BMW Z1 review: the roadster with drop-down doors, now purely a collector's car
3.1/5MotorsSouq Editorial Team
The Z1 is bought for the doors, the E30-derived plastic body panels, and the novelty of owning a genuinely rare piece of late-1980s BMW experimentation. It is not quick by modern standards, the cabin is basic, and the plastic body panels need specific expertise to inspect for stress cracking. Treat any Bahrain example as a specialist purchase, verify the panel condition and chassis rustproofing carefully, and buy it as a weekend toy, not daily transport.
Pros
- Genuinely unique drop-down door mechanism, still a crowd-stopper decades later
- Removable plastic body panels are a piece of real BMW engineering history
- Sweet-revving 2.5-litre M20 straight-six for its era
- Rarity — only around 8,000 built — makes it a distinctive, appreciating collector piece
Cons
- All left-hand drive, and sourcing one in the GCC at all is genuinely difficult
- Plastic body panels need specialist inspection for UV and stress damage
- Not quick or refined by any modern standard
- No local parts or service network; everything routes through European specialists
BMW Technik built the Z1 to test ideas rather than to make money, and the company famously lost money on every one it sold. The plastic body panels — a genuine engineering novelty in 1989 — can be removed entirely in about half an hour, and the doors slide down vertically into the sills instead of opening outward, a mechanism that still draws a crowd whenever one is demonstrated in a Bahrain car park today.
What is underneath the party trick
Strip away the theatre and the Z1 rides on a heavily modified E30 3 Series platform with the 2.5-litre M20 straight-six, a genuinely sweet-revving engine of its era, driving the rear wheels through a five-speed manual. It is not fast by any modern measure, but the low centre of gravity and the doors-down open-air feeling make it a distinctive weekend drive.
Buying one in Bahrain
Every Z1 in the region arrived through private import, and with only around 8,000 built, sourcing one at all is the first challenge. The plastic panels need a specialist inspection for UV degradation and mounting-point wear, the door mechanism needs to be tested through its full travel, and parts sourcing runs entirely through European specialists. This is a garage car, insured and driven occasionally, not a commuter.