern era of hyper-quick steering racks, it’s probably even more disappointing now. Twist the wheel to fire the nose into an apex and you suddenly realize you need a load more arm action than you were expecting.
Yeah, you’re thinking, but steering feel was so much better on those old hydraulically assisted steering cars. Not in this case. BMW’s 5-series sedans of the time featured numb recirculating ball steering for V8 models (including the M5), and rack and pinion on the straight sixes.
The V8-powered Z8, though, lucked out with a rack and pinion setup. And still managed to deliver almost no satisfying steering feel and a surprising amount of understeer. The upshot of that being the Z8 is far less fun on a twisty road than you want or that you hope it will be. Interestingly, it was also less fun than the even older Z1 I tried the same day.
So What’s The Z8 Good For?
That’s a shame, and it’s why it’s here as one of my most disappointing cars. But that’s also not the whole story. Because with any car, and particularly with cars like the Z8 that are designed to thrill your other senses, how it behaves when you’re hooning down a mountain road is just one aspect.
And make no mistake, the Z8 is a thrill, just in a different way. It’s one of those cars you could spend hours just looking at, walking backwards and forwards drinking in every detail. The exterior styling still looks fresh, when other retro designs haven’t fared so well. Just look at those rear lights; they still look sharp more than 20 years later.
Even the interior, which is where older luxury cars really tend to show their age, still looks really impressive. BMW really laid the retro style on heavy here with a vintage-effect steering wheel, laid-back dashboard and centrally-mounted gauge cluster. Maybe some of the aluminum effect plastics look a little cheap, but this is still a great place to sit.
And if it’s not necessarily a great place to sit when you’re cranking hard into turns, it is a great environment for taking things a little slower, surfing the V8’s thick wave of torque and just drinking in the admiring glances of passers by. Adjust your expectations, accept that it’s not going to deliver a killer sports car experience, and maybe the Z8 isn’t so disappointing after all.
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But I know that if BMW built the Z8 today it would feel like a totally different car. I was lucky enough to spend seven months in an M8 Gran Coupe, a car that managed to feel luxurious and athletic at the same time. What a great basis for a Z8 that would make.
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