Z4 Coupe Design Sketches Exist, But BMW Is Unlikely To Make One IRL

The ‘E86’ Z4 coupe remains a firm petrolhead favourite - particularly in unhinged M form - but will BMW ever make another one?

Munich effectively replaced both the E86 and the E85 roadster with one car with a folding hard-top roof, but now the Z4 has gone back to having a rag-top, you can’t help but wonder if there’s now room for another tin-top version of the car. As shown by the render above from X-Tomi Design, it certainly has the potential to be a rather handsome thing.

BMW has at least mulled it over, confirming to Motoring that several design sketches do indeed exist. However, it seems unlikely that such a car will go into production.

“Adrian [van Hooydonk, BMW’s design boss] has shown me a coupe roof outline and roof lines but we already have two coupes in this price segment,” development chief Klaus Frohlich told the publication, before more hopefully adding, “But never say never. This segment is shrinking and a lot of people have failures…But we have sexy cars and perhaps we can conquer and then the segment is bigger and then we can investigate.”

As for why BMW settled on a roadster format while Toyota opted for a coupe design with the co-developed Supra, it’s partly down to the market, and partly down to flexibility.

“We did a roadster concept because the segments are small anyway, but the roadster segment is six times bigger than the coupe segment in that class,” Frohlich said, adding, “You can always put a top-hat on a roadster but not that easily the other way around. That’s the reason we decided on a roadster.”

Are you yearning for the return of the Z4 coupe, or do you think BMW has enough fast two-door machines kicking around already? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.