BMW Zagato Roadster: official

It's a BMW Z4 Jim, but not as we know it. Moments after the rather delectable Zagato Coupe catapulted itself high on your Want List earlier this year, BMW and Zagato top brass immediately decided to do a follow-up; something for the summer.

In just six weeks, they knocked out the drop-top beauty in the picture above. Meet the BMW Zagato Roadster, unveiled at Pebble Beach in California. Six weeks.

As with its Coupe predecessor, the Zag' Roadster is all about the style, elements of which you'd probably need to poke around in real life to appreciate fully. Sitting on a BMW Z4 base (with a likely turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six underneath), the Roadster features a low, shouty face with a supersized version of Bee-Em's now infamously huge kidney grille. And as with the Coupe, the grille is filled with miniature ‘Z' emblems.

See more pics of the BMW Zagato Roadster

From there, you'll notice how the design sweeps back to the rather delectable rear with its shallow black band and darkened diffuser, replete with a pair of exhaust tailpipes set out to maximise the width.

And there's a nod to both companies' heritage too; those 19in light alloy wheels were designed to reflect a "hint of propeller', because of course, BMW has a history in aviation, along with Zagato founder Ugo Zagato who took an "airborne route into automotive contruction". The roll bars reference an aircraft wing too.

The paint's a bit special, though its inspiration perhaps references an icon of cinema less graceful than aviation: ‘liquid metal', that wraps around the Zagato Roadster like a ‘cloak'. Hmmm, somebody notify Sarah Connor...

Inside it's the typical leather-fest that adorns any luxury auto, with a "clear structuring that you would expect from BMW", apparently inviting the driver to "give the machine a thorough workout". Quite.

Shame then, you won't be able to give it a workout, as its not been scheduled for a production run anytime soon. Not unless, that is, you urge the wealthy and powerful of this world to persuade BMW and Zagato to do the honourable thing...