BMW BLOG

Our friend Jonathan Spira over at ExecutiveRoadWarrior is currently enjoying an exciting trip into the Austrian Land and to make this trip even more interesting, he decided to experience the famous austrian vineyards behind the wheel of a new BMW Z4 sDrive23i.

Here is a short summary on the austrian vineyards: “While Austria is synonymous to many for music and culture, its wines don’t have the renown that those of other European countries have.  Austria has, however, 51,213 hectares of vineyards, mostly in the eastern part of the country.

I’m visiting  the province of Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), which has over 31,000 hectares of vineyards, to be followed by a visit to Vienna (over 600 hectares but it’s the only capital city in the world to have its own wine region) and then I will visit the Burgenland, which has over 15,000 hectares.”

Trip Part 1

Next stop in his trip, the Austrian capital, Vienna, of course, a trip aboard the Z4.

“First order of business: top down. The top takes only 20 seconds to retract and it appears far more robust than earlier generation retractable hardtops, which seemed a bit fragile in construction. The interior features generous amounts of space; even with the top up, I never felt claustrophobic. With the top down, which is the way this car is meant to be driven, the cabin isn’t overly noisy or draft; with the top up, you would never know you were in a convertible.

The Z4 comes with a choice of two engines in the U.S., the naturally-aspirated 3.0-liter inline-six with 190 kW/258 hp at 6,600 rpm and 310 Nm/228 pound-feet of torque at 2,570, and the twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six with 225 kW/306 hp at 5,800 rpm and 400 Nm/295 pound-feet from 1,300-5,000 rpm. The NA engine does 0-100 km/h in 5.8 seconds; the twin-turbo does it in 5.2. My Z4 had a third power plant, offered in many European markets, a 2.5-liter inline six that produces 150 kW/204 hp at 6,200 rpm and 250 Nm/184 pound-feet of torque at 2,950 rpm, with 0-100 km/h in 6.6 seconds (manual transmission).”

You can read his second report here.