In German, Zukunft means future, and that's what the Z in BMW's sports cars points to. Surprisingly, today's Z1 arrives from the past. Not only that, but it comes with a price that may make the future of its buyer's wallet a lot lighter.

Reese's Pieces might be an amazing amalgamation of complimentary tastes, but yesterday's oddball mashup certainly wasn't palatable when its price was added in. At least the was the opinion of the 86% of you dooming it (them?) to a Crack Pipe loss.

From the Porsche-designed Kübelsitzwagen to the Baja Bug, the inception of which is generally…

While that crazy town trolly was sushi masquerading as shnitzel, today's is pure, uncut Bavarian, and in the U.S. at least, rarer than a second date following a shart-filled first. The zukunft in the Z1's name was well founded as the model was used as a testbed for numerous future technologies including the Z-axle multi-link rear suspension, high-intensity projector lamps, and doors that go down like Sasha Grey.

It's those doors for which the Z1 is probably most widely remembered. They retract, along with their glass, into the rockers at the flip of a switch. Of course such a mechanism leaves extremely tall sills making the car unsuitable for or modest Scotsmen. Of course there's no such thing as a modest Scotsman, or a sober one.

Powering the Z1 is BMW's baby's butt smooth 2.5-litre M20 which gives it up to the tune of 168-bhp and leans over 20 degrees to allow for the appreciably low hood line. Behind the six sits five, as in a Getrag 260 gearbox. Parts for any of these pieces should be procurable stateside, no sweat.

Other proprietary parts such as the thermoplastic fenders and GRP hood, decklid etc, will be considerably more so, especially in light of the Z1's miniscule 8,000-car production run. This particular example, in black over black with giant alien tongues for seats, is claimed to have covered a little more than 47K over its life. Not only does that seem barely broken in, but the car comes with an über rare hardtop making actual breaking into it even harder. Leaving that at home lets you enjoy either a well proportioned but plastic windowed soft top, or the freedom of topless motoring when that is retracted.

Of course with rarity comes challenge, after all having a pet Siberian Tiger or gimp in a box, while immeasurably cool, could conceivably cause you to run afoul of the law. That's totes a possibility here, as even though offered up by a dealership, there's no license plate of the car nor evidence in either the ad or dealer website that the car isn't here on an extremely limited visa.

That'll need to be taken into account when ruminating on its $54,900 price tag, along with the fact that - here in the States at least - finding a Z1 to buy is about as rare as getting usable legal advice on Reddit. With both those factors in mind, plus the image of girls in miniskirts attempting to extract themselves from the car's confines - do you think it's worth that major league cabbage? Or, is this a rare Bimmer priced like a bummer?

You decide!

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