The BMW Z4's new turbo engines preview the Supra's

Good news for the tiny minority of you who think the new BMW Z4 is even halfway good-looking (if a straw poll of the TG office is representitive, you're pretty much on your own). If you don’t want/can’t afford the full-fat M40i, with its turbocharged 335bhp straight-six, BMW has announced it will sell you one with a 2.0-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder instead. Presumably for less money, though prices still haven’t been announced.

The Z4 sDrive 20i and 30i both have the same engine and eight-speed automatic gearbox, but different tunes. The former gets 197bhp and 236lb ft, giving 0-62mph in 6.6 seconds and a top speed of 149mph. The latter gets 258bhp and 295lb ft, good for 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds and 155mph. Both 20i and 30i claim the same 47.1mpg and 138g/km of CO2. In comparison, the full-fat M40i does 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds.

That’s all well and good. Really, it is. But what’s got us properly going is the fact these engines could well end up in the new Toyota Supra. Maybe even bolted to a manual gearbox. The two cars share a basic architecture, after all, so it could happen. We’ve driven a prototype of the Supra, with the same 3.0-litre straight-six as the BMW, and came away duly impressed. Bodes well for the Z4, too...