It's six o'clock in the morning - the day of our long-awaited weekend camping trip to the Le Mans 24-hour race had arrived. The gang is ready for the off, the cars are all loaded up and it's time to roll.

OK, time to make a final checklist: one sumptuous, sexy BMW 320Ci Convertible, two not-so-sexy tents, plenty of booze, four anoraks, boxes of food, socks, towels, four tickets, toothbrushes, passports... er, passports...? [Eerie silence]. PASSPORTS? After much shouting, the boyf came clean. He'd forgotten that he'd sent his passport to the DVLA for his new licence and it was still in the post!

So, with four very depressed people, four unused tickets and a tightly packed boot filled with all the kit you could think of, but still missing one essential item, a decision had to be made. Every attempt to try and resolve the situation was made, but eventually we gave in. We decided that if we couldn't all go then no-one would. But I was in a quandary - how was I to write a mini test on this Beemer cabrio without a long sunny drive? [Cue excessive sulking].

So I can only imagine what my cruise down through France would have been like in my specially requested, to-die-for motor. It looks great - obviously a BMW 3-Series, but very classy in silver, with steep-rake screen and good-looking five-spoke alloys. I reckon it would have been a fun, speedy but, most of all, safe journey, as the 320Ci is full of state-of-the-art active safety systems like ASC+ Traction Control, Cornering Brake Control and Dynamic Stability Control. There are also various airbags in both front and rear, side impact tubes in door and windscreen, a strengthened windscreen frame and rollover bars that activate speedily in the event of a crash. So, even if the driver did a bad imitation of Shumacher, passengers need not fear - the car should keep them safe.

And when it comes to performance, we would have got there in good time too, as the 2.2-litre engine with 170bhp hits 62mph in just 8.8 seconds and has a max of 138mph - not that we'd have raced, mind. We were out to enjoy ourselves. Just think - sun streaming down, clever electric folding roof stowed; we would have been sun-kissed gods on our return to Blighty. If only... [Cue long sigh]

Instead, a wet weekend in Essex was our lot. Still, the use of this fine car to trundle us to a few nice pubs out in the country provided me with all the driving pleasure I needed, even if it was pouring down and I couldn't get that 'clever electric folding roof' up. Actually, the Convertible didn't trundle as much as it might have, because BMW have now stiffened the cabrio's floorpan resulting in a 20 per cent increase in rigidity and less scuttle shake.

At least our Convertible went back in perfect condition, since we never made brie sandwiches on the red leather interior or sloshed red wine all over the place. And at least I could rely on the BMW to cheer us up, 'cos my other half really let us down on this one.

Hayley Day

Back to BMW 3-Series Overview