New BMW M4 coupe review, test drive

Just don’t count on the same razor-sharp throttle response as before when the road opens up and you get to put your foot down. The inherent qualities of the forced-induction engine mean the initial pick-up is a lot less rabid than with the old naturally aspirated unit owing to a fleeting moment of lag as the two turbochargers spool up to full boost. But once they do, the in-gear shove is uncompromising.

Still, there's no need to pile on the revs in an attempt to tap into the deep seam of performance offered by the new engine. You merely flex your right foot in a suitable gear and the engine obliges with truly muscular properties. The resulting rush of acceleration is spectacular, particularly between 3,500 and 5,500rpm where the M4 coupé feels to be at its strongest.

Inevitably, though, it lacks the outright aural intensity of the unit it replaces, despite the inclusion of Active Sound Design, which reproduces the sound of the M4 coupé’s new six-cylinder through the audio speakers at various volumes and frequencies based on engine revs, throttle load and speed.

With two mono-scroll turbochargers, variable valve timing and continuously variable camshaft control, it revs quite freely, extending to 7,600rpm before the onset of the limiter. This is quite high by turbocharged engine standards, but 600rpm less than the old naturally aspirated engine achieved.

The optional dual-clutch automatic gearbox provides the M4 coupé with the ease of usability to match its fervent on-boost accelerative ability, leading to a highly impressive set of performance figures: 0-100kph in 4.1sec and the standing kilometre, now very much accepted as the modern day acceleration yardstick, in 22.2sec. This is a respective 0.5sec and 0.7sec faster than the old M3 coupé.

As a further indicator of just how much the new engine has transformed the performance, BMW claims the M4 coupé is capable of accelerating from 80 kph to 120kph in fourth gear in just 3.5sec. By comparison, the M3 coupé required 4.3sec. Top speed remains limited to 250kph, although buyers can have it raised to 280kph with an optional M Driver’s package.

It is not just the sheer potency of its straight-line acceleration and heaving in-gear qualities that makes the new BMW M4 coupé so exciting to drive hard, though. There is a perceptible completeness to the engineering of its chassis that serves to provide the new M-car with a wonderfully fluid feel over challenging sections of blacktop.