SkiddMark's 3 main reasons for getting the 1M (review of June 6, 2011):
http://www.skiddmark.com/2011/06/06/...eries-m-coupe/
"[T]his innocuous-looking entry-level M car is probably the best car BMW have produced in nearly a decade. How did I arrive at such a preposterous conclusion? After all isn’t this just a 135i with a re-mapped twin-turbo six engine and a fancy body kit? Well, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is “I’ve just been given a free lunch” and 1 signifies “I’ve been screwed”, the 1 Series M Coupé is a 12. And a half. Seriously.
"So what does 400 bhp in a 1 Series feel like? The overriding sensation is one of effortless performance."
"It was on that Scottish hillside that all the pieces clicked into place, the punchy engine, quick steering and unimpeachable chassis were laughing at my attempts to challenge their supremacy. Having been an M3 CSL owner myself for almost 8 years, I thought I’d learned all there was to know about BMW’s best rear-drive chassis, but the 1 Series M Coupé was so much fun that I turned around and tackled the same set of tight cambered curves again. Twice."
Last December SkiddMark shot one of the - IMHO - nicest static display videos of a VO 1M (thereby already announcing that only 450 1M's would make it to the UK shores):
Background info regarding that video ("In the studio with BMW’s 1 Series M Coupe"):
http://www.skiddmark.com/2010/12/09/...eries-m-coupe/