2024 BMW Z4: US Manual Option Available

The Big Engine Rolls In!

Confirmation has officially come in that the US market version of the 2024 BMW Z4 will have a six-speed manual transmission as an option. Until now, only an eight-speed automatic was accessible to American consumers when looking at the G29 generation Z4; however, that is all set to change. A number of reports had hypothesised that a manual shift would be attainable, and this now verifies them to be true.

The delightful tidings keep rolling in, and BMW is giving drivers something to rejoice about – pairing the manual gearbox with the M40i six-cylinder powertrain, rather than the sDrive30i four-cylinder. As such, devotees of the wheel will soon have access to the acclaimed B58 inline-six engine while relishing the pleasures of manually shifting gears. Of course, those wanting to savor this experience can already do so on the 2023 Toyota GR Supra equipped with a manual transmission.

Despite utilizing the same platform and motor as the Supra, reports suggest that the BMW Z4 affords a distinct manual gearbox set-up. Whilst it’s true that the gearbox itself is supplied by ZF, the linkage utilized is evidently apart from what exists in Toyota’s offering. This could possibly possess an undesired effect, since we favor the shifter on board the Supra to most of the modern BMW manuals, inclusive of those worked into M vehicles. Although we’re not yet able to have a spin with the manual Z4, other opposing outlets have proclaimed its shifts to be sharper than that provided by the Supra. Hopefully, BMW gives us the opportunity to verify these remarks early next year.

BMW has not portrayed any performance figures for the manual yet, yet it will most likely be slower than its eight-speed automatic counterpart. Despite this, the two-pedal Z4 can get up to 60mph in a brilliant 3.9 seconds; but we’d willingly give away a few hundredths of a second in place of a more thrilling drive. After all, the manual setting will provide exclusive suspension tuning with reprogrammed adaptive dampers, different sized tyres (19-inches at the front and 20-inches behind) plus two distinct hues of green as paint options.

Information about the new manual edition of the Z4 will be released in January of 2024, and it is speculated that this version featuring a third pedal would cost an additional $3,500 on top of the M40i’s preliminary rate of $66,300.