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Wednesday – Fishing For Compliments

wheelJeremy Why is it fisherman drive weird cars? I shouldn’t put them all in the same pool but walking around my favourite lake this morning, there was an oddball collection of vehicles surrounding the Range Rover. Think Mitsubishi Pajero, 4×4 Nissan vanette and the obligatory Subaru Impreza import.

Quite what people get out of watching a lifeless float on a grey, April day is beyond me but when I returned to the Evoque later, two of them were admiring my wheels instead. By that I mean the fully chromed, 20-inch alloys that come as standard on the SD4 Dynamic.

I’m not a huge fan of sparkly wheels – even chrome spokes look naff on an E-Type – but I am starting to warm to the Evoque’s set of four. You would expect them on a BMW X5 but on a more introverted Range Rover, it doesn’t smack too much of horrifying bling.

Maybe it is because the Evoque sits so low, or possibly the Firenze red paintwork but I’m with the fishermen in living them.

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Tuesday – In The Mode

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Jeremy My 1972 Series 3 Land Rover has a lot of metal rods poking up from the floor. Apart from a rather vague gearstick, there’s one for overdrive, two for high and low ratio gears, with a handbrake position in a pretty awkward spot too.

I mention this because the Evoque has none – not even a conventional handbrake. Gears are selected via a rotating dial, the handbrake is push button, and to select different suspension settings, a selection of buttons is provided. It’s totally foolproof – provided you read the instruction manual.

This is all designed to make using the baby Range Rover on various terrains a much simpler process. Pressing a button is easier than wrestling with a stick but for some reason, it doesn’t feel as intuitive. Jump in the Evoque and you might want to know what everything does before attempting to go off-road.

Despite its short dimensions, the Evoque is comfortable on city streets in ‘Normal’ suspension mode but for more spirited driving, the ‘Dynamic’ setting is better. I imagine most drivers won’t even touch these buttons unless they are going off-road proper but the choice is there.

So far, the Evoque is proving the perfect vehicle for all driving conditions. Only Malin the Hungarian Viszla is finding the boot a bit small – but then he has been used to a Series 3 for five years…

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Monday – The Evoque Has Landed

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Jeremy Let’s face it, SUVs don’t often come out of the design studio eye-catchingly beautiful. The need for all-round ability means good looks often have to be sacrificed for load capacity and extra ground clearance.

Which is why the Range Rover Evoque has genuinely broken the mould. At last, here is a compact SUV that you don’t need children, dogs or an interesting sport involving Lycra to justify ownership.

Our Firenze red Evoque has just arrived and already I’m looking for excuses to drive it. Low, squat and purposeful, the slim side windows and low roof give this Range Rover a thoroughly modern appeal.

The contemporary shape makes other SUVs look positively old-fashioned by comparison. We also have some suitably bling chrome wheels on our test car – let’s see how they look after seven days of Wiltshire mud and dirt…

Not quite so sure about the red leather interior but I’ll let Jessica have her say on that later in the week.

 

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Sunday – A Car For All Seasons

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Jeremy It’s the last day for our 6 Series Convertible and, predictably, it’s raining! The soft-top has been down for about 20 minutes in ten days. What the hell happened to spring?

Despite the climatic challenges, this is the most accomplished convertible on the market today. It is an outstanding grand tourer, eating up the miles on our trip to Le Mans, as well as coping with cobbled streets and twisty A-roads en route through Normandy.

Big convertibles can look clumsy and awkward (just consider the Mercedes E-class) but the BMW is eye-catching from every angle. A sophisticated and elegant machine, can you think of a cabriolet that ticks quite so many boxes?

Jessica The BMW is so refined that for a convertible, you wouldn’t know it was a soft-top. The rear end is much prettier than the previous version, with a much more sculpted boot line. It’s a convertible that works on every level, with so much technology, refinement and style that it more than merits the price.

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Saturday – Toys For Boys

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Jeremy It’s cold, wet and almost halfway through April. The only good news is that Lewis Hamilton is on pole for the Chinese Grand Prix. Ever wondered what a Formula 1 racing driver does when they are sat in on the grid for endless minutes before the start?

I asked ex-driver Martin Brundle the same question a few months back – he told me it was all about focus and concentration. At least when I’m stuck in a traffic jam, the 6 Series has plenty to keep me entertained.

This morning, I discovered the iDrive infotainment system can log on to the internet when the car is stationary. You can then use Google Earth information to request photographs of any destination you have keyed into the satellite navigation system. How clever is that?

The sat nav screen can be split to show a route on one side, and other information on the other – or you can have one giant screen showing the route instead.

Of all the information on tap, my favourite has to be the car status page, which uses a picture of the BMW and numbered areas around the bodywork. Select a number and you can clock through to everything from tyre pressures to the windscreen washer bottle level.

Sadly, there is nothing to adjust the miserable British weather, so the Convertible   may be collected before we can really enjoy the power hood and sunshine and report back.

 

 

 

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Friday – Don’t Mess With My BMW

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Jeremy It’s a typically French thing to do. Having lived in the Midi Pyrenees for 18 months I feel justified in saying that many French people have no respect for cars.

So perhaps I shouldn’t have been that surprised when a woman on the Brittany Ferries ship lazily opened her car door against the bumper of the 640d and didn’t show a trace of remorse. Even though I was sat in the driver’s seat and at least four other motorists saw her do it, no apology was forthcoming.

