Return of the Jedi

SO STRONG WAS THE FORCE WITH FRANK VAN MEEL DURING HIS FIRST STINT IN CHARGE OF M THAT HE'S BACK FOR ANOTHER AND HE COULDN'T BE HAPPIER

- BEN MILLER

THE FIRST TIME I SAW AN M CAR WAS IN A MOVIE

“I watched a lot of action films when I was growing up; bank robberies and casino heists, usually in the south of France. The bad guys always drove a pimped-up black 3 Series and the good guys would drive an M3. They’d spend about half the movie racing through Cannes or Nice and I’d think, ‘Man, these cars are fast’. You could clearly see the idea behind cars like the M3 – that you don’t have to choose between a sports car and a sedan; you can have both in one car. No-one else was doing that.

“You could see the racing influence in the precision driving, and that’s what you feel when you drive an M car still. When you turn the wheel the car follows just as you intended; no understeer, no delay, just precision. This is key. It’s where it all started for us 50 years ago. And it’s in the DNA of each and every M car still.”

I GUESS I COULDN’T STAY AWAY