Follow-up Comment #11, bug #40361 (project make):
Bingo!
$ /opt/tools/gnumake-4.0/bin/make -rR
/opt/tools/gnumake-4.0/bin/make -C subdir
touch file.c
make[1]: Entering directory '/tmp/temp/subdir'
rm file.c
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/temp/subdir'
So Frank is correct, it looks like
Follow-up Comment #12, bug #40361 (project make):
Although, slightly odd that the 'Entering directory' appeared after the 'touch
file.c' - although I presume that is just related to the temporary code
replacement with vprintf causing an immediate print