Quote:
Originally Posted by tranquility
Good discussion in this thread. Lots of great posts.
I don't agree w/ some ppl's thinking that it should have a long hood for long hood's sake. I never understood that supposed 'roadster' mentality: where was it written that a 'true' roadster must have a long hood and short trunk? Everyone knows that we could fit a V12 in the E89: it's ridiculously long and has a lot of wasted space. I personally don't care for the long hood. I prefer smaller cars, so I don't understand this BMW logic of making larger cars just for the sake of making them look a certain way.
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It doesn't have to have a long hood and short trunk but that is the basis for a traditional roadster.
Also, just looking at BMWs roadster history, you can see that is how they've always made their roadster so you can say it is a homage to it's predecessors. From the 315/319 from 1934:
The 328 roadster from 1936:
The 587 from 1958:
Then it it goes to the Z1 in the 80's followed by the Z3 in the 90's, the Z8 in the 2000's up to todays E89. Not to mention the other earlier roadsters like the Ford Deuce, Porsche 356, Cobra roadster, '56 Corvette, etc...
It's all had a rather long hood and short trunk, the E89 simply emphasizes it more than the last gen Z3 & Z4 but I feel it looks great because of it.
BMW roadster history here if you want to read up on it:
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/05/29/b...ing-roadsters/
As for the hood, it isn't excessively long just to be long. I'm no expert but I am not sure a V12 can fit in there, the I6 on the 35i already occupies most of the space under the hood.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tranquility
The exterior looks nice enough (although the roof could have been designed more coherently w/ the rest of the car), but the interior is only alright imo.
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I also respectfully disagree here. Out of all the hardtop roadsters in this class/price range, it integrates the hardtop best in the E89. The SLK looks odd, the Lexus ISC looks terrible and so does the E93. It looks like add-on to those cars while on the E89 it looks smooth and like it actually belongs to the car. Most even mistake it my E89 for a coupe until I open up the roof then they are in awe at what they were seeing.