1988 BMW 6 Series M6 review from UK and Ireland

Head gasket blew at 105,000 miles. Repaired quickly and easily by specialist.

Clogged injector - had the whole lot ultrasonically cleaned which must have restored around 40 bhp! The best £100 I have ever spent.

Timing chain started rattling at 102,000 miles. Very expensive replacement needed!

This car looks stunning and with 286 bhp will seriously worry a lot of Porsches, Ferraris and other so-called supercars, whilst sounding every bit as good as any of them. The noise of this M Power 24 valve straight six as it snarls past 5,000 RPM will raise the neck hair of anyone with an ounce of soul. It is also significantly quicker than the standard Sierra Cosworth I had before.

There have been problems, but then no car of this age is going to be troublefree. Servicing it every 4,000 miles (regardless of the silly indicator), using a good independent for servicing and parts, and use of pattern parts for certain jobs keeps the costs and problems to a minimum. Running costs are quite heavy, as the car averages around 23 mpg with a mixture of town and motorway driving. But it's worth it.

Handling is OK. The car is very tail happy in the wet, and tyre choice is limited because of the metric sizes. Having said that, this car is not about back road blasts, but about burbling along gently winding A-roads, and frightening sports cars off the lights. Above all it is about looking and sounding drop dead gorgeous, and at that it really excels.