Mooncaller Cars: Test Drive 1998 BMW Z3 M Roadster

For Thanksgiving we took a trip to Tucson, AZ. Holly's Uncle has a fun little car we took for a brief spin. It is a 1998 BMW Z3 Roadster.

This may be the first convertible I have reviewed? It being a convertible was perfect for driving around Tucson in early December.

We had a lot of fun driving a loop that took us on a lot of curved roads. Both Holly and I had turns at the wheel.

When it came to getting it out of the driveway we first had to find reverse. We wound up having to search the internet for this, as the lockout was based on force and more force than I was comfortable putting on the shifter until I realized it was required. You need to move it all the way over, feel a click, and then push it up.
The clutch is pretty stiff but has a good amount of feel. I did manage to stall it out at the first traffic light though because I overestimated how stiff and how much feel there was.

The gears were pretty tall. It felt inappropriate to drive 45 MPH in 5th gear, so we used 4th. Cruising in 3rd gear at 40ish MPH felt quite comfortable.
Shifter feel had a fair amount of play. We both found ourselves searching for third gear except when downshifting straight from 4th to 3rd (H pattern), 5th to 3rd would be a hunt. It was much vaguer than many modern shifters or than I recall and of the Honda Preludes being, let alone the Subaru BRZ.
This vagueness could be due to age. It is one of the things I would seek to improve in the car. Also, the H pattern was spread over a fairly wide area, especially for 5th gear.
1st to 2nd is easy. 3rd to 4th is easy. 2nd to 3rd has quite a bit of learning curve due to the vagueness around 3rd gear. 5th gear is easy because it is as far right as you can go.
By the end of our drive I was getting significantly better at finding 3rd. It was not so much that I could feel it as I knew where it should be and could put the shifter there.
We had the most fun with 2nd and 3rd gears.

Visibility, especially concerning blind spots, are not a concern with the top down. The mirrors are on the small side, but are proportioned to the car.

It makes a fun noise, but it is fairly muted. It is not too angry. While the exhaust note is good it is also not going to get you in trouble (which I consider a good thing).
Acceleration felt very good and linear.
The car also does very well on hills. The torque made short work of them.

This car had quite respectable rubber: Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ 225/45ZR17 front 245/40ZR17 rear. These tires afforded a very respectable amount of grip.

The suspension was stiff and we were both quite happy with it. Though you do feel a lot more from the rear wheels than you do the front.
There is a bit of a dead zone off immediate center in the steering wheel, a bit of play. This accompanied reduced feel through the steering wheel. We tried this by running over some cats eye with the front and rear wheels. You got a ton of feel from the rear wheels and knew exactly what they were running over. The front was very muted though. This is likely a combination of the play in the steering system as well as the weight of the engine over the front axle. There is a much better sense of what is going on with the car from the rear wheels, through the seats, and transmission than there is from the steering wheel.
Steering is pretty weighty. The car changes direction very smoothly. While the car feels a bit heavy from the steering it does not feel big. The car weighs around 3100 lbs. You can really feel that the car has a short wheel base, 96.8 inches, and that the front and rear wheels are close to you.
It feels like it should rotate quite well, but we were being nice to the car and therefore not pushing it.

The interior was holding up pretty well for a 1998. There were no cracks despite being exposed to Arizona sun. There is a decent amount of plastic throughout.
There are useful gauges in the center.
The seats are mostly comfortable, though I would have preferred more shoulder bolstering. I slid around a bit at the shoulders though my lower body was very well planted. The seat height adjustment was broken for the driver seat and I was therefore sitting higher than I would prefer. It was amazing how tall I felt in this car.
The sun visors were not quite sufficient in the early afternoon, especially sitting as high as we were.
The other problem we had was that the car was a very tight space. If you want to saw the wheel and keep your hands at 9 and 3 you run into issues with bumping your elbows against the seats when taking tight turns.

This thing is not good at agreeing to speed limits. It needs to be a little bit faster than the BRZ to be fun.” Faster for the same amount of fun. But it is a good amount of fun. Part of this is that it has 245 rear rubber. But I admit, I was enjoying this quite a bit.

It has a very planted feel. There was very little body roll. Holly was able to take notes without getting sick, unlike the Ford Fiesta ST we previously rented.

The car rode over speed bumps quite smoothly at ~20 MPH.

The engine is the BMW S52 engine for US models. This engine had 315 BHP at 7,400 RPM and 252 lb-ft at 4,900 RPM. The S52 is a straight six engine, 3.15 L displacement with a cast iron block and an aluminum head. This is part of what likely contributes to the numbness of the steering wheel. A more modern aluminum block would probably feel much better.

On to Holly's remarks from when she was driving:
She found that the clutch was touchy. Also found it difficult to get the gear selector into the correct gear. She had no problem with the windshield when not facing the sun.
"This car is a fun car."
"Would have this in addition to the BRZ."

I put the top up for some additional pictures. I liked that this car was well designed in terms of appearance, it looks good with the top up or down, which not all convertibles do.