After a three-year hiatus in Australia, the BMW Z4 is back, attempting to breathe in some much-needed life into the moribund premium two-seater roadster market that the company helped to reinvent in the mid-’90s with the patchy original Z3.

Sharing much with latest 3 Series, and co-developed with Toyota’s new Supra, expectations are high for the classy newcomer, as it takes on a broad spectrum of rivals that include the Audi TT, Porsche Boxster and Alpine A110.