The BMW Z8 is a convertible sports car automobile produced by BMW from 1999 to 2003
The Z8 originated from a prototype designated Z07 showcased at the Tokyo Auto Show in 1997. The car was originally designed as a styling exercise to show how the BMW 507 of the 1950s might have evolved had it remained in the product line.
The overwhelming popularity of the prototype show-car led to the decision to put the car into limited production, to be designated Z8. The car was featured in the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough in late 1999. About 5000 Z8s were built, with about half of them exported to the USA.
The $130,000 car had an all aluminum chassis and body and includes a 5.0 litre(4941cc), 400 horsepower (300 kW) 32 valve V8 built by the BMW Motorsports subsidiary (transplanted directly from the E39 M5). Performance specs touted a 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) time of 4.7 s, which was later tested at 4.2 seconds by Motor Trend magazine. Car and Driver magazine also tested the car and found that it outperformed the benchmark Ferrari 360 Modena in the main three performance categories: acceleration, handling and braking. The Z8 held BMW production car performance records for several years.
2003 Model Year Changes - Alpina Z8
For the 2003 (and last) model year, the Z8 model was changed to the Alpina V8 Roadster. Only 500 were built and instead of the original M5 engine, it came with a 4.8-liter Alpina tuned V8. Instead of the traditional manual gearbox featured in earlier Z8's, the Alpina version had a 5-speed STEPTRONIC automatic transmission. This special edition of the Z8, was sold unusually directly through BMW dealerships, as Alpina cars were never sold through BMW dealerships directly, before.
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