by Bob Flavin 03 January 2012
I recently had the great pleasure of driving the BMW M1 coupe on a special day that was held for us lucky few motoring journalists. The M1 is quite possibly the best car to come out of Germany in the last decade; it has four seats, a decent boot and goes like a cat with its hair on fire. 
The 118d that I have on test may not have quite the same performance but it still has the poise and balance that its M counterpart has. The exterior has changed to look more like the 3 series and that’s no bad thing because the 3 series makes for a very pretty coupe. It may have a little footprint but there’s no shortage of room inside, for a two door coupe you could happily put four adults and their bags in the boot and zoom down to Wexford for the weekend.
There’s a race car feeling from the drivers’ seat, the steering wheel is flat in front of you and the floor slopes away near the pedals which makes it very comfortable and sporty to drive. The 1995cc engine puts out 143bhp through the rear wheels which is more than enough to have fun while driving but also makes it an easy motorway cruiser. 
BMW have done a lot of work to make the car aerodynamic, there are vents in the front bumper that push the air around the wheels forming a curtain around the wheel arches so the car cuts a fine a hole in the air as it can, this technology comes straight from the race track. They have also fitted a breaking system that recharges the battery so when you pull up to a junction the engine stops running to save fuel.
There’s the actual driving experience and that’s where the little 1 series comes into its own. If you’ve ever driven a rear wheel drive car you can imagine what it’s like driving something so small and light. It does all the right things with balance and poise in the corners and a great sound from the diesel engine once you get it up over 3000rpm. 
Even the manual gearbox is spot on for rapid gear changes and torque in every gear, there’s 300nm of it when you running at full tilt. It’s such good fun that I found it hard not to take it for a drive whenever there was a spare moment.
There is a new 1 series hatch which looks interesting but I’m afraid my heart will stay with the little coupe that I never want to give back. The range starts at €30,050 but you’ll need to add Bluetooth to that for €341,52 and that should be all you need.
