Despite there being a blind brow of a hill in front of us that develops into a blind corner, the driver never backs off - he still keeps his foot firmly planted on the pedal. It's here I begin to sweat, my hold on the passenger door handle turning from a slightly concerned grip into a panic stricken, white-knuckle clench. Yet the car and driver easily take the bend, never feeling particularly unstable or dangerous. But I should have known better. Firstly, the car is our long-term BMW 325ti Sport Compact, a car that over the past year has impressed us with its excellent engine, handling and chassis. And secondly, the man next to me is an F1 driver - the current BMW. Williams F1 test driver Marc Gene.

The reason why the man who finished sixth at the 1999 European Grand Prix is in the driving seat is simple. It's one thing for us to say how great our BMW Compact is, but what we needed was a professional second opinion. And since it is Marc's day job at Williams to improve the team's F1 cars for Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, if he can't confirm what we've been saying, nobody can.

We arrange to meet Marc in his home village outside Barcelona. Despite regularly driving one of the quickest BMW-engined cars ever built, he's still a petrol-head because he immediately starts asking anorak-style questions about RE 02 WPF. "How much power does it have," he begins with. "And does it only come with the M-package?" The answers to both are 192bhp and yes, since this is the Sport version, the M-package comes as standard so that means 17-inch, double-spoke M-style alloy wheels, the M-body styling (wider wheelarches and a tiny spoiler) plus a slightly lowered suspension.

Out of interest, I ask Marc what he drives. "I have two BMW M3s," he says, "a convertible and a coupe." Ah, the joys of being an F1 driver. He gets behind the steering wheel of our 325ti and comments on how similar the dashboard feels to his M3 and how much better it is than the previous generation Compact.

As we drive out of the village into the surprisingly green Spanish countryside and reach a straight piece of asphalt, Marc accelerates the red car - he's immediately impressed by how much power the 2494cc engine has.

Because there's a huge difference between the two disciplines, I ask Marc if he's ever had a problem adjusting to his road car after testing in F1 all day. "Absolutely not," he says. "When I've finished testing and I'm sat in my road car, I switch off from F1."

We reach a series of bends where Marc turns off the traction control to show his stuff. Although he's testing for Williams at the moment, he has competed in the World Championship, spending two years with the tiny Minardi outfit before taking up his current position in 2001. And it shows. "It handles very well," he says with smile, "and it's so stiff. I'm much more impressed by the chassis than I am with the engine."

Unfortunately it hasn't always been like this. In the car's previous update, we reported that after ten months of faultless running, the handling felt dreadful and the Dynamic Stability Control light would flicker on while taking a fast, sweeping right-hand corner. We took it to our local BMW dealer who needed to reprogram the control unit itself, which was done for free under the warranty although it's unclear as to why this happened.

Its one and only service came at 12,706 miles, costing £139.48 although an extra £85.63 was added to that since the off-side door mirror was removed using a fence post. A new set of rear tyres were also required after six months of hedonistic driving, an act which set us back £335.49 for a matching pair of Continentals.

I ask Marc how easy it is to spot a problem with an F1 car. "If it's an engine problem, you can feel it after one lap if it's vibrating, making a noise or if there's a lack of power. If there's something wrong with the handling, then I'll need two or three laps to really feel it, although this could be a set-up change. I was surprised how much changing the camber alters the car's handling - get to a corner and you feel how bad it is straight away and you'll be two seconds slower."

F1 testing is simply going round in circles. How does Marc keep up his enthusiasm for the job? "When I'm testing with Juan or Ralf, I want to prove I'm as quick as them and so when I'm on the track I'm always pushing to the limit. But the main thing is to develop the car and sometimes I'm testing different parts of the car to the race drivers, which means my times will be slower. But if I've done a good job, I can still be a second slower than Juan and be happy." So what's his final judgement on our car? He thinks for a minute before Marc the car enthusiast and not the F1 tester says simply: "It's like a miniature M3." Perhaps Frank Williams should give all of us on the magazine a job since that's what we've been saying all year.

Paul Walton

Back to BMW 3-Series Overview