Rear-seat passengers don't get a lot of room. (Autocar photo) » More Photos

The sportier end of the spectrum also allows the M3 to get away from rest that bit quicker, though you’ll think it slow on the uptake in every mode unless you’re quite forceful with the throttle. This is an area that could do with improvement; you shouldn’t be needing wide throttle openings to get a 414hp car moving. You’ll also find the car’s rate of deceleration altering as it drops down through the gearbox to a halt – a torque converter auto would slur this away – and trying to set off gently in the Sport Plus throttle setting can induce a learner’s kangaroo hops. As we’ve said, this is a transmission that needs familiarity.

One of its more thoughtful features is a creep facility – the Low Speed Assistant, in BMW-speak – which allows the car to edge ahead, in drive or reverse, once you’ve tapped the throttle. Clever.

Besides all this detail, there’s the central issue of whether this car jells as a whole. The short answer is yes, although there could be other varieties of M3 that appeal more. Lopping the top off any car is rarely good for its integrity, and indeed, you’ll feel the odd quake and tremor from this convertible, especially if you firm up its dampers. But it never flexes enough to make you think that BMW should not have performed such surgery in the first place. And with the hard-top up this M3 convertible is 30 percent more rigid than the old fabric-roofed model.

There are other traditional drop-top sacrifices, though, including diminished boot space with the roof down and cramped rear seats. The convertible’s additional heft clearly dents the car’s performance and would doubtless be detectable back to back against the closed car on a track.

Sonorous V8 loses a little of its punch here amid the extra weight. (Autocar photo) » More Photos

But on the open road you’ll rarely think this car deficient. It turns in with great alacrity, has fine body control, rounds bends with great balance, and can be tweaked into minor tail slides with the DSC partially switched out and quite major drifts with it switched off altogether. It is highly competent, and fun.

The steering, over which doubt hangs with this generation of M3, remains a little short of feedback, but feels less uncertain around the straight-ahead than in the fixed-roof car. Of the brakes there is no doubt, their pedal providing excellent feel.

So yes, the M3 convertible does jell. Purists chasing the ultimate on-road performance will doubtless consider the sacrifices it demands too great, especially as the M3 has been conceived as an ultimate, motorsport-inspired performance car, and will instead worry more about whether to tick the M DCT option box. And that is a difficult choice. Major pluses include the extra ratio, the now seamless (mostly) shifts, the extra performance and economy, the sound of those downshift blips and the considerable entertainment value of its Drivelogic programs. Against all this are its tardy take-offs, its less than jerk-free performance in many modes and the fact that a maestro of manual gearboxes will often do it better. But if it were me, I’d tick the box, and enjoy learning its quirks.
-Richard Bremner/Autocar