Steve Davies

Special Editions. Sometimes they're really special, whilst at other times it's just a way of freshening up a familiar model which has been on sale for a few years. Few would question its effectiveness when selling a few extra super-minis or roadsters during the summer months, but there's been a growing tendency during the past 24 months to follow the special edition route with performance cars.

We have a problem. As of last week BMW UK had already sold more than 2/3rds of their 1 Series M Coupe allocation, and unless the new M5 really pulls a rabbit out of a hat, this innocuous-looking entry-level M car is probably the best car BMW have produced in nearly a decade.

BMW's forthcoming F10-based M5 is almost upon us, with first deliveries expected in autumn 2011, but the real 'Daddy' of the M car range is the M3. In the true vernacular of the term such an accolade is usually bestowed on the quickest or most powerful model, but I'm using it in its purest sense - Daddy, as in father, the progenitor and main ancestor of BMW's M DNA.

Whether it's appropriate or not, sex has been used to sell nearly every type of product since the beginning of advertising itself and even more so when it comes to digital advertising on the internet.

I've undertaken my fair share of 'teaser' or pre-launch marketing campaigns and they can be a very effective means of grasping and then holding customer attention in the build up to a major launch. But they rely on the element of surprise, of the unknown - where the audience are intrigued and curious about what will happen next and where the foreplay becomes nearly as satisfying as the main event...

SkiddMark reader Andrew Mulholland was one of the first customers to view BMW's new 1 Series M Coupe when he joined us at our photoshoot last Thursday. He got the chance after responding to one of my tweets a few weeks ago (you can follow us at @DriversRepublic), offering a reader the chance to meet BMW's new M car, and it took him all of about 3 seconds to accept the invitation when asked!

It feels like we've been waiting an eternity to see BMW's newest M-car set free of its body mask and released on the road. We'll have to wait a little longer before it can be driven, so today is all about drinking in its muscular lines, discovering all of its unique M-features and describing what it's really like to see for the first time.

It seems fortuitous that BMW chose a snowy Austria for the UK launch of its new 2011 X3, in fact the timing couldn't have been any more perfect. As I write this, much of the UK is gripped by the most wintry November conditions in recent memory, Ideal for the four-wheel-drive SUV sector that BMW has targeted with its X3. But of course four-wheel-drive is only as useful as the traction available to a car's tyres, so BMW also chose last week's X3 launch to reveal its new range of winter-tyre packages available on all BMW and MINI models.