The Vehicles Earth

Life is good
The miles just keep piling on the 1M Coupe. It’s been to the Nurburgring twice (although tragically the only lap it did was a parade behind a pace car) and more recently I took it to Spa, too. One-up it’s quite a tool for European road trips. There’s a fair bit of exhaust boom at around 90mph but the stereo drowns it out easily enough. Stick to that sort of speed and you’ll see 28mpg or more too. Past 100mph (in Germany) that drops quickly, but then you’d probably expect that, wouldn’t you?



Spa was amazing (I was racing) but once again the 1M missed out on track action. I’m itching to get it on a circuit but so far the only flat-out driving has been at Elvington airfield. Predictably it was great fun in the vast open spaces and would smoke its tyres with the best of ‘em. Quite how it’ll perform at a real track with kerbs and Armco it’s hard to say. The body control feels great but I have my concerns about the brakes. It’s a standard criticism of M cars, but even during quickish road driving they get rumbly surprisingly quickly.

So in the next month or so I’d really like to take it to Donington or perhaps the new Silverstone to see if it can rival the Cayman for genuine road and track thrills. I’m hoping I’ll be able to drive it to the circuit, do a dozen laps or so and drive home without feeling like the car has suffered hugely. I know the Porsche would cope so I’m rooting for the 1M to do the same. Slowly but surely I’m falling for its pumped-up looks, pumped-up turbocharged delivery and easy everyday attitude. 

By Jethro Bovingdon