BMW USA has teased an image of a vehicle we believe is the forthcoming and long-awaited replacement for the Z4 roadster.
The post includes the cryptic phrase, "Starting August 17th, the road will never be the same," which Australia's GoAuto has taken to mean BMW will reveal the car at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in California.
The reveal will be the first look at the vehicle whose platform will also form the basis of a revived Toyota Supra, which may well turn out to be a hybrid supercar to take on the 2017 Acura NSX.
As GoAuto notes, the image shows a flying buttress design with a targa-type roof, which goes against speculation (and evidence seen in spy photos) BMW will revert to a fabric roof lighter than the folding hardtop of the Z4.
It's likely the Z4 replacement will use BMW's existing range of four- and six-cylinder turbocharged engines. BMW has said it will soon offer a hybrid or plug-in hybrid version of every vehicle it makes, which leads us to believe a high-performance hybrid powertrain is a distinct possibility, though such a vehicle would cannibalize sales of the i8 roadster BMW announced for the 2018 model year.
We suspect what we'll see later this month is a concept that will be close in appearance to the production car, but not an exact representation; that's what BMW did with the Concept 8 Series it revealed in May, a coupe design study the automaker said "reveals much of what is to come" in next year's production version.
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