Auto News 5

These are dire days for high-end, high-performance automobiles, so dire that BMW has red-flagged the M1 Homage (which wowed the crowd at Villa d'Este in 2008) and the Z9 two-seater (which was to be derived from the four-door CS show car from Shanghai in 2007), but development work on the mid-engine Z10 continues. The car is being engineered as a coupe and a roadster; both body styles are proper two-plus-twos with substantially more interior room than a Porsche 911. The target weight of the Z10 is in the vicinity of 3300 pounds. When the original supercar idea was outlined a few years ago, a twin-turbo V-8 was the engine of choice. But now that Efficient Dynamics is the name of the game at BMW, engineers are concentrating on a 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight six rated at 450 hp and 350 lb-ft of torque (basically an uprated version of the engine that powers the next M3) paired with an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic. Rumor has it that BMW is also toying with a twin-turbo V-6, which would be lighter and more compact, but those advantages are unlikely to offset shortcomings concerning prestige and heritage.