SUPER FACTORIES

It rockets from 0-60mph in 5.6 seconds and reaches 155mph before an electronic speed limiter says “that’s fast enough”. It handles so well, the G-forces might make you lose your lunch before the Z4 loses its grip on the road. To manufacture such an artful instrument of automotive pleasure requires three super factories.

The first factory, in the Bavarian heartland of Landshut, Germany, casts the automotive industry’s first magnesium composite crankcase, which results in the world’s lightest six-cylinder crankcase. The second factory is in Munich, Germany which takes the lightweight crankcase and precision assembles a 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine that delivers 255 horsepower. The lean German muscle is then shipped to a third factory – in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, USA. This last plant is a forerunner in environmental innovation, being the world's first automotive...