Its a great looking little machine - flared gaurds - big nostrils - awesome.
Inside it is a nice place to be - great seats, nice interior. I adjusted the controls to my normal driving position which I have worked out over the years. Easy.
Press the start button and the engine snarls into life. It is quite a loud machine - which is good.
So, I took it out for the first time on a nice overcast Auckland day - down the northern motorway towards the coatesville roads. A few bursts from throttle reveal the wall of torque from the 3.0 I6 TT. The 70-100kmh bursts were over in no time. Heaps of go!
Into the corners and the first thing I noticed was the turn in. Stunning. The nose bites in and slightly turns under as the tyres bite into the bend. Need more? Turn the steering wheel further. Simple as that. The Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tyres on this chassis are nearly unbeatable.
Brakes? Stunning. Nothing more to say on that.
Engine? A great engine. The N54 is a awesome first direct injection twin turbo effort by BMW. Yes, it is quick. No doubt a very very strong motor...but...it does have turbo lag. A really really small amount of lag. Most people won't even notice because of the immense wall of torque that follows. When you get it into a section of road that requires point, go, brake, point, go , brake etc - you expect (in a BMW M car anyway) that point, go and brake have all been balanced with each other and react as quickly as you can think. In this case, the point and brake are instant - but the go is prefixed with a slight (ever so slight) wait, then go.
Overall, it is an awesome machine. The engine is no M3 V8 - but you aren't paying the same money as the M3 either. I am looking forward to the F30 M3 and hope that the turbo engine they use there has zero lag.
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