BMW M4 Competition on the Victorian Backroads
BMW loaned writer and explorer Tim Warren an M4 competition to explore rural Victoria in Australia.
Exciting plans mean a 5:45am Monday morning Airport trip. Auckland to Melbourne is a route I’ve taken more than 50 times, it’s virtually a bus trip and passes quickly as I consume 4 episodes of House of Dragons. On landing I was straight to BMW Head Office Melbourne. It’s huge and it took me a moment to find reception, but in a few minutes I’m presented with the keys to a car, and not just any car. A 2024 M4 competition with a 4WD 390KW (530hp) turbo straight 6 3.0L in gorgeous Isle of Man metallic dark green and an extensive carbon package. Oh the benefits of being a motoring writer.
Urban roads soon fall away as Melbourne recedes and soon I’m in the Victorian countryside where roads are generally good quality, if you excuse the occasional pothole. Yet I feel that the speed limits are low for roads that were originally designed for more. The roads get quieter and there’s an occasional 100K sign. Soon I reach a tight twisty hill section and start to glimpse what this car is capable of. It’s very planted, low and flat, wide, and you immediately feel incredibly capable road holding only improved by trick four wheel drive.
Between the traffic and the speed limit, it’s hard to test this car, due in no small part to it’s sheer capability. So in many ways, I was using this car as a grand tourer, which is not what it’s for. This is a race car, yet it serves well in a Grand Touring capacity as the steering, engine, brakes, suspension and exhaust, are all tunable from ‘Comfort’ to ‘Sport Plus’ meaning a more relaxed mode for the large amount of driving you do to get where you’re going. All the expected driving aids are handy here, especially the radar cruise control. Grand Touring was a good time to admire the internals of the car. The highest spec carbon seats are positively sculptural. Featuring suede and Alcantara on a carbon skeleton, they resemble museum pieces, and can not hide their track and performance focus, almost demanding five-point harnesses. Yet while only tactically padded, they are surprisingly comfortable, far more so than a fixed race bucket seat.
It’s also time to appreciate the excellent media offering and high quality Harman Kardon system. Clever settings give a spatial feeling in the car, and comprehensive settings allow for much control. The BMW infotainment operating system has had a consistent look and feel for some time now, and it’s very good. Easy to navigate, and thankfully, buttons a plenty, making it very driver focused with the well thought out steering wheel putting vital control in easy reach.
As mid-afternoon neared – I figured it was probably time to look for somewhere to stay. So mid afternoon I pulled over for a snack and booked the Alzburg resort in nearby Mansfield. Like all the Victorian towns I passed through, here was another little spot that was beautifully kept, tidy and safe. The resort was a charming former “Ladies College” convent from 1891, with modern facilities and great rooms. A local burger joint provided excellent feed and after a long day I took to bed early!
Day Two
I always look forward to a full day on the road. After a very pleasant night at the resort, I woke at NZ time as the sun came up. Mansfield is at around 300m altitude, and a brisk eight degrees overnight warmed to 16 by the time I left. As I loaded the car with my one suitcase, fellow resort visitors Nigel and Pam packed enough for at least eight into their large SUV. Everyone’s incredibly friendly here, and everyone enjoys vehicles, so we talked about the eye-catching BMW, and Nigel recounted stories of the 30 classic cars he’s restored over time. He’d just been to Bathurst. Now they’re on a road trip. Being retired, the trip was open ended – they were not going to run out of equipment.
The sun was bright, this was going to be a good day. I took the road up to the top of Buller mountain, and what a drive! It’s everything you want when you’re test driving a performance car. A busy hill climb to the top opens up to a yet highly developed ski field zone, dead quiet in October with not an ounce of snow to be seen… it was 20 degrees by now. In the otherwise deserted ski town, motorcyclists Bob and John on matching Ducatis road tripping from Tasmania to the motorcycle Grand Prix the following weekend. We admired each other’s vehicles, and they imparted tips on great local roads. On these mountain roads, both up and especially coming down from the snowless ski field, you get a sense for the road holding and handling capability of the M4. It’s equipped with a 2d G-force meter and let’s just say it nailed the very tightest turns; pulling In excess of one lateral G around the corners. The M2 button is configured to switch to two wheel drive, yet I found four wheel drive mode always delivered the fastest experience. I can’t tell you with any precision what the acceleration of the car was, but the manufacturer number of 3.5s is impressive, yet I feel the car would be faster than that. It’s certainly well served by the 275 Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tires on the 19” & 20” forged rims – also spectacular in their own right.
Driving here, you’re quickly reminded that Australia is very big. It’s also quite flat, even when you are at the top of the mountains, it’s not immense and craggy. However, Victoria has many beautiful trees lining the roads making for beautiful avenues disappearing into the distance. I pulled over to one of the many farm driveways; it could have been a scene from McLeod’s Daughters with manicured bucolic charm. Something else that stands out is the number of traveler-oriented businesses scattered along the roadside. You don’t need a guidebook to travel here. You just chance your luck and find place after place. Be it a brewery, a distillery, a berry farm, a local museum, a cafe or roadside stall, it’s all right there. Australia may be known as a dry country, but when I was in Victoria, it was lush green, rolling hills, with only the preponderance of gum trees to remind you you’re in the lucky country. One thing I highly recommend is checking the day of the week that you tour rural Victoria. At the beginning of the week, many things are closed, Monday through Wednesday is a dead time, good for driving, less good for lunch.
