BMW M4 Competition

Coupe shrugs off the weight of expectation

- Andy Enright

I HAVEN’T NAILED Turn One at Phillip Island. Not by any stretch of the imagination. That would normally be cause for some concern and it certainly would have been in the previous generation BMW M4. There, it would have been a case of nervously groping for the limit of grip, prickly heat creeping up your spine as you steeled yourself to react to a poorly telegraphed stab of oversteer at the merest sniff of a lift. Type two fun, in other words.

Fortunately I’m in the all-new BMW M4 Competition and things are a considerably less unnerving. With around 190km/h showing at turn in, the front end engages and never feels as if it’s going to let go. Ease it hard to the smooth inside kerbing and gently feed the throttle. Then, out of sheer curiosity, lift off sharply and completely. The car settles into neutrality, caster action winnowing away steering effort. After a beat or two, the electronic safety net of M Dynamic Mode awakens and the outside front brake pad skims the disc, a gentle anti-yaw moment to keep things on course. It’s so delicate that its intervention is hard to detect and its job is to make your wholly fallible car control seem heroic. It works.