A puncture was the culprit. A nail had gone straight through a rear tyre, ending up clattering around inside the tyre/wheel void. I managed to crawl the last mile home without any damage to the wheel. In the M3's boot, in place of a spare wheel, is a rather natty compressor and a liquid foam container. Natty or not, rigging up this device and then making the 1.5-hour round trip through deepest Devon to the nearest tyre supplier stocking the requisite ContiSport didn't appeal. Instead, on the advice of my BMW dealer, I rang Kwik-Fit's mobile tyre service (0800 425262). Result. An extremely efficient fitter arrived within the hour and took great care to avoid damaging the M3's alloy rim in any way. OK, the tyre wasn't hugely discounted and you pay a call-out fee, but I reckon it's well worth it.

Please don't ask me why, but I recently decided to investigate the two cavernous air intakes next to the M3's driving lights - I really should get out more. The nearside aperture has two holes at its far end, one leading to the engine bay and the other channelling air to the brakes. The offside intake is, however, blank - useful for planting with petunias for the summer, now that all danger of frost is past - but not much else. Further investigation revealed a blanking plate which when removed lets air through to the offside brakes. I can't imagine why this is left in place, particularly since a recent visit to Goodwood had the brakes grumbling after five laps, smoking and fairly useless after ten.

Anyone else out there had problems? Not very impressive for something supposedly honed at the 'Ring. M division testers must be true heroes because they surely don't use the brakes much.

More on the 18in v 19in wheel debate next month.