Ragtops To Riches

TWO PRICEY FOUR- CYLINDER CONVERTIBLES STRIKE GOLD ON A TANGLE OF SIERRA NEVADA ASPHALT.

- Eric Tingwall

IN GREATER LOS ANGELES, THE BMW Z4 AND THE PORSCHE 718 BOXSTER ATTRACT AS MUCH ATTENTION AS A TOYOTA PRIUS. Drive three hours north to Lake Isabella, though, and you might as well be rolling a gold-plated M1 Abrams tank through the town’s rugged streets. People stare. They roll down their windows and want to know what they’re seeing. They holler from the liquor-store parking lot, or pull up shirtless in a car with mismatched all-season tires, tell you their life story, and challenge you to a $1000 race.

Lake Isabella, with the nearby ghost town remnants of a gold-mining boom-and-bust, is no wealthy hamlet. The locals are, however, rich in great driving roads. Whether you head north, south, east, or west, leaving town means traveling on scribbles that look like a late-period Sol LeWitt drawing. As a California summer blossom, these roads are the perfect place for a pair of ragtop sports cars.

After nearly a decade spent with a folding aluminum roof, the BMW Z4 returns to the Z car’s roots as a soft top convertible and a coupe. Granted, the coupe now answers to the name Toyota Supra, but it’s built on the same bones and powered by BMW engines, making it a Z4 in everything but name and looks. Until the 382-hp Z4 M40i arrives later this year, BMW’s sole offering is this sDrive30i, which drives its rear wheels with a 255-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four lashed to an eight-speed automatic.