I wouldn’t mind seeing a harder-edged purer enthusiast’s ///M Z4, but only for a couple of reasons.
- Better suspension, brakes and steering than the current offerings. Although one can do one’s own suspension tuning, and better aftermarket front brakes may be forthcoming, the adaptive steering is a tougher nut to crack.
- The remote possibility they might shave some weight and make a pure coupe. This will yield a stiffer chassis as well.
As far as a V8, it really doesn’t do much for me. The F1 purest says “Yes” I want it for the pure beauty of the thing. On the other hand, from a pure performance point of view, I’m not going to be tracking the car on a regular basis just so I could ring out one or two last horses at 8,500 RPM. Other than that what use is that beautiful V8? As I mentioned in other threads, a performance street car needs heaps of torque rather than horsepower at the top end of the power band (don’t bother I know the arguments), so really the N54 is a nice ///M engine.
One has to ask: is BMW really going to make a better street ///M N54 than I can do myself? I think the 35is is a nice package, but from a pure performance standpoint I’m disappointed with its torque – a short little overboost?! As noted, a Dinan Stage II really is right where you want to be with no limitations. Torque well over 400 lb-ft and horsepower is in a nice range for street use.
My sense is they may bring out a ///M but it will be primarily a marketing stunt to get the last ///M hardcore holdouts. Unless they address the points above I will be disappointed. I don’t buy the cost prohibitive argument – look at a nicely spec’d Porsche 997 or Boxster/Cayman –$100k+ US. Nobody even bats an eye.
If BMW pulls out the stops and doesn’t try to walk that fine line between a ///M badged high end boulevard cruser with a little more pep vs a real canyon carving performer, they will get the sales and maybe in bigger numbers than the previous ///M Z4.