Wiesmann MF4-S Roadster: Classic styling and modern performance

Some hardy souls harbour the beautifully romantic notion of the classic English sportscar. For them, merely owning an MGB will take them to a better world of bounding down the highway, with a Tabatha or Penelope by their side, as they laugh and joke with the wind whistling through their hair. Life will be like a Sixties film: carefree and fun. Then they get one and reality comes crashing down like a cartoon piano… Because the reality of the classic English sportscar is long, cold nights in the garage with oily, bleeding hands. They just don't work like they do in the movies.

That's why Wiesmann has struck gold with its modern take on classic designs and the new MF4-S Roadster might just be the best there is. Powered by the 4.0-litre V8 from the BMW M3, complete with double-clutch system, this is as modern as sportscars get. Olde worlde styling and new world performance is pretty much the perfect combination.

Wies what?

Brothers Friedhelm and Martin Wiesmann started out in the car industry, making hoods for cabriolets. But between them they harboured a dream to make a classic English sportscar that actually worked, with metronomic German underpinnings and engineering. Wiesmann was born in 1985 and was an instant smash hit. The company now builds more than 350 cars a year ina much bigger factory that sits underneath a sprawling wooden gecko representing the company logo. That's meant to show that a Wiesmann sticks to the road like a gecko sticks to the wall.

On the surface the cars are strikingly similar, from the base MF3 Roadster right up to the almighty range-topping, 507bhp MF5 supercar. Inspired by great British engineering of the Sixties, the Wiesmann brothers took a trip down nostalgia lane and created a perfectly proportioned roadster with hints of the Jaguar XK120,Jensen CV8 and Austin Healey of the time to create a cute car that brings a smile to every face that sees it.

There are delicious details at every twist and curvaceous turn of the fibreglass panels, flawlessly managed collisions between old and new, from the perfectly curved rear end punctuated by LED lights through those low-slung sides to the classic grille on the nose. It's a simply wondrous design, something that could only happen in a small company with a single-minded purpose and no voice of reason to sway it from its path. The Wiesmann MF4-S Roadster is an achingly beautiful car.

The colour — grey with a blush of pink running through its core — won't be for everyone, and the body-matched wheels, deep pink tonneau cover and dark red interior are perhaps taking it too far. But then the choice of colours and combinations of leather and Alcantara is almost infinite and is stitched together by grizzled old ladies on the Wiesmann factory floor. You can even shoot an animal, take in the hide and they'll fit your car out with that. Nobody has, incidentally, but the offer is open. The inside, too, is a step back in time: drawstring storage spaces, simple polished steel door catches and old school dials built into a driver-facing centre console. There's no real indication this is a low volume manufacturer, too.

There are none of the interesting quirks. It's lovingly crafted and the leather is laid down perfectly. But look closely at the cockpit and the olde worlde charm doesn't feel quite right — there are new plastic vents, Alcantara-quilted seats, a modern stereo, two pedals and an LCD behind the wheel. It wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to smell a rat. Then there are the plastic paddle shifters behind the wheel, two perfectly milled pedals and a starter button. Push it, and the world around erupts, setting into the deep menacing thrum of a BMW V8 mated with a free-flowing, fuel-dribbling exhaust that gives Bavaria's finest the Messerschmitt resonance BMW's engineers dream about. A blip of the throttle sends the birds scattering from the nearby trees and then it's into Drive with the trick, traditional-looking gearstick and out the factory gates with a "tally ho" and a "toodle pip". The Wiesmann adventure begins, and it does so in creamy smooth style.

Bangers and sauerkraut

There was no doubting the BMW M5 V10 on a hard charge. It's a fantastic engine, but the SMG seven-speed that came with it seemed built solely for the race track. That cumbersome transmission lies in the range topping Wiesmann MF5 supercar, until BMW forgets it entirely, and while it feels less jerky in the lighter sportscar, it's still a blight on the driving experience. Especially in automatic mode when the change could literally fire you from the seat. It would take a wooden leg to change gear more clumsily.

No more. BMW's brilliant double clutch system might have taken longer to come to market than VW's, but it was worth the wait as this is now a sportscar you can simply slot in Drive and enjoy at sedate pace with seamless, creamy gearchanges from the seven-speed DCT. Normally I'd want full control of the gears, and even then would lament the lack of a stick shift and clutch pedal, but this system is so perfectly weighted that I find myself choosing ‘D' whenever I'm not pushing, and settling down to a relaxed rhythm. And Wiesmann knows a thing or two about ride quality, too.

