bmw m coupe

8 Days of Petrol-head Nirvana the brochure said. SOLD! But what car to take?

No matter how much I wanted to drive my own car on the roads promised by the Furball5000, entering a 27-year old motor on a 3,000-mile adventure against newer, more powerful machinery was going to be a brave effort.

My partner for the week, Dave, offered the use of his newly acquired BMW M Coupe. Nick-named MARMITE for its love-it or hate-it looks, the coupe was definitely the answer - BMW reliability and build quality mated to M Power performance and stopping power. Let the games commence!

The Coupe has all the practicalities of a family hatchback, yet is a 2 seater built by BMW's technicians rather than a design team, so is very much the sports car

Our week in the Coupe began with a tunnel run through the streets of London to make the most acoustic properties of the tunnels and the non-standard DTM exhausts. City driving is easy. The coupe can be driven as daily commuter given light controls, firm but comfortable ride and precise but light steering. However, the steering is not too light like the current steer-by-wire offerings, which personally, do not work for me.

Motorway miles are consumed with effortless comfort, but it was on the twists and turns that we found the Coupe's forte. With minimal body roll, sharp, precise turn in and in convoy with much more powerful machinery, the coupe kept her place with ease.

When the pace picked up, planting our right foot a little further into the deep pile carpet unleashed the beast within. I say the beast, but the coupe never felt out of control, always planted and offering smooth delivery. Sitting on larger rims, rubber band tyres and with the weight of our luggage, the rear was obviously helped to stay where we wanted. Each day the twisties were taken harder and faster and not once was there a hint of the back skipping or the front under-steering.

Reliability was never going to be an issue even though we worked the Coupe hard. Never missing a beat and where others suffered from high oil or water temperatures the coupe's oil may have increased by 4 degrees. Where most other car owners were topping up with oil and water, we just checked the dipstick with the same comment every morning. "Still hasn't used any"!

The trip was hard going with plenty of miles under our belt each day, but the M Coupe was a joy to drive, never making a chore of any type of road. Hats off to BMW for allowing the technicians a free hand to build such a car and praise indeed to those technicians.

Although not everybody's cup of tea, the M Coupe certainly stands out from the mainstream BMW's that are becoming more commonplace on today's roads. Having driven this one for 8 days along some of the best roads in Europe, I can highly recommend it as the weekend sports car and the everyday commuter. If you can live with 2 seats, this offers everything you need in one package.

It's a pity the new Z4 coupe was designed by the marketing men as I can't help feel its going to disappear into the BMW line up.

Mark Borthwick
July 2006