Gavin didn't get to drive his through a Dulux factory, unfortunately.
Let’s be honest, there are certain things women didn’t traditionally do. Like drinking until throwing up on a fern in an Umhlanga hotel lobby or just throwing. Until recently the world of car design has been as male-dominated as a Premier League changing room. But the new Z4 is, wait for it…designed by two women; Juliane Blasi and Nadya Arnaout and fair play to BMW for giving the ladies a crack. I suspect it might be some sort of guilt-laden PC response to all the male chauvinist BMW owners in Ray-Bans and Sasoons who were responsible for 80s divorce rates.
It was quite obviously time for BMW to respect the ladies and the bodies they create and not just see them as a passenger side pair of airbags. Remember too that an Iranian woman, Zaha Hadid, designed BMW’s faultlessly cool Leipzig Central Building. So, are they going a bit soft and girly in Bavaria? Not a chance. The new Z4 is all flared aggression and full frontal machismo.
The ladies have always preferred a bit of rough rather than a hair-dried ponce talking about his yoga, or so I’m told. But they do like someone who shares their feelings and the Z4 certainly does that. I have no idea how BMW consistently just make their cars feel so…right. It’s something in the suspension geometry, in the driving position and their rear wheel drive DNA that just makes the new Z4 compliant yet thrilling, red-bloodedly fun yet pointed.
The new model has somehow managed to improve ride comfort without sacrificing grip. Sitting low-slung, right out over the back axle with that bonnet seeming to curve into infinity, you get that real go-kart feeling.
Like all new Beemers, especially these estate agent roadsters, it will divide opinion on whether men can be taken seriously in one, but when that glorious straight 6 or the mental 3.5 twin turbo kicks into life, you’ll find yourself not really caring what anyone else thinks. It’s a manly car designed by women that women will buy and men will secretly covet. Oh, the tangled webs we weave.
More info here: http://www.bmw.co.za/campaigns/z4/
Gavin Williams
