Here Comes the BMW M4!

One weekday evening, I was driving my BMW 320i on the Chugoku Expressway. Practicing downshifts and focusing on handling, I thought, “I’ve really gotten used to driving the 320i on the highway now.” Suddenly, a sleek black BMW approached rapidly from behind.

“What an imposing presence. Looks like an ‘M’ model or something,” I thought. Naturally, I quickly moved over to check the rear—and sure enough, it was an M4 Coupe.

*Image source: CLUB CARS-BMW

The M4 then roared away with that unmistakably cool engine sound and quickly vanished from sight.

“M models really are something else—such a great sound and insanely fast, too.” I thought as I continued down the Chugoku Expressway. Traffic gradually thickened, and glancing diagonally ahead, I spotted the M4 again!

Feeling a little thrill at the reunion, I made sure not to lose sight of it this time. But I had to exit at the next interchange (IC), so I thought, “Looks like this is where I say goodbye to the M4.” To my surprise, the M4 changed lanes and followed suit.

Wow—so the M4 is exiting at the same IC!

Still, I figured we’d part ways after the exit, but to my astonishment, every turn and destination after that was exactly the same as mine. Somehow, I felt a strange sense of fate with this M4 (laughs).

What Happens When You Follow an M4…?

After a while, the M4 turned left where I usually go straight. But a weird feeling came over me: “Since I’m this far, I want to follow the M4 as far as I can.” Even though it was a detour, I decided to tail it. Soon, traffic jammed just before a traffic light, and cars came to a complete stop.

This spot never gets congested on a normal day… (-_-)

Still, every time the light turned green, I got to hear the M4’s engine roar “Vroooom!!” right behind me, so I figured it was worth it and kept crawling along. But the slow pace continued so long that I checked Google Maps and saw the road ahead was completely red for several kilometers—a massive traffic jam!

Following the M4 had landed me smack in the middle of a huge delay.

Later I learned that a truck and passenger car had collided up ahead, and police were controlling lanes. Interestingly, the M4 and I stayed together all the way to near my home, so maybe we’re neighbors.

Still, I reflected, “If I’d just taken my usual route, I wouldn’t have been stuck in this jam and lost over 30 minutes. Definitely learned my lesson about following strange cars!” I tweeted about the whole experience and got comments like:

I totally do this too, lol. I’ve even missed my highway exit once.

I’ve done the same thing so many times! 😆

…What?! Everyone does this, huh? Haha!

Feeling like I’d joined the ranks of fellow car lovers, I was a bit happy—but from now on, I’ll think twice before tailing a cool car blindly. That’s the lesson I took away from this adventure.