What the heck is a Z1?

[SnakeyesTx]

I saw this on the Alpina gallery. How come we didn't get it here in the states?

http://home.arcor.de/alpinamaeuse/Alpina_RLE/resize_of_dscn3343.jpg

Looks kinda late 80's... any production history or owners here?

[shogun]

very rare to find now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Z1
http://www.bmwz1.co.uk/z1home.htm
http://www.bmw-z1.com/z1/
http://www.bmwz1.de/e-index.html

[JohnC]

Z1s rock, they shared the front suspension with the e30 and also the m20 powerplant, it had plastic panels and the doors dropped into the body. they were made in 88-91.

i remember something about them almost building 10K of them and one of the tuners i forget who acs or hamann; hartge? im not sure but they had a turbo one making close to 250 hp.

[shogun]

Amog the 8.000 produced Z1 there are 66 Alpina Z1 Roadster (Sonderedition).
They are called RLE (Roadster Limited Edition).
At the moment 34 Alpina Z1 RLE are in Japan. :D

I have seen about 50% of them at a BMW meet some years ago.

[winfred]

i think they started off as a test bed for the e36 multi link rear suspension, but got voted into production

[Traian]

They're expensive critters, all of the ones I see for sale go for about 25000 Euro. Saw one a couple of days ago and it is a great looking car.

[nizmainiac]

didn't they do a one make race series with them? and a think that ex f1 driver eddie ervine has one, one of his favourite cars

[Jay 535i]

While living in Amsterdam for four years I spotted two or three of these. They look cool, but I suspect a good ol' E30 is a better car.

[Airborne001]

I remember hearing about these, I don't think they ever got the doors up to U.S. crash standards.

[mattyb]

wow. never even knew it existed. thanks guys.

[F4Phantom]

I saw that green Z1 at the top at the melbourne motor show and it looked amazing. Typical pre-bangle BMW, straight meaningful style, it should have been the mazda MX-5.