"Ok, you vill follow ze instructor through ze cones for one lap und then you are on your own in ze slalom course, da?"
They were the (approximate) words of the BMW Driving Experience instructor as he handed me the keys to the grey 1 Series parked beside me, but between his mouth and my ears those words morphed into "First you will do a recce run and then you are free to hoon."
Ordinarily this would not pose a problem; I am not averse to a bit of hooning when the conditions are right, but the location for the BMW Snow Down event was the picturesque village of Kühtai - a ski resort 40 minutes or so outside of Innsbruck in Austria - and the keys that I had casually tossed into the centre console (and then fished out of the passenger foot well in a rather less cool manner) was the four-wheel drive - or xDrive in BMW parlance - version of the M135i - the hottest 1 Series this side of the limited edition 1 Series M Coupé.
With 320hp to play with and a slalom course consisting of traffic cones and lots of snow, the nice instructor's words were followed to a tee - for all of a lap and a half!
Having spent two days driving the great and good of BMW's xDrive range (and also the MINI Clubman John Cooper Worls All4) I felt confident in my snow driving skills, confident enough to disengage the traction control a lap earlier than prescribed, only for the M135i to turn around and remind me about the 3.0-litre twin-scroll turbocharged engine under the bonnet. Cue ungraceful pirouette number one of the afternoon!
Back on course and with the traction control in its 'half-off' setting the M135i began to swing like a pendulum around the slalom course with the Dynamic Traction Control (DTC) allowing the car to get sideways enough to be described as fun before pulling everything back into shape again. Around the tight hairpin that formed the furthest extremity of the purpose-built course the car experienced a level of understeer that you would not normally associate with BMW. A quick dab of the throttle to remind the system that you want power at the rear followed by armfuls of opposite lock soon righted this and launched the car towards the second slalom run and the following 'drift bowl.'
As the name suggests, this section of the course was devoid of cones to slalom around and was merely a snow covered clearing in which to get as sideways as possible and as often as possible. While the short spurts between cones in the slalom called for little more than gentle acceleration, the bowl could be attacked at close to full throttle (albeit in third gear at best) where, despite the revs, the M135i's engine remained terrifically smooth without a hint of vibration. The smoothness is not at the expense of drama however, which is supplied by the deep throated rumble emitted from the twin exhaust pipes that peer from under the bumper.
Unlike the lower speed hairpin, the bowl does not induce understeer, just extreme oversteer as the four wheels scramble to contain all 450Nm of torque being forced through them. Unlike rear-wheel drive cars, drifting a four-wheel drive car requires consistent power application and gentle steering inputs - not something I am renowned for. Cue ungraceful pirouette numbers two through seven...
Once I did finally manage to overcome my usual 'flat-out' driving style the talents of the M135i's xDrive system began to shine through. Despite have turned off all of the electronic nannies the car remained hugely controllable, even at the limits, as the car acted more as a snow plough than a hot hatch and the large bank of sensors diverted power to different wheels depending on what the car was asked to do.
While hugely fun, the time spent with the M135i xDrive was also very scientific.
OK so that is a lie, but it did show to us the extreme conditions under which the BMW xDrive system can operate. The one disappointment was that our time with the car was restricted to the slalom course. I would have been good to get the car out onto the open road and explore its on-road talents too. For the full (regular) first drive of the rear-wheel drive BMW M135i, click here.