A very special variant of the BMW Z4: the BMW Concept Touring Coupe is a kind of modern Z3 Coupé ‘clown shoe’.
Cars and nicknames, they go hand in hand. Almost everyone knows what you mean when you talk about a ‘pike’ or ‘cat’s back’. Internationally, everyone knows pretty quickly what you’re talking about when you talk about the clown shoes or clown shoe. The BMW Z3 Coupe (E36/8).
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2022/08/bmw-z3-00003.jpg)
clown shoe
The name ‘clown shoe’ therefore refers more to the long bonnet with a compact window section. The proportions of a clown shoe, it can be that easy. The BMW Z3 Coupé looked like this due to the fact that the Z3 was originally a two-seater roadster with a fabric hood. BMW welded on a fixed roof without further major changes to the bodywork. It can be that easy.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/03/extrea-hete-bmw-z4-komt-er-niet-en-toch-ook-wel-2023-970-6.jpg)
Z4 Coupe
The successor to the BMW Z3, the Z4, was initially only a roadster (E85). However, the coupe version (E86) was not a clown shoe, but was given a kind of fastback-like roofline. Its successor (E89) was ‘a bit of both’, which got a steel folding roof.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-coupe-e86-970.jpg)
For the current BMW Z4 (G29), BMW went back to basics with a fabric folding roof, so the question is quite quickly whether there will also be a coupe. The answer to that has been ‘no’ for years. The only options you have are to accept that it’s a roadster or buy the technically almost identical Toyota GR Supra. The Z4 operates in a segment where financial highlights cannot be celebrated at the moment, so the question is whether you want to ‘milk’ something like this.
![BMW Z4 has been smoothed out with this facelift](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2022/09/BMW-Z4-front-28-9-2022.jpg)
BMW Concept Touring Coupe
But what suddenly happens on this Friday after Ascension Day?! BMW presents to us, and to you, the BMW Concept Touring Coupé. Not only is this a BMW Z4 Coupé, it’s some kind of clown shoe! With this concept, BMW once again chooses to shooting brakemaintain proportions. This makes the Z4 a kind of two-door hatchback.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-012.jpg)
Remarkably enough, BMW does not say a word about the BMW Z3 Coupé, while we do not feel that the link is far-fetched. BMW prefers to make the link with ‘the pleasure that driving offers’ and ‘the symbol of freedom on four wheels’. To emphasize that the Concept Touring Coupe should be in a class of its own, ‘Z4’ is also not mentioned by BMW. Apparently we had to guess where the shooting brake gets its base from. BMW also does not mention the engine anywhere, so expect ‘just’ the 3.0 six-in-line with 340 hp that is also in the front of the Z4 M40i.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-001.jpg)
Incidentally, the name ‘Touring’ does indeed refer to the normal name for a BMW station wagon. BMW calls that a homage to the BMW ’02 Touring. Their 1970s compact model was available as a two-door coupé, as well as a two-door ‘station wagon’. Thanks to a sloping roofline, that car was also reminiscent of a shooting brake. The name is also based on the BMW 328 Touring Coupé from the 1940s.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-018.jpg)
The proportions of the BMW Z4 have always been a bit odd and a shooting brake rear doesn’t make things any easier for the BMW Concept Touring Coupé. Yet that also fits perfectly with the Z3 Coupé and thanks to the long front, this is also like a clown shoe.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-004-853x1280.jpg)
Interior
BMW has joined forces with an Italian furniture maker for the interior of the Concept Touring Coupe. It has added a high-quality leather upholstery to the interior. Thanks to the cognac color in combination with striking cross stitching, we suddenly get flashbacks to the ‘baseball’ interior of the first Audi TT. The whole turn of the millennium is perfectly summed up in the Touring Coupé.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-022-853x1280.jpg)
Joking aside, everything about this car is designed to give the driver a perfect tour. According to BMW, it is the ideal car to go around the block sporadically, with your partner, and drive until you can no longer. To assist with that, you also get a custom-made luggage set from Schedoni, also Italian.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-024.jpg)
Details
The BMW Concept Touring Coupé is generally regarded as a kind of Z4 with a dormer window, but at a detailed level enough has been added to make it not just a Z4. The most eye-catching are the wheels. This unique design looks a bit Alpina-like. They measure 20 inches in the front and 21 inches in the rear.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-019-853x1280.jpg)
The wide Z4 grille is accentuated with vertical slats, instead of the dot pattern you know from the M40i. That gives the car just a little more elegance. Anything that is normally aluminum colored (or painted black on the Shadowline package) is some kind of bronze.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-020.jpg)
This in turn gives a contrast to the paint color. If you are already searching the database for which shade you are dealing with, you don’t have to. Sparkling Lario is called the tint and this is the first and probably the only BMW to be executed in this colour. Unless they add it to the Individual Configurator next month.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-021-810x1280.jpg)
Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este
With the arrival of the BMW Concept Touring Coupé, we can also answer last week’s question. BMW teased an image that retroactively is exactly what we got to see today. So yes, BMW showed us a BMW Z4 Coupé.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/BMW-Z4-Concept-teaser.jpg)
This makes this BMW’s leader at Concorso D’Eleganza Villa d’Este. The competition of competitions in Italy. The kind of event where the word ‘clown shoe’ is actually too vulgar, which is probably why BMW is so vague about it.
![](https://www.autoblog.nl/files/2023/05/bmw-z4-touring-970-013.jpg)
Then there’s good news and bad news to end with. The good news: despite the name BMW Concept Touring Coupé, we are looking at a production car. The bad news: you can’t buy it. It is a one off model. It is not clear whether a rich man ordered it like this or whether BMW will sell it later, whether the car is intended for customers at all is not even known. Well, that there is a physical model of it and that it is the only one. You can see him at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, which started today.
This article BMW Concept Touring Coupe is a modern clown shoe appeared first on Autoblog.nl.
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