BMW Z4 M40i Handschalter Fast Fleet test – living with Munich's manual drop-top

'The night time is the right time’ sang Nappy Brown, as did Roosevelt Sykes and Big Bill Broonzy before him. I’m reasonably certain that none of these American blues singers were referring to the best hours during which to drive a sports car with the top down during a British winter, but they might as well have been.

You see, while it’s perfectly possible, pleasant even, to drive our Z4 roofless in colder temperatures – heated steering wheel keeping your fingers toasty, heated seats doing the same for your posterior and torso, and the side glass and rear wind deflector fending off the worst of the chill air you’re cutting a path through – it’s hard not to imagine that those observing you travelling in this state might be thinking you’re a bit of a berk. Or worse.

> The BMW Z4 Final Edition is the very last of its kind

Under the cover of darkness, however, there are no such concerns; most of the time you’re just another pair of headlights that become a brief passing blur. Yet you still get to enjoy all the enhanced sensations of driving without a roof: the fresh, unfiltered air, the unmuffled engine and exhaust notes, the open sky above you (hopefully filled with a sea of stars). Chances are the roads will be quieter, too.

And when you finally find yourself entering a busier area, you can flip the roof back up electrically in a mere 10 seconds, while travelling at speeds of up to 30mph. No time lost to the task whatsoever.

Another advantage of top-down driving in the Z4 is that you get a break from the creaks and squeaks coming from its roof. This may be a particularly rigid convertible – there’s no shuddering rear-view mirror here – but still its raised soft-top chatters away where it meets the windscreen header rail and from somewhere behind you too, particularly at urban speeds when the suspension is being kept busy by patchwork asphalt. This is unfortunate, because were it not for this (and a little extra tyre roar) you could often forget you were in a roadster at all. If it were my car I’d be tempted to visit the creakiest areas with a pot of Vaseline, although I suspect the issue may be temperature related, so we’ll keep an eye – or rather an ear – on it when the warmer weather finally arrives.

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And I know what you’re thinking: if BMW had made the Z4 a coupe, it wouldn’t be making these noises. Maybe… although the Toyota GR Supra I ran back in 2020 – a car that shares its platform with the Z4, of course – was plagued by the interior plastics aft of the seats relentlessly making their presence heard, rather like they too were in a roofless car, in fact.

A bit of admin to end on. I mentioned last month that green over tan is the only colour combo available for the Handschalter Z4. No sooner had the ink dried on those pages than BMW announced you can now also specify any of the eight paint colours offered on the auto, from Alpine White to ‘Thundernight’ purple, along with any of the five leather options. Frozen Deep Green paint remains exclusive to the manual car, however, and would remain my choice too, both for how good it looks and for the ‘IYKYK’ signal it sends to fellow petrolheads.

This story was first featured in evo issue 332.