2024 BMW Z4 Manual Is a Clutch Addition

For two cars with so much in common, the BMW Z4 and the Toyota GR Supra have wildly different public profiles. They’re like the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jason Kelce and his brother, Travis, who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs—relatives, and both in the same business, but one of them is way more famous. And yes, in this analogy, the Toyota Supra would be the one dating Taylor Swift.

Well, BMW has had enough of the Toyota getting all the attention, especially regarding the Supra’s six-speed manual transmission. That piece of enthusiast hardware has been conspicuously absent in the Z4 in the U.S. since 2017 but makes a triumphant return for 2024. While manuals are sometimes a no-cost option in cars of this ilk, you’ll pay more for the manual Z4 because there’s more to it than just a clutch pedal. The six-speed is part of a comprehensive package—available only on the M40i and likely priced at about $3500—designed to make the Z4 into a more involving driver-oriented machine.

BMW’s thinking is that if you want to shift for yourself, you’d probably also appreciate livelier steering and a starchier suspension too. So, in addition to the electronically controlled M differential that all M40i Z4s get, the manual’s steering is tuned to provide more feel, and the adaptive dampers are recalibrated to suit aggressive driving. Stiffer front anti-roll-bar mounts are intended to caffeinate turn-in and clamp down on body roll. And the manual Z4’s wheels and tires are staggered sizes, not only in width but also in diameter—19 inches up front and 20 inches at the rear. That change alone gives the car a subtle Hot Wheels stance, like it’s leaning forward, ready to pounce.

Ever since the Z4 evolved from the Z3, it’s been an unabashedly modern machine, in terms of both design and performance. So there’s something charmingly retro about climbing in on a sunny day, dropping the top, and rowing your own gears while you listen to the turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six go about its business. The essential ingredients—straight-six sounds, balanced rear-drive chassis, and BMW-buttery manual transmission in an alfresco setting—will be familiar to anyone who’s owned a BMW convertible going back to the E30. And it’s an experience that’s exclusive to the Z4, given that the Supra isn’t offered as a convertible and will clobber its occupants with wind buffeting if the windows are rolled down.

Even with its recalibrated steering and suspension, the manual Z4 isn’t trying to be an M car, and it feels comfortable enough for long hauls. But put it in Sport mode, and the 382-hp six unleashes a husky burr and the dampers firm up nicely for those corners where double the recommended speed feels just about right. The transmission will rev match downshifts, but that feature can be turned off if you’re particularly confident in your heel-and-toe game. The transmission is the same one used in the Supra, with uniquely tuned linkages and bushings to arrive at that trademark BMW shift feel, which is somehow simultaneously aloof and precise. You never miss a shift, nor do you worry about a sting of vibration making its way from the six-speed’s innards up to your hand.

It’s a safe bet that the automatic Z4 M40i, with its 3.5-second 60-mph time and 12.0-second quarter-mile, will beat the manual car in a drag race. BMW acknowledges as much, but that’s not the point. This car exists to deliver an increasingly rare experience—a shift-it-yourself droptop. It’s nice to see that the futurism of BMW’s i cars can coexist with something like this, a machine that takes six steps back in the direction of analog mechanical involvement.

The manual Z4 isn’t intended to be a limited-run novelty act—BMW will build as many as we all buy when the car goes into production at the beginning of 2024. And if there’s one message we’d like to get through to Munich, it’s that manuals are worth building. Cars like this might appeal to only a very particular audience, but that audience is us.

Senior Editor

Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.