{"id":1141,"date":"2025-04-26T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/?p=1141"},"modified":"2025-04-29T14:02:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T14:02:38","slug":"heres-why-the-manual-z4-is-bmws-best-car-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/26\/heres-why-the-manual-z4-is-bmws-best-car-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Here&#039;s Why The Manual Z4 Is BMW&#039;s Best Car Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-bmw-z4-manual-exterior-with-text-floating-above.jpg\"><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Manual Z4 Is the Best New BMW: Review\" width=\"1099\" height=\"618\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W7ciW2frK5M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There was a great deal of fanfare when BMW announced the latest, Supra-sibling Z4 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motor1.com\/news\/700236\/2024-bmw-z4-gets-manual-gearbox\/\" data-inline-widget=\"internal-links\" data-type-id=\"0\" data-params=\"%7B%22article_edition_id%22%3A%22700236%22%2C%22section%22%3A%221%22%2C%22alias%22%3A%222024-bmw-z4-gets-manual-gearbox%22%7D\">was getting a manual transmission<\/a>. For the first time ever, BMW\u2019s only true sports car launched without a manual gearbox, and no word on whether it would get one. After years of tight-lipped reticence, the Z4 got its flowers only after the Toyota Supra got its long-anticipated and popular manual gearbox. Yet this new \u201cHandschalter\u201d package isn\u2019t quite a Supra carryover job.<\/p>\n<p>I got the chance to sample the new manual Z4 on my roads of choice for our latest YouTube video, and I didn\u2019t expect much from it. Being a non-M product, I thought it would surely be a bit soft, lacking in communication, and keep me wanting for a Z4 M revival. But I pretty quickly fell in love with the thing. This is BMW at its very best.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The curiosity is that BMW didn\u2019t simply carry over Supra parts. It uses its own linkage, which is objectively inferior to the Supra\u2019s, but is still charmingly BMW. Longish. Rubbery. Notchy. Lovely. It uses its own throttle calibration, which is distinctly blippier and more responsive than the Supra. Then BMW even retuned the dampers to better suit the experience of the manual gearbox. It\u2019s the same old gearbox that has been in almost every manual BMW since 2005, the ZF GS6, and is the same as the Supra.<\/p>\n<p>The manual Z4 is one of BMW\u2019s best efforts in a long time, and it seemingly came from a place of passion rather than performance targets. There\u2019s something to this car I can\u2019t quite explain on paper, so sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds of Bavaria\u2019s hand-shifted roadster.<\/p>\n<h2>More on the Manual Z4<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motor1.com\/news\/746336\/bmw-z4-manual-sales-2024\/\">Sales Prove the Manual Transmission Is Saving the BMW Z4<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motor1.com\/news\/706502\/2025-bmw-z4-m40i-six-speed-manual-pricing\/\">The Manual BMW Z4 Will Cost You $70,945<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was a great deal of fanfare when BMW announced the latest, Supra-sibling Z4 was getting a manual transmission. For the first time ever, BMW\u2019s only true sports car launched without a manual gearbox, and no word on whether it would get one. After years of tight-lipped reticence, the Z4 got its flowers only after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1148,"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions\/1148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.salemmusicdiscoverycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}