The upshot is a car that’s a bit wearing, demanding too much concentration for it to be enjoyable over long stretches. Instead, it feels better suited to a smooth-surfaced track, where its excellent balance, trick limited-slip differential and measured steering will allow you to exploit that magnificent engine to the full.
Which is a shame, because merely climbing into that deliberately confined cockpit has you wanting to unleash all this M Coupé can muster, its just perceptibly twin-bubbled roof creating a helmet-like feel.
Very adjustable electric seats enable you to get a fair view over the long billow of bonnet, the major controls are well positioned and the no-nonsense dash further suggests a car made for driving. It’s a slight struggle to get in it and there’s not much dumping ground inside, but this car is sufficiently refined as a cruiser to make a distant weekend away enticing, and the boot’s big enough to cope.
You’ll be disappointed by the cheaply hollow sound the dash makes when you tap it, and the pitted, orange-peel effect on the paintwork of our test car was none too impressive, even though this is a generally quite a hardy, robust-feeling device.
