"Of all the BMW Z cars, the Zukunft tag is arguably most fittingly applied to the Z1. The Z1 used a skeletal frame on which the body panels were mounted, making it incredibly stiff, banishing scuttle shake and giving the car superb handling. The body panels were made of plastic, mounted on a substructure of hot-dipped galvanised pressed steel and the seams were continuously zinc welded, adding 25 per cent to body stiffness. The side panels and doors were made from General Electric's Xenoy injection-cast thermoplastic, the bonnet and boot lid were glass-reinforced plastic and the whole body was painted in a special flexible lacquer. State of the art thinking was evident in every aspect of the car's design. Those magnificent doors were operated by toothed belts which lowered both the window and door at the touch of a button. The Z1 used the innovative Z-axle suspension set-up at the rear and also featured some clever aerodynamics, the front of the car was designed to create a high-pressure zone ahead of the wheels to induce downforce whilst the aerofoil-shaped rear silencer helped to decrease turbulence and lift. The engine is one of BMW's finest in the form of the M20B25 unit taken from the E30 325i. This fabulous BMW enthusiast owned Z1 has quite the story; one which recently featured in the BMW Car Club magazine. While driving through countryside in 2013, our vendor stumbled across the property of David Kedward of BD Motorbodybuilders, rally works engineer and all round petrol head. Towards the end of a tour of his car collection and after a cuppa David opened another garage with a plucky Z1 sat in the corner. “Everything is for sale” he said and after an evening of deliberating our vendor decided to return and pay for the car before someone else did. This chance encounter led our vendor to seek the history of the car which was delivered new to Tommykaira, official Hartge agent for Japan and it is believed (although not 100% confirmed) that Tommykaira performed a full Z1 Hartge upgrade, this is also supported by a recent rolling road which put the performance at 176.5bhp over the standard 168bhp even now some 30 years later. In 1997 it was established that the car was purchased by Mr Yosuke Yamamoto and in 1998 he moved to Cheltenham starting a company and importing the car, his company Design and Realizations Ltd trimmed the seats in grey leather and red nubuck and the car was mildly refurbished with new soft top, restoration of the running gear and paintwork for stone chips. In 2009 David purchased the car as Yosuke had to urgently return to Japan but it saw very little use but for bodywork services until that chance meeting in 2013 at which time the car was displaying under 50,000 kms. The car spent much of its time garaged due to our vendor’s work commitments but in 2014 at a Z1 BMW Car Club organised technical weekend he was introduced to Z1 Specialist Ivor Dadswell who he commissioned to strip and lightly restore the car. As often happens, what started as a small job list in 2017 developed into a large list and some 12 months later the car was returned having been gone through with many new parts, extensive works and presenting extremely well without any typical Z1 problems and recently concluding with our vendor sourcing an original set of correct Hartge alloy wheels. The Z1 is special in every sense of the word; it's special to look at, to sit in and to drive and importantly, as the years have passed, people have clearly started to appreciate it as prices have soared. This is an incredibly rare example with universal appeal and is, without a doubt, one of BMW's finest moments of the past thirty years enhanced by Hartge.
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