Z8 History

[macfly]

Production run numbers;
Very special thanks to the Z8 Club for the complete listings in this thread.

Z8 (ECE incl. Alpina; EJ11.....AF77000 to ....AF80159) - 3,160
Z8 (USA incl. Alpina; EJ13....AH60000 to ....AH62542) - 2,543
Total cars produced during run.................................. 5,703


US model production dates by VIN numbers.
(nb: Not to be confused with the Model Year, which changes on or around 1st Sept)
1999 - AH60000 thru AH60017 - show, press fleet and DE cars only
2000 - AH60018 thru AH60508
2001 - AH60509 thru AH61606
2002 - AH61607 thru AH62233 - first US spec Alpina is AH61933, which is already an 03 Model Year car.
2003 - AH62234 thru AH62542 - 2003 Model Year Z8 & Alpina VIN's overlap. 450 US spec Alpinas were made.


EU model production dates by VIN numbers.
1998 - AF77000 and AF77001 - show & 007 cars
1999 - AF77002 thru AF77083 - show and press fleet cars only
2000 - AF77084 thru AF78538
2001 - AF78538 thru AF79753
2002 - AF79753 thru AF80017
2003 - AF80018 thru AF80159 - 2003 model year Z8 & Alpina numbers overlap, with 105 EU spec Alpinas made.


Cars by color for the full (EU & US) production run
(exterior // interior)

Silver // Black................................1,895
Silver // Red-Black..........................1,262
Silver // Crema..................................16
Silver // Crema-Black...........................9
Silver total....................................3,182

Black // Black...................................667
Black // Red-Black.............................342
Black // Crema.................................229
Black // Crema-Black.........................331
Black // Individual interior.....................3
Black total.....................................1,572

Red // Black.....................................137
Red // Red-Black................................77
Red // Crema.....................................62
Red // Crema-Black.............................15
Red // Individual interior........................3
Red total...........................................291

Topaz // Black...................................135
Topaz // Red-Black................................8
Topaz // Crema..................................138
Topaz // Crema-Black...........................37
Topaz // Individual interior......................1
Topaz total........................................319

Stratus // Black..................................114
Stratus // Red-Black.............................12
Stratus // Crema..................................46
Stratus // Crema-Black..........................23
Stratus // Individual interior.....................1
Stratus total.......................................196

BMW Individual cars..............................124
Individual 2-tone Stratus // Crema............11
Individual 2-tone Black // Silver.................7
Individual 2-tone Carbon Black // Silver.......1
Individual total.....................................143

Individual notes.
To the best of our knowledge there were no Individual cars imported into the USA, though four Midnight Blue Metallic & Arizona Sun cars did go to Canada. These were special ordered by a chap called Manfred who was very high up in BMW Canada. He never saw his cars because BMW AG moved him back to Munich before they arrived. Three of the four remain in Canada, the fourth has returned to Germany to join a private collection.
Canada was also rumored to get a small shipment of very pale blue Alpinas, the owner of the Midnight Blue car tried to buy one of these cars, but it was sold from under her. As yet we have no images of this combo.
BMW Z8 Club members have told me that best looking of all the Individual cars seen in the EU is the Carbon Black Metallic with deep Saddle interior. As yet we have no images of this combo either.

Alpina notes.
The total run of 555 cars included 450 cars destined for the USA, available only in silver or black here. The remaining 105 cars were offered in Europe in all five of the standard Z8 colors as well as an Alpina blue which was similar tone to the Z8 Topaz, but had a more lilac/purple hue to it. Although this was the Alpina's signature color in their brochure and promotional material relatively few were made in that color, but the first and last Alpinas cars 1/555 and 555/555 were both Alpina Blue. Of the he non-US Alpina's I believe that 75 were sold mainland Europe, 20 in Japan and 10 in Great Britain.



Sales figures for the United States
special thanks to Fred Meloan @ BMWNA

2000
Aug........108.......108
Sep.........68........176
Oct..........43........219
Nov.........41........260
Dec.........57........317

2001
Jan..........51.........51
Feb..........61.......112
Mar..........81.......193
Apr..........87........280
May........105........385
Jun.........109........494
Jul............91.......585
Aug..........91........676
Sep..........35........711
Oct...........63.......774
Nov..........94.......868
Dec........102........970

2002
Jan..........57.........57
Feb .........48.......105
Mar..........55.......160
Apr..........56.......216
May.........67.......283
Jun..........32.......315
Jul...........39.......354
Aug..........36.......390
Sep..........27.......417
Oct...........38.......455
Nov..........40.......495
Dec..........29.......524

2003
Jan............31.......31
Feb...........16........47
Mar...........48........95
Apr.............8.......103 (+37 Alpina Roadsters.......37)
May...........19.......122 (+44 Alpina Roadsters.......81)
Jun.............4.......126 (+37 Alpina Roadsters......118)
Jul..............3.......129 (+48 Alpina Roadsters......166)
Aug.............0.......129 (+36 Alpina Roadsters......202)
Sept............5.......134 (+32 Alpina Roadsters......234)
Oct..............1.......135 (+22 Alpina Roadsters......256)
Nov.............3.......138 (+25 Alpina Roadsters......281)
Dec.............0.......138 (+20 Alpina Roadsters......301)

2004
Jan.............1...........1 (+10 Alpina Roadsters......311)
Feb.............0...........1 (+10 Alpina Roadsters......321)
Mar............1............2 (+25 Alpina Roadsters......346)
Apr.............0...........2 (+19 Alpina Roadsters......365)
May............0...........2 (+5 Alpina Roadsters........370)
Jun.............1...........3 (+7 Alpina Roadsters........377)
Jul..............2...........5 (+11 Alpina Roadsters......388)
Aug.............1...........6 (+7 Alpina Roadsters.......395)
Sep.............1...........7 (+4 Alpina Roadsters.......399)
Oct..............1...........8 (+1 Alpina Roadsters.......400)
Nov.............0...........8 (+2 Alpina Roadsters.......402)
Dec.............0...........8 (+2 Alpina Roadsters.......404)

2005
Jan.............0...........0 (+1 Alpina Roadsters.......405)
Feb.............2...........2 (+1 Alpina Roadsters.......406)
Mar.............0...........2 (+1 Alpina Roadsters.......407)
Apr.............2...........4 (+0 Alpina Roadsters.......407)
May............0...........4 (+0 Alpina Roadsters.......407)
Jun.............1...........5 (+3 Alpina Roadsters.......410)
Jul-Dec........4...........9 (+5 Alpina Roadsters.......415)

In January 2006 the total number of US Spec E52's registered as sold is:
1,967 Z8's + 415 Alpina Roadster's = 2,382

In 2006 BW NA registered 5 more cars sold, but I coud not tell if they were Z8's or Alpinas.

This means that there's around 165 Z8/Alpinas unaccounted for, roughly 37 Alpinas & 128 Z8's. A fair number of US spec (ie: AH6**** VIN) cars were sold in Canada, and these would not show up on BMW NA's stock lists, so this may also account for some of these cars. It has been suggested to me that many BMW dealers in the US put one or two in their private collections too, and that is why so many appear to be 'missing'.

Around 30 cars were used as press and DE cars. During the DE I was told that these early numbers (AH60001-32) either had to be broken up, or deported as per EPA rules on preproduction prototypes. However nearly all of these cars have subsequently appeared on EBay, some more than once.