Imagine a snarling exhaust note reverberating in the mountains lined by perhaps the best driving road in the world. Imagine experiencing Gs that shift your organs through twisties that never seem to end. Imagine doing that with the sun on your face and the wind in your hair. We did all that, folks, as we drove the BMW M4 Competition xDrive Convertible on the road to Stelvio! The place is beautiful and the car, well, let’s talk about it.

We have driven our fair share of BMWs in the past. There were cars like the X6 M that blew our minds. There were cars like the new Z4 M40i that blew our minds. But we found the best of BMW and the best of M in the M4 that we drove in Dubai a while back. A beast of a car, the M4 redefined coupes for us as it was a borderline supercar. For the doubters, if it wasn’t then, with more than 500 horses and a truckload of torque, it is surely a borderline supercar now.

When the new M4 broke cover, not many people were happy with BMW’s design direction. Most of the criticism was geared towards the grille. It is massive and more than a kidney, it resembles a butterfly now. That said, it has been a while since the car was unveiled and the grille has grown on most people now. We kind of liked the design right from the beginning so it did not matter much.

Design aside, the M4 was still up to the mark where it mattered- performance, even more so, the sharper M4 Competition. Before we get to the droptop we drove, let us talk about variants. So, there is the M4 and then there is the Competition Package. Furthermore, you have options to either go with rear-wheel drive or xDrive (BMW speak for all-wheel drive). The droptop or convertible in the discussion here though can only be had in the Competition xDrive trim.

That is it for the preface, let us get to the drive. But before that, a little word on how it looks. In our opinion, the M4 looks fantastic and the droptop takes things up a notch in terms of style. Cabriolets, as they are called, belong to a rare breed of cars and with most of them disappearing as time goes on, this one is a breath of fresh air. I like the colourways available but even more so, I like the peppy interior colour options. They help paint this car in a sportier light, excuse the pun.

About how it drives, well, we expected a lot right from the moment we landed in Europe. We had made sure that we got to drive the new M4 and getting the convertible was the icing on the cake. But please remember, we expected a lot. Mostly because of the precedent set by the older M4 that we drove in Dubai. It was a coupe and coupes have better dynamic properties than convertibles. There was an M4 convertible earlier too but it was, less than thrilling, to put it mildly. So we were curious to see how this one would fare.

To our surprise, or lack thereof, the new M4 Competition xDrive Convertible is a heck of a car. The soft cloth roof is lighter and with the roof on, it manages to be quite quiet. The lack of wind noise and other anomalies almost makes it feel like a hard top. On top of that, the roof retracts in 18 seconds and takes a similar amount of time to come back on. And it can be operated up to around 50 km/h.

Inside the car, things get a little hectic. Too many driving modes and too many settings to look at make it a task to put the car in the mode that you want. We are simpler creatures. Sport and Comfort are the two we understood and therefore used. And unless you are hitting the track, those two are the ones you will need. The iDrive system has come a long way and it is more intuitive than before and gels well with the overall infotainment ecosystem.

We are rushing through these things because we want to skip to the good part- driving. That is where all your inhibitions and doubts and nitpicking about this car fade to black. In that darkness, there is a red starter button that you push and then there’s music. Music produced by the sonorous twin-turbo inline-6 that is snarling under the hood, its growls emanating from the exhausts giving rise to the melody that hypnotizes you.

Poetic exaggeration aside, the M4 sounds like a million bucks; at idle and at its lofty 7,200 rpm redline where it truly screams. With the top down, you can hear it even better which makes up for the dynamic losses that the convertible suffers from when compared to the Coupe. To be honest, we do not care about the dynamic losses. We do not even know about them. It is just a theory (proven, yes) till we try out the coupe.

On its own, the convertible is a wonderful car to drive. Slightly stiff even in comfort mode, the M4 Competition xDrive Coupe is otherwise a joy to drive around the city. But it keeps reminding you that the city is not where it belongs. So, as we left the city farther and farther behind and Stelvio crept closer, we decided to open the taps a bit. This is a fast car. Even in comfort, this is a fast car.

Putting it in Sport should come with a warning: “Are you sure?” We were… of the car… not ourselves. 510 horses and 650 torques are a lot. In this car though, it is easier to put your foot down nonchalantly because of the xDrive system. Since the power is distributed to all four wheels, the launch is free of any drama. So are corner exits. The grip and the resulting confidence is staggering.

Yet somehow, as we tamed the corners on our way to Stelvio, the car never felt devoid of rear-wheel drive benefits. The understeer was non-existent and the steering felt brilliantly weighted and communicative. While there is an option to lock the car in RWD mode, we believe that you’d be leaving a lot on the table if you do that and the added engagement would not be worth this risk and the effort.

BMW quotes a 0-100 km/h time of 3.7s. We believe them. With the xDrive system, the M4 Competition xDrive Convertible simply flies off the line. Purists may be vying for a manual, but for most people, it would be difficult to match the slickness of the 8-Speed Automatic from ZF. Overall, the car felt worthy of the BMW badge, and the M badge, and the legendary lineage of M3s (spawning M4s that became coupes while M3s are now sedans).

On a serious note, the M4 Competition xDrive Convertible loses out on sheer racetrack dominance when compared to the Coupe but then, what it has is Sheer Driving Pleasure complemented by the sun on your face and the wind in your hair. That to us is worth more than track credentials… at least till we enjoy it in the mountains. When we get to a racetrack, we’ll get in touch with the folks at BMW again.