Highlights Handling upgrades Limited-slip diff Carbon fibre trim Only one previous owner Rear-wheel drive Overview There was a time when most cars were rear-wheel drive.

And anything that wasn’t had probably been dreamed up in France after somebody’s four-hour, wine-infused lunch break.

But sadly those days are long gone.

If it’s not the industry-standard front-wheel configuration, then your car probably has all-wheel drive, which is measurably, empirically, demonstrably better in every way.

But some things can’t be measured: things like ‘fun’, ‘flair’, and ‘un-frenchness’.

And BMW has long understood this, ensuring that the traditional rear-wheel drive layout remains present on our roads, and not just the preserve of an exclusive group of high-end vehicles.

So we salute them for giving the world a rear-wheel drive hatchback in the form of the 1-series.

And this is a particularly desirable example.

The M140i is a small car with big car aspirations.

Its twin-scroll turbocharger...