After painfully watching for years as the automaker’s beloved M lineup ballooned in both size and weight even adding sport utility vehicles the German’s have delivered us a new little jewel.

It’s not another derivative of the race-bred M3, the highly anticipated next-generation M5 or a sneak preview of the future M6. Instead, this little shot of driving ecstasy comes in the guise of the lowly 1 Series the entry level BMW.

BMW invited us to its headquarters in New Jersey for our first driving impressions. Instead of death by PowerPoint, the traditional manner of new vehicle introduction, they immediately handed us the key fob to a brand new 1 Series M Coupe along with a paper map.

Our assignment was to drive the back roads for the next two hours to Monticello Motorsports Park, the private racing circuit outside New York City. After extended hot laps followed by lunch, we’d polish the marbles off the tire treads with a drive back to Montvale before a six-hour flight back home.