In the 1990s, the James Bond film franchise made some major changes. After starring as 007 in two movies in the late 1980s, Timothy Dalton was replaced by Pierce Brosnan. Omega became the official watch of the beloved super spy. And instead of an Aston Martin, James Bond’s company car was a BMW.
The decision to go with BMW was not universally popular. An icon of British pop culture driving a German car?! But there were some associated upsides to that. Look back to the Roger Moore era: he played James Bond in seven movies from 1973 until 1985 and had only two “Bond cars”: a Lotus Esprit in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me and another one in 1981’s For Your Eyes Only. Brosnan portrayed 007 in four films from 1995 through 2002 and had a cool set of wheels in every single one of them. The World is Not Enough in 1999 featured his last – and arguably his most attractive – BMW: a silver Z8 much like our Pick of the Day, a 2001 BMW Z8 posted for sale on ClassicCars.com by a New York dealership.
BMW had made other Z cars well before the Z8, but its roots go back much further than the Z1 of the late ’80s/early ’90s. Think 1955. In the press kit for the 2001 Z8, BMW said, “When developing the Z8, BMW designers were challenged to imagine what the original 507 would be like if it had never ceased production and had evolved over four decades.” Even though more than 40 years separate the two cars, the resemblance is undeniable. Both have the wide twin front grilles, front fender grilles, and curvy aluminum bodywork. Chris Bangle’s design team got the seal of approval from the man behind the looks of the 507, Count Albrecht Goertz, who said, “If I were to design the 507 today, it would look like the Z8.”
Also like its spiritual predecessor, the Z8 had a V8. Not just any V8, though. BMW stuffed the 4.9-liter engine from the contemporary M5 performance sedan behind the front axle, making the Z8 a front/mid-engine roadster with 394 horsepower and 368 lb-ft of torque. Interestingly, the engine is also fitted with a dry-sump oiling system, which is great for track driving. Another component shared with the M5 is a six-speed manual gearbox, which helps the Z8 get to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and reach an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph. (Unfortunately, the car can’t be remotely started and shift itself into gear with the press of a button on the key fob.)
BMW’s designers chose an interesting route for the Black Nappa leather interior. They mounted the main gauges in the middle of the dash. As BMW’s head of design at the time put it, “Driving the Z8 is like sitting on a motorcycle – you just have the road ahead of you.” Somehow, the audio engineers managed to install a 10-speaker Harman Kardon audio system with a six-disc CD changer in such a relatively small space. And no – there wasn’t room to conceal a missile targeting system in the steering wheel.
Typically, James Bond doesn’t put a lot of miles on his cars before they meet their inevitably destructive ends. If you buy this 2001 BMW Z8 for the $189,900 asking price, you’ll get it with just 6,716 miles on the odometer. Just don’t drive it to a caviar factory. And whatever you do in this car, stay away from aerial saws. It looks much better in one piece instead of two halves.
Click here or one of the pictures above to view this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com.
