Talk to any dyed-in-the-wool BMW fan, and they’ll likely tell you the company has walked away from its roots.
The cars are too big now, there are too many crossovers, too many badges. What about something for drivers?
To be fair to BMW, it’s a complaint you hear about Porsche too. Turns out, people buy more practical choices than fun choices because that’s what life calls for. Sure, an old-school M5 with a stick shift would be fun, but have you seen modern traffic?
But even as the models grow ever larger and the showrooms fill up with coupe-styled CUVs, there’s still a beating performance heart at BMW. This is still the company that gave us the 2002tii and the E30-chassis M3.
The blue and white roundel might be on the nose of a huge variety of vehicles these days, but where driving is concerned, they can still muster up something really special to stick it on. Enter the M2, a return of the Ultimate Driving Machine.
Design
There is a rule I’d like to propose, and it’s this: every single car looks better when you add fender flares. I’d bet it’d even work on a Pontiac Aztec.
The 2 Series on which the M2 is based is already a pretty good-looking machine, so getting it wider just works. The car looks punchy, fierce, bulldog-stanced. It looks like 10 pounds of M3 stuffed into a five-pound bag.
If you’re a fan of subtle grace, you won’t really find it here. The front end of the M2 is a mass of aerodynamic enhancements, and the rear is dominated by staggered quad exhaust pipes. At least the rear lip spoiler is reserved, but the fat, wide 19-inch alloys are not.
I love it. It’s like a little French bulldog painted blue and let loose in the off-leash park.
Environment
The M2 comes essentially fully loaded from BMW, which you’d expect given the $61K price tag. For your money, you get satellite navigation, excellent seats with adjustable side bolstering and extendable thigh support, and a decent stereo.
There’s no sunroof, which makes the cabin a little dark, but performance fans will love not having a weight penalty mounted up high. They’ll also like the chunky steering wheel and being able to see a hint of rear fender flare, even with your mirrors set outwards to reduce blind spots.
The surprise of the M2 isn’t the driver-focused bits, which you expect, but how relatively decent this thing is at hauling small kids around. The passenger seat slides comically far forward, and there’s enough space for a four-year-old in a car seat behind the driver’s seat set for a 5-foot-11 driver. If a Porsche Cayman isn’t on the list because of its two-seater configuration, you have a new hero.
Performance
The M2’s engine is a mongrel of sorts, a mixed breed between the twin-turbo M3/M4’s inline six, and the 3.0-litre single-turbo six of the standard 235i. Call it a heavy tuning of the latter, fitted with better oiling and stronger pistons, and with more boost cranked out of the single turbo.
Power output for the M2’s six is 365 horsepower at 6,500 r.p.m., and 343 foot-pounds of torque from 1,400 r.p.m. to 5,560 r.p.m.
There’s a brief overboost function available to provide an additional 26 foot-pounds of torque until 4,750 r.p.m.
Also under the skin are most of the good bits from the M3/M4’s suspension, including its front and rear subframes and clever rear differential. Even better, they’ve ported over the bigger M-car’s electric power steering, which is much better than the M235i’s numb helm.
There are also giant brakes and super-sticky Pilot Super Sport tires – but don’t get bogged down in the details. What makes the M2 so great isn’t its collection of fancy parts, but the way the car works together as a whole. It’s wonderful.
First, the compact size gives the M2 a lively feel that transcends its rather hefty curb weight (it’s not much lighter than an M3 sedan). It feels quick and alive in your hands.
Next, the chassis provides plenty of grip, but not so much that you can’t feel the rear end squirming in hairpin corners. The power is the same thing: plenty of shove, but not the autobahn scorching steam of a big-power M-car.
The only two real missteps are the automatic rev-matching for the manual gearbox, which can’t be shut off unless you completely disable traction control. Only a madman totally turns traction control off on the street. In any event, this week’s tester had the excellent seven-speed dual-clutch (I’d rather have the manual anyway).
The second mild annoyance is the artificial engine noise. Just roll your window down.
Aside from that, the M2 drives exactly how it looks. It’s a little twitchy, and yet composed. It’s very quick, but not so fast as to be unusable. It’s compact, but not impractical. It feels balanced, every part carefully fitted together to find a glorious Goldilocks balance, just the way all the best BMWs are.
Features
Fully kitted out from standard, the only option to choose on the M2 is which transmission. The seven-speed dual-clutch will set you back $3,900, but is probably worth it if your commute is horrific. The navigation and various infotainment controls are high resolution and easy to use.
BMW’s turbo-sixes can be thirsty if driven hard, and why else would you buy an M2? Official ratings for the dual-clutch are 12.7 litres/100 kilometres city and 9.2 l/100 km on the highway. Observed economy was worse than the city rating, but blame the driver, not the car.
Green light
Growly, punchy engine; great looks; excellent performance; surprisingly livable.
Stop sign
Fake shifting, fake engine noise; heavy considering the dimensions.
The checkered flag
Balanced, lively, and fast: feels like a return to form for the best of BMW.
Competition
Audi S3 ($45,400)
Like the M2, the S3 is the smallest of its siblings. Like the M2, it’s better because of it. This compact little sedan has plenty of firepower, and it holds a trump card over the BMW when the weather gets bad: it’s got all-wheel drive.
The BMW, on the other hand, is a better track machine, and more fun to drive. We’ll have to wait and see if we get the full-power RS3 to put Audi on top.
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