There’s only one engine on offer here but it’s nothing short of breath-taking, whether you opt for the standard car or the Performance Pack edition.

Your common-or-garden M6 comes with 552bhp from its V8 twin-turbo 4.4-litre engine. It races from 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds and can reach a limited top speed of 155mph.

The V8’s torque curve of 680Nm is absolutely flat from 1,500rpm to 5,750rpm so you get big push from low revs and no let-up until you reach the limiter.

Settings for the throttle response, Efficiency, Sport and Sport Plus, allow you to tailor the power delivery, plus there’s a button for the gearchange response and the amount of time it holds on to lower gears for better acceleration.

You can also turn off the traction control and adjust the solidity of the suspension, which we’ll deal with in the Handling section below.

Pick the Performance Pack and you gain another 15bhp, taking the headline figure to 567bhp.

You’ll have to be absolutely caning it to feel the difference, so it’s a good job the seven-speed gearbox features shorter gears between third and sixth, sharpening its mid-range response.

Near on 50:50 weight distribution allows the M6 Coupe to change direction perfectly, and offer massive grip with little body roll. That said the tail will kick out if you really push it.

It rewards keener drivers but is not quite as agile or as engaging as the M5 or the M3 – bear in mind that this is a long and heavy car.

The Porsche 911 offers more in terms of driving enjoyment, and the Jaguar F-Type is more dramatic and sounds better. The M6 is still a great car to drive, plus there’s a wealth of adjustments that can be made to the chassis using the damper adjustment button.

There’s a Comfort setting for leisurely driving and a firmer mode for when you want to hustle the M6. Your favourite configuration can be set up using the iDrive system and assigned to the M1 and M2 buttons on the steering wheel.

Competition Pack cars are more controllable at the limit thanks to a recalibrated limited-slip differential, and ten percent more direct steering – making it sharper and more responsive to inputs.

The suspension is also about 20 percent firmer and the anti-roll bars 15 percent stiffer so bodyroll and lateral movements are far more controlled. Optional carbon ceramic brakes provide impressive stopping power and resist fading well too.