Is it a BIRD ?.... Is it a PLANE ?...... (archive)

Thanks for posting the extract from article.
I am starting to enjoy driving the car. Up till now I have had very mixed feelings about the driving-experience, and 'pleasurable' was not at the top of the list. As I've gained confidence in the car, I've found that only when you're really "caining-it" does it start to give some enjoyable feed-back. The down-side is, in the UK it's not leagl to do 90mph+ through winding country roads.... Also, it's not a lot of fun for the passenger when you're chucking-it through the bends at those speeds. Having done over 360 miles in it this weekend, I still feel the seats are unacceptably uncomfortable. For me it's going to be a "love-hate" relationship with this car.

I got some great car photos in Snowdonia and hope to put them into a gallery before this weekend.

Regards
Adam.

I dont know if you saw the Automobile Mag review this past May. If you did then skip the following. If not, I am going to quote the last few paragraphs, which I think really does sum up the Z8: (I ordinarily dont like to do such long quotes but it really does sum it up well)

[begin quote]
In the end, its difficult to know what to make of the Z8. As with a boulevard art car, you'll never take its striking appearance for granted, especially since BMW apparently intends to build about 5000 Z8s over the next four years (about 1600 of which will come to the United States beginning in June) before it halts production. Like a GT car, the Z8 is refined, comfortable, and practical enough to drive great distances, or even just every day. And like a sports car, it has a terrific engine and the ability to get places very quickly.

The way it turns out, the BMW Z8 fits into your imagination much better if you discard any references to the Porsche 911. This is not a lightweight sports car with scalpel-sharp responses. The Z8 comes from the same place in time as the Aston Martin DB7 and the Ferrari 550 Maranello, when designers threw off their shackles and began to design fast cars with great big engines. And while they were in the process of discarding the notion of mid-engine sports with small, high revving engines, they got rid of the pared-down, less-is-more, hard-bitten approach to chassis development. If your reference point is a Porsche 911, you'll find yourself troubled by the Z8's composure on the road, the silken but deliberate feel of its steering, and the sensation of driving a car from somewhere near the rear axle. But if you like to drive, you'll understand the Z8 as soon as you get to the end of the block.

The BMW Z8 just isn't like anything else. It's different-- singular. This might not be exactly the word that Carl-Peter Forster [BMW's VP of production] is looking for, because it doesn't have the sound of big box office in it. But it is the kind of word that people who drive cars are always hoping for.

[end qoute]

I added the italics to the "you'll understand the Z8" part but the other part had italics in the article.

My first and continuing impression of the car is "fantastic" and its not because it out handles other cars- like my M5 (which it doesnt)- its because the sensation of driving it is fantastic.

Follow Ups:

Re: Is it a BIRD ?.... Is it a PLANE ?...... M5Man 05:57 10/25/2000 (1)
- opps- I posted under the M5 board name Z8Mania 05:58 10/25/2000 (0)

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