Description
This lot will be auctioned via Iconic Auctioneers, The Iconic Sale at the NEC Classic Motor Show 2024 - Cars on Saturday the 9th of November, NEC, Birmingham, B40 1NT. Of all the BMW 'Z' cars, the 'Zukunft' tag is arguably most fittingly applied to the Z1, a car that even now, thirty-five years after it first went on sale, looks fresh and modern. The Z1 used a skeletal frame on which the body panels were mounted, making it incredibly stiff, banishing scuttle shake and endowing the car with 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, including creating 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 M20 B25 2494cc straight-six taken from the E30 325i. 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, it has started to become more appreciated and values have started to climb.
The Rydale/ Rybrook name has been associated as a family business with strong BMW connections from 1972 until 2024 and, over the years, the company has continually expanded through various Midlands-based franchise dealerships, including Oldbury, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Evesham, Wolverhampton and Warwick. This year, the company was sold and is now owned by the Sytner Group under the chairmanship of American petrolhead, Roger Penske. This BMW Z1 was acquired in the early 2000s by the dealership group as a significant and interesting milestone in the development of BMW. Its innovative design and unique features like the drop down doors, made the rare car an icon of the marque. Today, it has covered just 3, 361 miles, remaining mostly on display in dealerships and at BMW-related shows and exhibitions, but always indoor stored and regularly serviced and sent for an annual MOT. Accordingly, the mileage can be warranted as genuine and the car has had only two owners from new (although the V5C has been changed as the company name changed). This is a pristine example of the model, featuring that so-smooth, 2. 5-litre, straight-six coupled to a manual gearbox, that remains one of the ‘ultimate driving machines’ of the era.
