The BMW Z4 is playing in a surprisingly tough segment right now. The biggest competitor is, by far, the Porsche Boxster, a rivalry everyone’s talking about. However, Audi has a strong contender as well, in the shape of the Audi TT. The guys from CarWow got the three together in high-end specs to see which is best in one of their traditional comparison video. The three are doing two drag races (standing and rolling) as well as a brake test.
The BMW Z4 in this video is the top spec version. The Z4 M40i comes with a 3-liter straight six engine tuned to make 340 HP and 500 Nm (369 lb-ft) of torque in Europe. The US version has over 40 HP more since it doesn’t need an OPF. That could very well be the reason why the BMW didn’t manage to win any of the contest here but it is an interesting showdown nonetheless, especially since both rivals come with 4-cylinder engines under the hood.
The one area where the Z4 definitely won was in the exhaust note comparison, where both the Porsche and Audi were… underwhelming. By comparison though, the Porsche Boxster at hand here is a GTS version which means it uses a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with forced induction making 365 HP. On the other hand, the TT-S has a 2-liter four-pot turbocharged engine making 306 HP and 400 Nm (295 lb-ft) of torque. It’s the least powerful but it does come with all-wheel drive.
Since the Z4 is rear-wheel drive, the launch could turn into a tire burning festival. However, having tested the Z4 myself, I can wholeheartedly say the Launch Control feature works great and keeps wheel spin to a minimum. You can see that too, as the Z4 launches rather well, beating the other two off the line. The end result though, is not what you might’ve expected. I can’t help but wonder what the result would’ve been if the Z4 in question was the American version.
