Time for the autumn chill-out

as i write this the sun is shining outside. It’s bloody cold, though. Autumn is setting in quickly and suddenly, and it’s only just over a month since I spent a balmy late-sumer evening with a whole bunch of BMW convertibles near Henley-on-Thames, as regular readers might remember. I had a fantastic time piloting such beauties as a 328 Roadster, a 507, a Z1 and a Z8 (see right), before sunset called a halt to proceedings.

Thing is, I’d already had a fabulous drive down there in my own BMW Convertible. And no matter what the charms of those other cars were – only one of which I could even imagine owning, if you bear their market values in mind – mine more than held its own. In fact, it was rather enjoyable to have some of the other assembled journalists take a look over it; one or two of them even assumed it had been brought down as part of BMW ’s own fleet!

The journey was a hundred miles or so, much on trunk roads plus a spell on the M40. But the scenery turns bucolic in a major way on the stretch south from Stokenchurch, narrow lanes winding and plunging through dense woodland with the sun barely filtering through at times. The leafy smell and the birdsong make a convertible a real treat to be in – quite a different effect from the more usual roof-down/howling exhaust scenario.

A few hours later I had to think about my route home. Those thread-like lanes could easily hide the occasional inebriated local, lurking in a 4x4 without thought to a delicate 1980s soft-top, so I headed out of Henley towards Nettlebed and Watlington and was treated to some fabulously sinuous B-roads, perfect for the innate balance and modest yet useful power of my 320i. Even the roundabouts on the A43 past Brackley did their bit to make this a properly life-affirming high-speed late-night trek. One I’ll remember during the winter evenings ahead.