One-time finger exercise
When visiting classic collections of car brands, you sometimes come across special one-off models of car brands. Likewise with BMW. For example, there is a Z3 V12. BMW M once went public with it, by only posting some photos on Facebook in 2012. During a recent visit for a report on the extensive BMW Classics collection, the AutoBild colleagues learned a little more about the Z3 with V12.
The Z3 with an engine from the then 750iL is not the only surprise among all those beautiful, well-known BMW classics. For example, there is a car that looks suspiciously like a 7-series, and then again not. It looks like a 1987 E32, but just a little different. The nose is longer, so that a 16-cylinder (!) fits in the front. Its sister model even has a kind of gills at the back for cooling and listens to the name ‘Goldfisch’, which we already knew.
The BMW study based on a 7-series, just like the more ‘well-known’ Goldfisch with a V16 engine.
Z3 with V12 was a finger exercise
BMW Classics spokesman. Thiesbürger explains: “There are several cars here that were really just a finger exercise.” To see where the boundaries were. BMW has always given its engineers the necessary freedom of movement in that respect; they already experimented with an electric car in 1991 and two years later with a three-seater for the city, powered by a motorcycle engine. They even mounted a twelve-cylinder in a Z3 Roadster. “BMW always lets our technicians push the boundaries,” said the classic man. However, the 326 hp Z3 was a bit too much of a good thing in 2016. His assessment: “Challenging to drive, but too much weight on the front axle.” The BMW technicians managed to get a huge twelve-cylinder in the compact Z3. This special creation dates from 1999.
M Roadster just as strong as one off Z3 V12
BMW never supplied more than six cylinders in the Z3 and with the Z3 M Roadster with an M3 block, the brand did not need that V12 at all, because it had just as much power in its later days. And that heavy roadster certainly did not suffer from a heavy nose.
AC Schnitzer hung a V8 in a Z3
Yet not only at BMW people were walking around with the idea of delivering a Z3 with more than 6 cylinders. BMW tuner AC Schnitzer from Aachen, Germany, had the V8 Roadster. Exactly, a Z3 with V8. At the 1997 IAA, AC Schnitzer presented the Z3 with the V8 from the BMW 540i, and also adopted the manual gearbox that you could get with the E39 in combination with the 286 hp power source in some countries. The tuner’s blood of the company ensured that the power increased to 310 hp thanks to adjustments. But this V8 roadster could not stay ahead of the M Roadster with six-in-line either. The sprint from 0 to 100 km/h took 5.4 seconds, but the top speed of the V8 Roadster was higher: 265 km/h. The Z3 M Roadster was limited to 250 km/h.
The V8 Roadster from tuner AC Schnitzer.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl