Man I'm exhausted from driving the 2001 BMW Z8 this week.
Having read the praise from other members of this thread, I was expecting some E46 M3 levels of finesse from the Z8, but instead what I wound up having to fight against was a softly sprung two door roadster that somehow weighs more than said E46. The car stops and turns just fine, but it's corner exits that is the tiring part to manage; the rear end will step out really quickly as though an American muscle car, and the soft front end lifts horrifically as though a FF hot hatch if you're even just about a third of the travel into the loud pedal, which can be taken as criticism against the suspension setup or praise for the immediacy of its 4.9L NA V8 engine and the gobs of torque it has through its mid range. Power application in this car then, needs to be administered with extreme care well past the apex of a turn, causing it to lag behind many other sports cars and the expectations that they may heap onto the Z8. Both the soft suspension and the torquey engine would make the Z8 a phenomenal drift car if the steering didn't feel so... random, in how it responds from one corner to the next, owing to all the pitch and roll the front end undergoes. I get that that's true for all cars, but it really is quite ridiculous on the Z8. It's all the more so disastrous here because of just how tail happy the Z8 is—get lightly tapped anywhere near the back end of the car, and you'll be countersteering and fishtailing for years to correct this yacht of a car.
Perhaps it's not meant to be an all out sports car, but it still strikes me as odd regardless because the Z8 is meant to be a sort of halo car for BMW at the time if I've done my research correctly, and yet the E46 M3 is much better set up for the track, offering a much more exhilarating, engaging, and rewarding driving experience, even if it doesn't have the power to compete with the Z8 on most tracks. It's so soft that it makes a Supra and GTO feel more predictable and planted through corners. If you're looking for a no compromise sports car experience, you're much better served in a Viper or an S2000. But, it does have to be said that the Z8 can be a fun car to drive in its own right if you aren't chasing competition in it. I think it's a fantastically balanced car, one that, when coupled with its soft, but cooperative nonetheless suspension setup, really makes you as the driver pay attention to the weight transfer both laterally and longitudinally at all times. It's the sort of car that makes the driver pay it more attention than anything else. It almost necessitates wearing earphones just because of how much it needs you to keep a keen ear out for each tyre's squeals through a corner, and I guess that's why PD modeled the car with its top off. Also, it's a NA V8 manual with an open top! How rare is that sort of thing twenty years ago, let alone today?
As a cult icon, looks are a big part of the car's appeal, and I will admit that the styling has really grown on me after I initially thought the front fascia is offensively ugly. Unfortunately however, unlike the Fiat 500 from just three weeks ago, the metallic piece in the dashboard of the Z8, which should have been the same body colour as the exterior, cannot be painted. Hell, it even stays as Titansilber Metallic even if you buy the car in other colours, which is such a shame, because what really sold me on the Z8's looks is the example featured in Harry Metcalfe's review of the Z8, which is finished in Topasblau Metallic with contrasting tan leather interior. The latter isn't present in this game, either.
I recognise that it has its merits, but none of it really translate well into the digital realm of GT Sport, and holy hell this car and I really don't see eye to eye. I personally find it more tiring to keep on the track than rewarding. The styling may have grown on me in the week that I've spent researching it, but I still can't get over just how offensively ugly the front end of the car is, and I cannot for the life of me find a setting from cockpit view that actually lets me see anything past the narrow A pillars and the long hood, and the gimmicky centred instrument cluster is just... tragic. Add to that the fact that this car somehow costs more than 20 grand more than a 911 GT3 of the same year, and well... I don't even know where to start making a case for this thing.
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