I found myself burying the brakes before bends, to get the nose down and help me get round quicker - but pulling away was a blast. The 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged straight six in the 35i was Engine Of The Year twice. It knows what it's doing.

What most impressed me was its looks, though. Or rather, the improvement in its looks. With a V-shaped crease in the bonnet, swept headlights and those relatively huge wheels, it's got a wide, low, predatory stance that just feels more dominating than before. The only remnant of the old Z4 is a funny crease across the doors and a strange wedge-shaped boot - the 'Bangle butt', as they call it.

Then again, folding hard-tops always have weird boots - and they all have pitiful luggage space, this being no exception. But it's made up for by the interior, which has that reassuring BMW feel.

I say reassuring, but I could easily say 'boring', as all BMWs look the same. But it's nicely done here, with most of the controls laid out in four simple circular groups across the dash and everything else is done by the big old iDrive dial down by your thigh.

The Z4's hard drive can store 12GB of songs and can be specified with ConnectedDrive, BMW's in-car internet thing that gives you news, weather and a Google-based search engine for local businesses (yeah, I can get pretty much the same thing by listening to BBC Radio Hampshire). My favourite option, though, is the SunReflective leather: special cooling pigments stop your seats getting too hot, even if you leave them parked in the blazing sun.

All in all, the Bavarians seem to have a success on their hands. It looks fresher now than its chief rival, the Merc SLK, and posh enough to fight off the Nissan 370Z, just launched into this price bracket with a clutch of glowing reviews. (source:dailymail.co.uk)

But would I buy one? Well, put it this way - I drove back from the barbers with the roof down, and when I got home I needed half of the £70-worth of hair gel I'd just bought to fix the greasy, insect-filled, petrol-smelling disaster that my brand new haircut had become. Not everyone needs a fast roadster, no matter how nice it looks.