The world of bespoke luxury vehicles is really taking off and the latest entrant into the space is Boldmen that was founded by Harald Käs, Michael Käs, and Friedhelm Wiesmann. That last name might be familiar to you because of the BMW-based retro-roadsters produced by Wiesmann GmbH. Michael Käs has worked at Ruf and Alpina, so he has expertise in the field.
The company’s first product is the BMW Z4 based CR4. The facts that make up the relevant details for this car are contained within the name. The C stands for carbon, out of which the body is made to keep weight low and quality high; the R stands for roadster, this one comes with an electric soft-top; and the 4 stands for more than 400 hp.
Specifically, the CR4 gets a tuned version of BMW’s 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six pushing out 402 hp, which is good enough for a 0-100 km/h time of 3.9 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 250 km/h. That gives the Boldmen CR 4 a substantial edge over the European Z4 M40i that’s listed at 335 hp and 610 Nm of torque. It’s even more powerful than the American-and-Australian-spec Z4 M40i, which makes 382 hp. Consequently, the best that the more powerful version of BMW’s car can manage is a 0-100 km/h time of 4.1 seconds.
The German startup plans to manufacture 20 cars this year and about another 80 in 2022. It predicts that it could build as many as 120 per year if enough customers demand it. Boldmen noted that it will make the CR4 by hand in Germany according to buyers’ specifications. As a result, the price won’t be low with the CR4 starting from € 185,000 (US$ 218,000), which is about three-times the cost of the BMW Z4 M40i that’s priced from € 62,700 (US$ 73,900) in Germany.