Looking from the side it simply doesn't make sense, because the MF4 is low, taut and aggressive, and those Michelin Pilot Sports wrap around the 18in wheels like rubber bands. Yet the Wiesmann cruises down the high street with utter grace and poise and despite the wind noise getting a little reckless beyond 150kph, it's a wondrous world of comfort and joy.

Martin and Friedhelm often join their customers on long-distance tours of Europe in their creations and you can imagine leaving the car in automatic mode, lapping up 1,000km and emerging fresh on theother side. That's in part down to those stunning seats, which cosset and support in equal measure, but it's also down to a sublime chassis set-up built around a Lotus-style monocoque that combines this cruising capability with simply epic performance. Because this is, with all said and done, M3 power in a much lighter body, and it comes alive on the quieter roads away from Dulmen.

The Wiesmann weighs in at 1,310kg full of fluids, compared to 1,655kg for the M3 dry. So this thing goes like a rocketship. Boot the throttle and the Pilot Sports chirrup like a real, hardcore sportscar as you click second gear, then third. Wiesmann claims it hits 100kph in 4.4 seconds (two-tenths quicker than an M3), but it feels much faster and the car just keeps hammering down the road with a click of the right finger.

Like the BMW that donated its guts, it works better at the higher end of the revs and has just 400Nm of torque. But between 7,000 and 8,300rpm it discovers a whole new realm of crazy that delivers that runaway feeling you get from a Ferrari or Lamborghini as it gives one last lunge at the horizon. So keep it spinning and this car is bullet-fast. The interior is luxurious but there's none of that BMW mass to drag around, just a lightweight frame and the two seater body, and that is obvious everywhere. It just scorches off the line and storms up to the 300kph top speed with barely a pause for breath.

In the corners, too, the MF4-S is a miracle worker thanks to the independent double wishbone front suspension and a trailing link set-up at the rear. It's softer than the MF5 hypercar and takes just a fraction of a second to settle into the bend, but then with less engine up front, the nose is a touch more precise to turn in. Once into the corner you can lean on the Michelins and the throttle all the way through to the exit. Cornering speeds of the Wiesmann have more in common with Sixties F1 cars than British road cars of the time.

With practice, and without the watchful eyes of Wiesmann upon us, we're sure this would be a stunning drift car thanks to impeccable balance, a nose-led set-up and more than enough power to unstick the rears and steer on the throttle. Wiesmann runs track days aplenty, too, including days at the nearby Nürburgring, so the owners truly get to play with the limits of their cars. Most come away more than impressed by the hidden skills of a car they first believed to be a relaxed and classy boulevard cruiser.

It also brakes like a demon as I found out when a turning spot presented itself in the road 50m ahead with way too much speed on the clock. Standing on the brakes is a revealing exercise in many a car as the weight balance suddenly goes wrong and the car pitches to one side. Not so here:the Wiesmann slows like it's thrown an anchor out in a perfectly straight line with just the occasional screech of the tyresto let the guys around the corner knowthat their car has just performed the ultimate emergency stop.

Verdict

Of course at about Dh735,000 the Wiesmann is heading into rarefied territory occupied by the established masters of the supercars scene. An F430, or slightly used Gallardo, can be had for the same money and both are its equal on track. But then they suffer from inverse badge snobbery. Footballers drive Ferraris, whereas watching a Wiesmann fly past, you know that man is a gentleman who does not wish to show off his wealth. He simply wants to enjoy a fine, quirky car with character.

It wasn't just me, either. As I pulled out the factory, a white van driver made space for the little sportscar, which never, ever happens. And it was the first in a long line of thumbs-up, cheery waves and "after you sirs" of the day. This car doesn't just have olde worlde styling. It marks a return to olde worlde manners and the same people that would have revved their own engine to the limiter to chop a Ferrari off at the pass simply wave us through on our merry way. That is the power of the Wiesmann and this is what brings the customers back for car after car. That, and the fact they get the heart and soul of Sixties England with metronomic German underpinnings.

So if you sometimes dream of the classic English sportscar and hammering down the highway, you owe it to yourself to drive a Wiesmann. Even though it's brand new. And German.

Specs & rating