{"id":96791,"date":"2022-04-20T11:46:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T11:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/bmw-z1\/"},"modified":"2022-04-26T07:27:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T07:27:07","slug":"bmw-z1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/en\/bmw-z1\/","title":{"rendered":"BMW Z1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

35 years ago, a vehicle was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) that hardly anyone would have expected from BMW. The Z1 joined the then upcoming roadster boom, but brought a completely new element to the market: retractable doors. The option of driving the 170-hp plastic sports car with the doors open was also a complete innovation. Thirty years after the 507, BMW had pulled off another coup. In today’s street scene, BMW’s Z roadsters are almost commonplace. Whether Z3, Z4 or now and then a Z8, these vehicles have long since found their circle of customers and fans. It all began at the 1987 IAA, where the presentation of the BMW Z1 ended a 30-year phase without a sporty, two-seater roadster from Munich. But was this really the beginning? If you take a closer look at BMW’s company history, you quickly discover that the project for the “Z1” began back in 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think Tank for good ideas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-1980s, the BMW board of management decided that the company’s most capable designers, engineers and technicians should be allowed to perform at their best in a kind of “think tank” outside the factory walls. Thus, about five minutes’ drive from the company’s Munich headquarters, BMW Technik GmbH was born. Immediately after its founding at the beginning of 1985, the initial 60-strong team set to work on an initial concept that focused on different vehicle structures, new types of materials and shorter development times. Project name? Z1. An open-top roadster prototype was completed at the same time as the first stationary model of a Z1 Coup\u00e9 with shooting brake design. The unanimous opinion on the BMW board: “This roadster could be the long-missing next BMW sports car.” Accordingly, the marching orders were quickly given for further development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom on wheels reinterpreted<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the summer of 1986, the first drivable prototype was put into operation and simultaneously published by BMW in the press. The resulting flood of orders should have been foreseeable. Many BMW fans had been waiting for a worthy successor of the 507 or even the 328 Roadster for a long time. But even the company in Munich was surprised by the number of pre-orders. The vehicle, on the other hand, was beyond reproach. The board of directors had specified that a young, dynamic and cheeky car should be designed. It was to embody freedom on four wheels as far as possible. The engineers had created a lightweight and, at 49:51, almost perfectly balanced sports car, which the designers fitted with a wedge-shaped body. The vertically opening sliding doors retracted into the sills.<\/p>\n\n\n

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