The settlement of this part of Victoria was well underway in the late 1800s and a few of the buildings date back to then, with the occasional Masonic Lodge, convent or church standing as a reminder of otherwise forgotten settlers. Crisscrossed with lakes and rivers, it was most certainly a very inviting place for the indigenous population as well. I arrive in Myrtleford and like other small towns, it’s well cared for, well groomed, heavily adorned with poplars and other planting that tell me it’s been welcoming visitors for many years. There is not a scrap of rubbish in this town, you get the impression that there is zero unemployment. I happen to be visiting during cherry blossom season, and that’s a special surprise and delight, it’s very hard to beat the beauty of streets lined with flowers.
Day three
I find myself on the great Alpine road, driving up and past Mt Beauty, through Hotham, the Tawonga Gap and then on to Omeo. What a stunning road combination! A great surface, an open road limit, stunning views and nominal traffic. I even spot a tiny bit of snow. It’s a stark, quiet and desolate beauty. While some other roads are closed through the cooler months. This one remains open, and thank goodness because it’s stunning to see, and drive. At the southern end of the mountainous regions of the Great Alpine road I reach the town of Bruthen, not far from the coast, and my path turns west. Another charming little town, perfectly manicured, full of lovely Victorian style buildings. From there, I was out to the coast along the flattest of flat lands, with long, interrupted stretches with no traffic. And before long I hit the coastal regions and I make my way south till I got to 90 Mile Beach.
Stunning, empty, golden sand, surf Beach, 90 Mile Beach in New Zealand is about 60 kilometers long. 90 Mile Beach in Victoria is much longer. 90 miles in fact! I motor till I reach Wilson’s promontory, a National Park sticks right out into the Tasman Sea. It has very few people, but very many birds. My cabin is on the beach, it’s incredibly quiet this off season.
Day four
It’s been an absolute pleasure driving a car of this sheer capability. As I drive back to Melbourne through the countryside and the small towns I’m brimming with gratitude for the opportunity to drive this M4 Competition. It’s not a shouty “Look at me, Look at me!” kind of car. It’s all about business, and while yes, it does have very handsome and muscular looks, it’s more ‘thoroughbred’ than ‘runway model’.
A private road let me try out full noise track mode: two wheel drive, disable traction and stability control. I very rarely do this for safety reasons, but the car was calling out to be used in full anger mode. It then changed character into a wild animal. Throttle subtlety is required to ensure wheel spin is minimised, and the front end becomes more pointy now that it’s not doing double duty of delivering drive as well.
For most people it’s probably not as fast in this mode, unless you are a professional on a track. But flip through the menus, you find that BMW has provided a lap timer, but also a system to record your drifting as well. They expect people are going to let loose in this car, and you certainly could. Stability control is so finely tuned you don’t really know when it’s operating, but when it’s tweaking the drive to each wheel independently you have seemingly impossible levels of control. With the stability so seamless and flattering, it’s easy to take credit for the capability of the car and in tight corners and compromised traction conditions.
The M4 is a two plus two coupe and that back seat is surprisingly usable. You won’t put an adult in for a long time, but they’re very comfortable for short trips, or short people. The wide haunches help here and the rear even has its own storage compartment for a drink and phone.
This model has the very best control options, with a dial rotary controller for all aspects of the large screen functionality, especially important for navigation, allowing zoom in and zoom out, waypoint setting, map browsing and more. The M series is the BMW performance label, and therefore the most driver-focused of the BMWs. This means breaking out many controls into buttons while the rotary control even allows handwriting. BMW’s menu system has been around for several iterations and is fairly refined. If you’re new to it, spend a bit of time learning it. Voice control is shared across the entire range, and is very good in most circumstances, allowing you to control virtually all aspects of the non-driving parts of the car. The only thing I never managed to do was to turn off the rear heating. The steering wheel is multi-way adjustable, which, combined with the seat, gives you an optimum driving position. One swooping display covers the central touchscreen console and highly configurable driver dash. Of course, there is a third display, the comprehensive driver heads up.
There are some subtleties in design you might not notice at first, however, it’s my job to do so. And one thing that really stood out was the excellent visibility. The passenger headrest aligns with the B pillar minimising rear quarter visibility loss, while the final pillar, although thick for strength, is positioned in such a way that the three quarter is plainly visible. The large rear window and well positioned mirrors ensure optimum visibility. There’s plenty of carbon in and out with carbon skirts and a lip and combining with the light weight carbon roof to remind you and others that this car is special.
Rural Victoria was a roadtrip delight. Everyone is friendly, towns frequently dot high-quality roads and many of the mountain traverses are spectacular in both view and driving fun. I only booked accommodation on the day and there was a good variety. Travelling at this time of year, late October, meant empty roads. It was a real treat, especially with this car. BMW has managed a feat of road and track balance with the M4 competition. Yet still a luxury car using high-quality materials, it’s not lacking in comfort. It is an immensely capable, all-round super sports coupe, and quite possibly one of the fastest point to point cars, in just about any condition, I have ever had the opportunity to drive.