By Matt Hardigee, Jalopnik
Conundrum alert, gearheads! Does your lust for diesel outweigh your desire for speed? Is a sexy BMW drop-top more, or less, sexy when you ditch a potent six for a diesel four? And would you rock AC Schnitzer's 99d concept car?
[partner id="jalopnik"]Let's start with the facts: A brand-new BMW Z4 went under the knife to replace the stock six-cylinder powerplant with a diesel fourbanger from a 320d. It's got 190 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. This is good for a 0-to-62 mph time of 6.9 seconds. Not great, but not awful.
If they sacrificed the twin-turbo 335-pony six from the sDrive35is we'd consider it sacrilege, but you can get a wimpier 201-horsepower six in Europe. If this is the swap they made, AC lost some power but boosted torque by 130 lb-ft without sacrificing much in the way of acceleration.
And what of emissions? If the point is to be green, cutting CO2 from 109 grams/kilometer to 99 isn't anything to sneeze diesel particulates at. That's roughly the equivalent of 63 mpg. There's something sexy about being able to out-mileage a Prius in something this attractive (paint job aside).
Unfortunately, the conversion was a one-off vehicle. AC claims the cost of building one of your own is something like $210,000. At that price it's probably better for you wallet and the environment to buy a tuned AC Schnitzer Z4 and take the bus occasionally.
Photo: AC Schnitzer
