2021, the year of our M4
BMW’s new M3/M4 pretty much defined Ben’s 2021, suggesting it’s either a special car or his priorities are somewhat out of whack…
This latest-gen M3/M4 entered my consciousness in late 2020, when I interviewed the team behind it and worked to get my head around a car that, according to our early prototype drives, was both heavier than the outgoing car and more M at the same time. Eh? Power was up, naturally, the twin-clutch ’box had gone in favour of an auto and the car’s handling was, thanks to an all new-structure and suspension geometry inspired by the CS version of the previous-gen car, transformed according to initial reports.
February 2021 was spent hatching a masterplan: a new M4 and a 911 on a circuit in the UK for a head-tohead video; and a stunning Isle of Man Green M3 in Germany from which our European editor Georg Kacher could merrily hop back and forth into a Porsche 911 Carrera S. The M3 came away with a draw – an outstanding result given the 911’s a purpose-built sports car.
‘My’ M4 arrived in June. Like all UK-spec M3/M4s it was a Competition. Unlike any other I’ve seen since it was Sau Paulo Yellow (one of two no-cost colour options). The spec was good: no silly-money ceramic brakes, but the extrovert and excellent carbon bucket seats (£3.4k or included in the £6750 Carbon Pack) were present and correct, as were the Technology Pack and four very pretty wheels (the £850 double-spoke 826s, 19-inch up front and 20-inch at the rear). The car looked spectacular but, at £87,745, so too did the on-the-road price.
What, six months on, would I go without? Everything but the seats and the wheels (superb though the Laserlights are), which brings the car in at £81,680.
Naturally, it was raining the day I collected the car – weather conditions in which the old F80
M3 was the stuff of nightmares. I arrived home both spellbound and gobsmacked. This, clearly, was different gravy.
Thereafter we did it all. We went over to Lotus in Norfolk twice, the car mustering a small crowd at the marque’s petrolhead Hethel HQ each time. We met a trio of CAR readers, gleefully blowing the socks off two of them (one played hard to get…). We went on track, at Anglesey and at Bicester, experiences that helped underline the universal truth that, however gifted the car, tyres are the single most important component in achieving fast car happiness. At Bicester, the standardfit Pirelli 4 Ss were sensational. At a cool and damp Anglesey, the M4’s factory-fit track tyre option (a set of Michelin Cups) were a speed-killing, snap-oversteer-laden liability. As soon as an M4 with xDrive four-wheel drive arrived in the UK
(new for this generation M3/M4), we went to meet it. Spoiler alert: go xDrive. The car doesn’t need it, and you’re paying financial and efficiency penalties for the privilege, but it’s like this: I can well imagine scenarios in which you’d wish you had it, but can’t picture a single one in which you’d regret choosing it.
To round out the year, YA70 TWM took on a couple of EV upstarts (BMW’s new i4 M50 and Tesla’s Model 3 Performance) and humbled them both to claim headline billing on a CAR front cover, flanked by its elite M predecessors. I can think of no more fitting end to both 2021 and our time with this M4.
And now it’s gone. Really, the only niggles were the easily foxed adaptive cruise (which loved slowing for parked cars on long gentle curves), the occasional bout of unwanted gesture-control interaction and the generous tyre roar on some surfaces. We even averaged 27mpg.
In 2022 the line-up expands yet further, with the M4 CSL and the Touring M3 estate joining the existing coupe, convertible and saloon body styles. If my kids weren’t already driving themselves about the place I’d go for an M3 Touring xDrive. But since they are I just want YA70 TWM back in my life.
Count the cost
Cost new £87,745 Part-exchange £57,400 Cost per mile 23.0p Cost per mile inc depreciation £3.83
I arrived home spellbound and gobsmacked. Different gravy