The upshot? Well, if you are going to whack the door of a Citroen Picasso against a robust BMW, chances are you will come off worse. Her year-old MPV now has a lovely crease in the paintwork and the Beemer is unblemished.

It’s ironic that we took the 6 Series Convertible to France hoping for sunshine. It poured down for most of the trip! Today I’m hoping to finally drop the roof as England sees the first signs of spring. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow…

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Thursday – 6 Series Motoring Masterclass

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Jeremy After 25 years of driving cars for a living, a milestone has been reached with the BMW 640d. A brief calculation suggests I’ve tested some 1200 new models and owned at least 30 – few of which have lasted longer than six months in the garage (2012 started with a 5 Series Touring, which morphed in to a Boxster, then a new style Beetle and finally became a 630d Coupe).

Apart from a Porsche 993 Targa in 1997 and a Caterham 7 in 2001, only the 630d has come close. So, as CarCouture waits on the seafront at Caen for the ferry home, the new 640d we have on test is going straight to the top of the pile – it’s one machine I don’t want to part with.

Why? Well, I thought my own 630d was one of the most competent, well-built and equipped cars I have ever driven. Sure, a 911 goes faster, a Caterham is more fun and a Ferrari turns heads but as a package, the 6 Series takes some beating.

Compared to the old 630d, the 640d feels very similar. The technology has advanced, with head up display, keyless entry and even more seat adjustment but otherwise, I wouldn’t say there is an awful lot of difference between them. And I loved the 630d – so the 640d is just that little bit better.

It’s a very grown up, sophisticated and stylish convertible that wants for little, apart from easier access to the rear seats and better rear view visibility. I still have the weekend to fall out of love with the BMW but it just isn’t going to happen….

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Tuesday – Singing in the Rain

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Jessica We have left the contrasting elements of Le Mans behind, from the medieval city with Roman walls, cobbled streets (frequented by Hollywood filmmakers for movies such as Cerano de Bergerac), 14th Century stained glass in the cathedral on an epic scale, to the vast expanse of the Le Mans 24 hour circuit poised for the next pilgrimage and we are off to visit Giverny the home of Monet and his garden.

The BMW takes us with absolute ease and comfort through very British driving rain across expanses of open countryside on roads which, despite the conditions, are hugely enjoyable to drive on, overtaking (with a handy co pilot for vision) is a breeze and the heads up display keeps you up to date with your speed it feels very Top Gun fighter jet.

Sadly due to weather we did not speed drive around Le Mans in a Bugatti or have the roof down on the BMW for any length of time but the car was no less appealing and satisfying to drive as a result.

My only difficulty with this car so far is planning my seating position with the seemingly infinite buttons to be pushed, pulled lifted or pressed, I found being a passenger most testing as somehow I could not get the ideal position for a long drive. (Could be my build of course, however you would have thought with all that choice, being above average height would not be an issue).

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Monday Car Courreges

Jessica We have reached Le Mans and it feels like I have been cocooned in a Courrege car, the all off-white interior with black trim feels luxurious, and a little futuristic (as it may have looked from the sixties).  The spirit of Courrege and his engineering background not only reflect the interior of the BMW but the spirit of invention, daring and technological prototyping that is intrinsic to Le Mans.  It is a fitting coincidence that we have this particular car in black with a white interior for this trip.

Jessica and BMW 640d Convertable at Le Mans

Opening the roof is pure Stanley Kubrick as the whole car takes charge with a series of window moves, automatic folds, lifts and sounds of hidden mechanisms, where you the driver become infinitely secondary to proceedings.

So far I am throroughly enjoying this car, it is intuitive, feels safe despite the speed possibilities and is far removed from what you would imagine a diesel car to be and if you consider Audi won Le Mans in a diesel hybrid there is definitely more to come.

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Sunday – Le Mans. Twinned With Bolton

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Jeremy After a day at sea yesterday, CarCouture has swept in to Normandy, home of the greatest motoring endurance race in the world. The Le Mans 24 Hours will celebrate its 90 anniversary this June and we’ve brought the BMW 6 Series Convertible to any petrolhead’s favourite French city.

To be truthful, the outskirts of Le Mans has little to recommend it. The 6 Series stood out like a diamond necklace at a fairground. With British number plates, it wasn’t always a welcoming smile either. However, the centre itself is incredibly beautiful. A walled Plantagenet city on the side of a hill, the BMW squeezed through narrow streets originally designed for horse and cart with surreal grace.

Jessica has a sore back after being bundled over by a runner on a pavement in London last week, so we’ve travelled down from Cherbourg with the 6 Series suspension on ‘Comfort’ mode. I’m itching to slip into ‘Sport’ because the 640d obviously packs a mighty punch for a large car. It is such a sophisticated touring machine, I could have quite easily carried on driving across Europe until we reached the Med.

Favourite features so far? Head up display on the windscreen, which can be usefully programmed to project our speed in KPH, rather than MPH, auto-dip headlights and the shape of the convertible roof. It has flying buttresses, like Le Mans Cathedral itself.

BMW hasn’t won at Le Mans since 1999 but tomorrow we are going out with a pro driver around the Bugatti Circuit in something interesting. More when I’m managed to settle my stomach afterwards.

And yes, Le Mans is twinned with Bolton. Not even the tourism office here knows why…