BMW BLOG

Herald Sun Australia reports that the new BMW Z4 campaign, “Expression of Joy” has been banned from the TV stations. The reason: [the ad] “would encourage car hoons to spin and burn their tyres.” The entity that forced the ban is the Advertising Standard Bureau, the Australian’s advertising watchdog.

Now those of us that live in the U.S. might find that quite ridiculous since we’re used to seeing a large variety of TV ads that are at least morally questionable, but truth is that even after watching the Z4 “Expression of Joy” clip, we can’t see eye-to-eye with them. True, there is some spinning in the commercial, but it all revolves around slow paced circles that have a single purpose: to paint the surface underneath in order to create the art work envisioned by the artist Robin Rhode and director Jake Scott.

The interesting part is that the campaign is being used across the globe and it has been successfully running in the U.S or UK for quite some time now.

So the question is: are those people really that conservative? “The board noted that the advertisement does depict in a number of places the driver intentionally allowing the wheels of the car to lose traction and perform . . . a four-wheel drift”. Come on….seriously? Lose traction….drifting….this commercial is all about art and there is obviously no intention to promote any street racing, Tokyo drifting or whatever they want to call it…

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We’re starting this great week with lots and lots of BMW photos, from tuned up bimmers and new car photos, to state of art photography. Our buddy Gonzague over at Blogautomobile.fr took the BMW Z4 sDrive23i for a ride.

The sDrive23i is available for sale in Europe and it’s with the entry-level 2.5-liter straight-six engine which produces 201 horsepower and 184 lb-ft at 2,750 rpm. The car achieves a top speed of 151 mph and goes from 0 to 62 mph in 6.6 seconds.

In the U.K, the BMW Z4 sDrive23i has a base price of £28,645 or approximately$47,200.

So without any further ado, let’s enjoy these great photos, some of the best we have seen so far.

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Shortly after its official launch, the BMW Z4 has already won two awards, the first one at the Detroit Auto Show for the “Eyes on Design Awards”, then the “International red dot Design Award”. Yesterday,the nominations for the 2010 European Car Of The Year Award went out and the new 2009 BMW Z4 has been nominated among many others vehicles.

This year BMW has only one model on the list, but what vehicle that is…the Z4 has been very well received by everyone, from BMW owners and fans, to the online and offline media.

The contenders, that could be more than 30 by September, must be new models available in at least five European countries at the time of voting, with foreseeable minimum sales of 5,000 per year. Here are some of the vehicles nominated: Porsche Panamera, Lexus Rx450h, Volkswagen Polo, Mercedes E-Class, Nissan 370Z, Land Rover Discovery IV, Mazda 3, Ford Ka and many others.

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We are only few hours away from the start of the new season of Top Gear, the legendary British show that has established itself as the most influential motoring magazine in the world. None of this would have happened without its quirky and brisk main presenter Jeremy Clarkson whose comments and thoughts have polarized opinions of the public since he first came on the show.

However, Top Gear wasn’t always so eccentric and unique. Back in the early 90s, Top Gear was basically a TV motoring magazine like any other, but several conflicts between the presenters have caused some of the original cast to leave the show.

Shortly after, the outcasts (including current presenters Tiff Nedeel and Vicki Butler-Henderson) started their own project, a show in similar fashion like Top Gear named Fifth Gear, as they moved from BBC to Channel 5. As both shows progressed, Top Gear developed a more offbeat style, focusing on humor and unusual reviews, while Fifth Gear remained a traditional motoring magazine.

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We have to admit, we’re a bit amazed that the famous TopGear host, Jeremy Clarkson has actually given thumbs up to the new 2009 BMW Z4. For those of you that might not know, Mr. Clarkson has not been a fan of most of the BMW vehicles for quite some time now and with every new model it’s expected to go through his purgatory and most likely receive a passing grade at best.

But this time, in our opinion, there were not many negative elements that could be found about the new Z4, a state of art roadster, both interior wise and also exterior.

We know that not many of you have been his fans anymore for quite some time now, and we agree that he’s mostly an entertainer these days, but he has his good moments where his reviews can be objective and informative.

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It was just a matter of time until the German tuner G-Power will come out with their own version of the new 2009 BMW Z4.

The G-Power upgrades for the BMW Z4 sDrive35i include a power kit, wheel upgrades and even sportier suspensions.

G-POWER offers the performance module BI-TRONIK which pushes the factory 306 hp/400 Nm to 345 hp/480 Nm, far more impressive than the upgraded N54 engine (326 hp) found in the new 7 Series.

The straight line performance has clearly improved and the G-Power BMW Z4 runs from o-100 km/h(0-62mph) in only 4.7 seconds, a half a second faster than the stock model.

A performance set of MICHELIN Pilot Sport tires are fitted on 20 inch G-Power Silverstone Diamon wheels, 255/30 ZR 20 and 295/25 ZR 20.

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Shortly after the initial BMW Z4 review, Edmunds.com released their more detailed test drive of the new Z4 sDrive35i. As always, they offer lots of information and an objective analysis.

We won’t spoil the conclusion, but at the same time, we haven’t really seen any negative reviews of the Z4 yet, so you can draw the conclusion yourself.

What Works:
Stout 3.0-liter twin-turbo engine; refined ride and handling; cockpit space and layout; gracefully executed retractable hardtop; revamped iDrive.

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Even though the new BMW Z4 has been widely accepted and embraced by the BMW crowd, the older model E85 still remains in everyone’s hearts. The last Z4 Roadster built in the U.S. rolled off the production line back in August 2008 and new Z4 production moved over to Europe, more specifically at the Regensburg plant in Austria.

There were a little more than 9,300 Z4s built last year at Spartanburg and over the seven years production, but the Z4 lines will be replaced by the new X3, due to launch in 2010. The older and fist BMW Z4 was a drastically more modern car than the Z3 it replaced, with an increased overall size and more mature design.

And while we initially believed that the first generation Z4 will look really outdated when placed side-by-side with the new E89 Z4, we were wrong this time. Looking at the photos below, we can still see a fresh, modern design on the “old” Z4 and in our opinion, still very appealing.

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Shortly afterAutobild compared some of the most popular roadsters out there, the Michigan based felows at Car and Driver took this challenge a bit further. While the BMW Z4 is clearly a competitor to the Porsche Boxter S or the Audi TTS, we find intriguing the fact that the Chevrolet Corvette gets “thrown” in this comparison as well.

Are you still debating which roadster to choose? Having a difficult time comparing all the specs? How about pricing with options? Well, C&D has done a great job analyzing these beautiful roadsters, so let’s see what they had to say.

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Our friend Richard Aucock is back with another interesting and detailed article on the new 2009 BMW Z4. Some of you might recall his previous article on the Z4 chassis and some of the secrets behind the development of it, but this time, Richard talks a little about the new hardtop available on the Z4.

As a quick introduction, the new BMW Z4 uses the same technology as the one found in the new 3 Series Convertible which introduced the hardtop.

The Z4 features an aluminum retractable hardtop (20 seconds to deploy or retract) and the vehicle concept has been made larger to feature a new level of comfort, better storage space.

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