Cruise control retrofit

[bmwrocketman]

Greetings,

My daughter's mid-crisis is being resolved by her acquisition of a Toprot Z1, VIN WBABA91010AL07192, courtesy of Vintique Motors of Michigan, several weeks ago. In her initial re-acquaintance with the wonder car, she was delighted by it's "analog" nature, as she recalled from her introduction to them, at the Nordschleife, some three decades ago.

Driving from Detroit to San Francisco, while great fun, didn't require the same vigilance the many curves and elevation changes the 'Ring did.....so she's keen to have me install cruise control, for those longer road trips.

This is not something I've done, from scratch, nor on a true Euro car. I willing to "re-invent the wheel", but don't need to....LOL...at this point in my life.

Has anyone effected this revision to their car, and if so, have any suggestions regarding part numbers, control unit differences (Euro vs. US) etc.

I've had occasion to service US E30 cars' cruise control a bit, and as recall, the availability of parts is now minimal.

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.

 

[NZ00Z3]

Does the Z1 have cruise control at all?

I ran your VIN number through www.RealOEM.com to see if the part numbers are the same as the E30 or E36, but could not find a cruise control section. Maybe you'll have better luck looking in there.

 

[bmwrocketman]

Don't know if any did. Given it's design brief, and minimalist, but sophisticated and elegant configuration, I wouldn't be surprised if it was never offered as an option. Yes, BMW does squirrel away the cruise control system....it's in section 65, "distance systems".....of course!

 

[NZ00Z3]

Yes, it's normally in section 65, but the Z1 does not have this section.

Some E30's had cruise control. As the Z1 is of the E30 era, a E30 cruise control could be fitted. It would be a Tempomat system with an extra Bowden cable to the throttle body.

One way to sort it out, would be to look at the E30 and work out what part the cruise control stalk clips into on the steering column. See if this part is used in the Z1. If it is, then you have a ability to fit the stalk to the Z1. The rest from there is just minor modifications.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Greetings,

My daughter's mid-crisis is being resolved by her acquisition of a Toprot Z1, VIN WBABA91010AL07192, courtesy of Vintique Motors of Michigan, several weeks ago. In her initial re-acquaintance with the wonder car, she was delighted by it's "analog" nature, as she recalled from her introduction to them, at the Nordschleife, some three decades ago.

Driving from Detroit to San Francisco, while great fun, didn't require the same vigilance the many curves and elevation changes the 'Ring did.....so she's keen to have me install cruise control, for those longer road trips.

This is not something I've done, from scratch, nor on a true Euro car. I willing to "re-invent the wheel", but don't need to....LOL...at this point in my life.

Has anyone effected this revision to their car, and if so, have any suggestions regarding part numbers, control unit differences (Euro vs. US) etc.

I've had occasion to service US E30 cars' cruise control a bit, and as recall, the availability of parts is now minimal.

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.

Did you ever find a solution to this?

I've researched it, and the standard cruise control ("Distance System") for E30 requires plugging into the "green plug" behind the stock E30 dashboard to read the speedo. But, AFAIKT the Z1 does not have the stock E30 dashboard, so it looks like it would require some level of hacking to replicate the cruise control harness. So I don't think it's all that easy.

I'm mostly looking at this website: https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.php/Cruise_Control

 

[bmwrocketman]

Hi Hank,

Thank you for your comment.

No, I haven't pursued it, yet. I do plan to follow up, eventually. I will post the outcome.

Cheers!
Bill

 

[TJS]

There are a number of Z1 electrical "convenience" upgrades available to retrofit but I am not aware of cruise control.

Innenraum und Elektrik - potti's garage

www-pottis--garage-de.translate.goog

Electrical Parts

shop.roadster-fashion.de

 

[Michael-Z1]

Hi "BRM",

if you don't have any soloution until now... if not:

Aou can take the original E30 cruise control and adapt a control lever from the E34. The control lever of the E34 fits to the steering column of Z1 because it was taken from E34.

I have implanted control buttons in the impact absorber of my 36 cm sports steering wheel in my car and they transmit the signals to the cruise control control unit by means of a radio remote control


regards
Michael