BMW Z cars: Roadsters and Coupes, a design and development history

Book has a lot of good historic information the early BMW Z4's. A must read.

This is the eighth book Jackie Jouret has written about BMW history. Four have been done to accompany exhibitions at the BMW CCA Foundation:1. Heroes of Bavaria: 75 Years of BMW Motorsport2. The ICON: 50 Years of the BMW 20023. PASSION: 50 Years of BMW Cars and Community4. GENESIS: BMW From the BeginningIn addition, she has self-published:5. The BMW 2002: The real story behind the legend6. Finding Elvis’s 507: The quest for the world’s most famous BMW7. BMW in the 20th Century: The people and products that made the companyI’ve read them all. I appreciate the research Jackie does. She consults the factory archives and interviews the protagonists when they’re still alive. And she’s done a great job at setting the record straight in many cases and overturning urban legends that weren’t true.This book is, as the title indicates, about the BMW Z cars, including the Z1, Z3, Z4, Z8 and i8. In the case of the Z4, it includes all three generations. There is also the background of the BMW roadsters prior to the Z1; clear back to the 3/15 Warburg of 1930; the first BMW roadster. The i8, while not given a Z name, is a roadster and is included.The book’s subtitle is A design and development history, and Jackie does provide the circumstances that led to the development of each Z car. This leads to some interesting sidebars, such as the GINA concept car with the shape-shifting fabric body. There are also sidebars about the Z07 concept that preceded the Z8, the Mille Miglia Concept from 2006, the 328 Hommage, and the Zagato Coupe and Roadster.I think I know a lot about BMW’s history, so I’m always delighted when I can learn something new. In Jackie’s books I always learn new things. For example, I thought the Z in Z1 stood for Zukunft, German for future. It turns out, ZT was the internal designation for BMW Technik, the think tank where the Z1 was conceived. Project numbers there started with Z with a single digit after the Z for big projects, two digits for medium-sized projects and three digits for small projects. Z1 was simply the first big project at Technik. The project name was used for the model name. Once the car was approved for production, it needed an official Entwicklung (development) number. Because the Z1 used so many E30 parts, it was assigned the internal designation E30/Z.The book is printed in black and white with a color, softbound cover, to keep the cost down—only $29.95 and available through Amazon.

Well researched and written history of BMW Z cars. Makes for an enjoyable read. Good illustrations (color would be nice). My only complaint? Pictures are not captioned, you have to read the text. So, if you’re like me and enjoy reading but also perusing the book by scanning the pictures and captions - well, you’re out of luck. But that aside, if you’re a BMW Z fan, this is a must-have for your personal library. Great book.

I enjoyed the book. A very good history of BMW roadsters.

good history of the BMW Z cars

foto in bianco e nero...peccato.

El libro es detallado y los datos han sido concienzudamente preparados. Es una referencia para los amantes de los roadsters y propietarios de un BMW serie Z.

Lo voy a devolver, estamos en 2022, en serio en blanco y negro?

Libro en blanco y negro. Parece hecho artesanalmente en una imprenta de barrio o copisteria, con tapa blanda, esta si, a color. No da la impresión de un libro hecho por una "editorial"Otra cosa es el contenido, que aún no he leído