THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY?

In America and Germany you can still buy a BMW M4 with a manual gearbox, and it could just be one of the great modern M-cars

- STEPHEN DOBIE

FOR ALL THE WILD NEW ADDITIONS BMW HAS MADE to the M division range for its 50th year, I've suddenly got a feeling it could have saved itself some graft. Right here, right now, I've a suspicion that all we ever really needed wears bright orange paint and is pointed almost perilously uphill at a fourway stop in San Francisco's undulating Nob Hill district.

The Americans have clung on to stick-shift M-cars much longer than we have, a manual M5 surviving two additional generations in the States. So while UK dealers opted for the new M4 only in punchier-powered, auto-only Competition trim, our Stateside pals, just like our European friends in Germany, have been able to save a chunk of cash and go for a DIY base car since the G82's 2021 launch. Somewhat inevitably, it's priced in a way that taunts us, too. Starting at $74,700 ($400 less if you'd prefer an M3), the base M4 converts to a mite over £60,000. Which is where my own innate Rolodex of performance car pricing still places a car like this. The lucky blighters will also get the new M2, of course, costing another ten grand less.

This Fire Orange coupe also happens to be my personal epiphany for not only ceasing to care about the brash styling of the M4's second coming, but genuinely warming to the way it looks. Perhaps it's the grilles' piffling size beside those of the Peterbilt trucks roaming Northern California, but I reckon it's more the full commitment of a lurid colour and lack of front licence plate. With the kidneys allowed their full glory, I think they begin to make sense. Or maybe I'm just a bit delirious from all the Mountain Dew.