Se prezinta Domnul BMW Z8

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2001 BMW Z8


The BMW Z8 is a convertible sports car automobile produced by BMW from 1999 to 2003

The Z8 originated from a prototype designated Z07, which was designed by Henrik Fisker at BMW's Desingworks in Southern California. It was showcased at the Tokyo Auto Show in 1997. The car was originally designed as a styling exercise to both echo and celebrate the BMW 507 of the 1950s for its 50th birthday.

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 5700 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 S62 motor built by the BMW Motorsports subsidiary, it 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 s 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's production car performance records for several years.


2003 Model Year Changes - Alpina Z8 Roadster

For the 2003 (and last) model year, the Z8 model was augmented by the Alpina V8 Roadster. Instead of the original manual six speed M5 (S62) motor featured in earlier Z8's, it came as an automatic, using a 5-speed STEPTRONIC transmission with an upgraded 4.8 L Alpina tuned V8 motor from the X5 SUV. Only 550 of these were built. This special edition of the Z8 was sold directly through BMW dealerships, marking a first for Alpina, whose cars had never been sold through BMW dealerships directly before.

The BMW Z8 Roadster is slated to end production in 2003 when BMW sells the last few hundred units of a special-edition Z8 - the BMW Alpina Roadster.
Located in the Upper Bavarian town of Buchloe, Alpina was established in 1963 as a BMW tuner. Burkard Bovensiepen, the founder of Alpina, got started as a BMW tuner in 1963 with the 1500 sedan.

The Alpina Z8 uses the B10 engine, a specially developed version of BMW's "regular" V-8 engine. The Alpina engine is a 4.8-liter with 375 hp, with individual throttles for each of the eight cylinders and many other racecar-like engineering features. The power peak of the Alpina engine comes at 5800 rpm vs. 6600, and its torque peak occurs at the same 3800 rpm but is actually higher, with 383 lb-ft. (vs. 368 lb-ft).

The Z8's 6-speed manual transmission is replaced by a special BMW Alpina automatic transmission, based on the 5-speed ZF automatic employed in V8-powered 5 Series and X5 Series, the Alpina version features Switch-Tronic.

With Switch-Tronic, in addition to up- and downshifting by "tipping" the shift lever rearward or forward, the driver can also shift by pressing "+" and "-" buttons near the steering-wheel rim, on the back of the wheel near the thumb grips. The buttons are placed on the back of the wheel to avoid pressing the buttons by mistake. Directly in front of the driver, a transmission display instrument indicates the range (P, R, N, D), mode (Automatic or Manual) and the gear currently engaged.

Special BMW Alpina 20-inch wheels, in place of the original model's 18-inchers, have five clusters of four spokes each. The wheels are 9.0 inches wide at the front and 10.0 at the rear.

The tires are Michelin performance tires with dimensions of 255/35ZR-20 at the front and 285/30ZR-20 at the rear. The Pilot Sport's on the rear are unique to the car, but Michelin will ensure that replacement tires are in stock in the countries where the Alpina is sold.

Retaining the Z8's power telescopic adjustment, the BMW Alpina Roadster V8 adopts a different steering wheel, with three leather-and-metal-finished spokes in place of the Z8's "banjo" spokes. An Alpina logo replaces the BMW emblem on the steering wheel's center hub. The cockpit is upholstered in Soft Nappa (distinctive from the Z8's Nappa), with special piping and Alpina logos in the upper seatback. Three color schemes are offered: Black/Black, Black/Crema and Black/Sport Red.

Modifications to the beautiful exterior of the Z8 have been kept to a minimum. Without a spoiler, the rear of the vehicle could become unstable, so Alpina has limited the top speed to 161 mph. 0 to 60 mph is achieved in 5 seconds.

Alpina plans to build 555 BMW Alpina Roadsters. Approximately 450 will be exported to the USA, beginning in the spring of 2003. The remaining 105 will be distributed to Alpina dealers across the rest of the world, with 75 going to mainland Europe, 20 to Japan and 10 to Great Britain.

Va recomand si website-urile http://www.z8-club.de si www.bmwz8.us