BMW Z4 review

Six cylinders. Those two words take you a long way into the appeal of the M40i. It revs to 7,000rpm, and all the sensations – in the pull of it and the sound of it – say it's pretty darned chuffed to be doing so. Use the paddles why don't you.

And when you enjoy the engine's generosity, the chassis can easily cope. As promised, there's enormous grip, and the suspension keeps a vigilant eye on body roll and float. The steering is high geared – gets even more so on lock too – but it acts intuitively so you can always aim the car with lovely accuracy, and even small efforts will thread it into a tight bend with the immense forces those tyres can generate.

Only thing is, the steering doesn't bring back a whole big lot of sensation from the front wheels. That job is left up to the back end. You feel the e-diff working as you lean onto the power, the rear half of the Z4 crouching down and neatly holding onto the edge of traction as it bleeds out of a bend.

The engineers say the handling target was the M2. I don't think the Z4 is quite that transparent, but it's that capable.

Unlike the M2, the Z4 M40i has adaptive dampers, so full-on recreational driving isn't its only happy place. Even in the sport mode, where you get clearly sharper turn-in, the dampers allow the suspension to relax a certain amount on the straights. In comfort mode, things really become remarkably supple, rounding off most of what a broken surface throws at it.

So the Z4's chassis relaxes nicely into commuting or long-haul work. And while you're at it, the driver aids and headlamps are all you'd expect from modern German premium.