To a world that doesn’t know much beyond F1
from recent years, the name Pedro Lamy may not ring a bell. But for someone who
has been a regular at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for most of the last
dozen-and-a-half years, and used to follow F1 when it was still a sport, Pedro
Lamy is a minor legend of sorts. With a chequered history in motorsport, the
42-year-old Portugese came, like many others of his generation, from the ranks
of karting. Formula Ford champion in 1989, followed by the Formula Opel Lotus
championship in 1991, Lamy moved up to Formula 3 in 1992 and won in his first
appearance. In 1993, Lamy won the International F3000 championship, where he
confirmed his potential by winning the Grand Prix de Pau in Southern France
against the redoubtable Olivier Panis.
The
M4 really is a car for all occasions
Rated as one of the great hopes of racing,
Lamy was recruited by the Lotus team to compete in the final rounds of the F1
World Championship in 1993, replacing an injured Alessandro Zanardi. Despite a
bit of a messy first performance, the fiery Portuguese driver was confirmed for
the next season. But the 1994 season ended prematurely, in May – as F1 went
through its darkest period – when it was Lamy’s turn to be the victim of a
violent accident during private testing at Silverstone. With both legs broken,
Lamy went through a long convalescence.
Lamy made his return to competition a year
later, when the tiny Minardi team called on him to replace Pierluigi Martini at
the Hungarian GP in August 1995. At the end of the season, Lamy scored his
first point (it was also the first time a point had been scored by a Portugese
driver in F1). Since then Lamy moved to Endurance racing, and is now
acknowledged as a leading specialist in this arena, as evidenced by his many
titles and success in the FIA GT and Le Mans Series championships. He won the
LMS LMP1 championship in 2007, driving the prototype Peugeot 908 he shared with
Stéphane Sarrazin. That same year, he finished second in the 24 Hours of Le
Mans (with teammate Sebastien Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin). Plus, five wins
at the 24 Hours Nürburgring!
The
M4's cabin offers superb driving ergonomics
Clearly, Lamy is talented. And bloody
quick. Riding shotgun with him in BMW’s latest M-missile, the M4 coupé at a
track in Southern Portugal (at Autódromo, in the Algarve), Lamy displayed his
talent and virtuosity at steering a one-and-a-half tonne bolide at obscene
speeds, and that too with one hand most of the time, as the other was engaged
in fiddling with his mobile, which made my turn at tilling the same machine
(with both hands and some more) look most underwhelming…
Yet with all the electronic gadgetries and
all the drivers’ aid, plus the hugely improved paddle-shift ’box, the BMW M4
will make any amateur look good. And as the amateur is made to look good, so is
the car. With styling that is a delicious mix of traditional BMW cues with
modern muscularity thrown in for good measure, the design lineage of the M4 is
clear – it is, without any shadow of doubt, the grandson of the E46, the best
looking 3 Series since the first gen E21.
There
are plenty of premium materials at work in the M4's cabin, making you feel like
you're in something special
And like the 3 Series coupés that have
preceded it, BMW’s ambition for its new M4 Coupé is clear: It must be the best.
So there was no question of using an existing engine in the range. The M4 Coupé
receives a new six-cylinder TwinPower Turbo. Thanks to twin turbochargers of
the mono scroll type, direct injection, fully variable Valvetronic and variable
camshaft timing (double VANOS ), BMW’s engineers have managed to wring out
431bhp from a 3.0-litre engine, as well as a truck-hauling 550Nm of torque,
most of which is available between 1800 and 5400rpm.
Zero to hero, or 100kph, is dispatched in
just 4.1 seconds, when equipped with the optional M double-clutch seven-speed
gearbox, which is what we drove mostly. We were also lucky in finagling the one
manual version around, which was fun, but given the efficiency of the
double-clutch paddle-shifter, this writer is more and more convinced that the
days of the manuals are indeed numbered.
Powering
the M4 is a new turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder engine
Maximum speed is electronically limited to
250kph, but can be increased to 280kph when the cars are equipped with the M
Driver pack. Yet the car is claimed to consume just 8.3 litres per 100km, which
translates to 12kpl in the European Driving Cycle, a decrease of over 25 per
cent compared to its predecessor, comfortably meeting Euro 6 standards. But
with pedal to the metal, the situation changes drastically, with averages
coming down to around 5kpl or even less. But then if you are forking out a
fortune in acquiring this delectable toy, fuel costs should not be an issue.
Sheer driving pleasure, though, is guaranteed. Or you can ask for your money
back…
