BMW Z1: Where it all began

For the launch of the new Z4 sDrive 28i, BMW brought out a bit of a history in the Z1, which started the company on its trip down the Z roadster path. The car came from the company's collection in Munich. With only 10,000 miles showing on the odometer, journalists were turned loose with just a gentle word of caution to try and not break anything.

The Z1 was introduced to the public at the 1987 Frankfurt motor show, with production cars coming the following year. The two-seater broke ground with several new technologies for the company, including a smooth composite undertray that helps with the aerodynamics of the vehicle and plastic body panels that are removable from the chassis. In fact, at the time, BMW suggested owners could buy different-colored body parts and swap them out as they liked.

The car has unique doors that, rather than swinging outward, drop down into the high sill. You can drive with the doors up or down, although with the doors up we found the overall stiffness of the chassis improved a bit, not to mention there was less wind buffeting the cabin.

But one of the big surprises in driving the car was just how solid the car felt. You really had to find some rough patches of road to get a wiggle out of the chassis. There are few 23-year-old ragtops that feel as solid as this car.

Driving the car around the Monterey Peninsula in the days leading up to the Pebble Beach concours, the Z1 drew quite a bit of attention. For a car nearly a quarter-century old, its shape--especially the wedge nose--draws lookers, as do the unique drop doors. Cruising Carmel Valley Road and Highway 1, we received more thumbs-up than we could count.

BMW sold 8,000 copies of the Z1, but none were legally sold in the United States. Those side doors and the plastic parts reportedly would never have passed U.S. side-impact safety standards.

Under the hood is a 2.5-liter inline-six that makes 168 hp and 161 lb-ft. The engine is mated with a smooth-shifting five-speed manual. Both components were straight out of the BMW 325i.

The dash is simple and straightforward, with the gauges looking as if they were taken from the company's motorcycle division. The leather covering over the bucket seats has a distinctive, almost paisley pattern in it. It was crazy times back in the 1980s.

The shifter felt a little rubbery, and the brakes cannot be compared with what is on its Z4 sibling, but overall, driving the car was a terrific amount of fun. It fired right up and went all afternoon.

We hated having to exchange the keys for those to one of the new Z4s, but if you squint, you can see the family lineage, a couple of generations removed.

By Roger Hart