Drive Test: BMW M2 Competition is a flyweight M4

The last BMW M2 had a drift mode. As does this M2 Competition version, except it’s not advertised as a mode. You’ll find it by toggling the DSC off, then… You know how the rest unfolds. Now the gloves are off and the little bits of life preservation removed from the electronics, which up until now have stoically soaked up a lot of the aggression without dulling it to the banality of being a M240i. Yep, we’re talking about a different kind of fast here, like napalm in a salt shaker.

While all its other friends are clambering to be the first to hit 300kW (Audi RS3, Mercedes A 45 AMG, Porsche 718 GTS), the M2 Competition throws a haymaker with 302kW. Then, in waning M Division recipe, sends that alone to the rear wheels. It’s what the new generation refers to as ‘pure.’ A manual handbrake means there’s some veracity to that. 

If you’re a M Division evangelist you’ll know that the source of the M2 Competition’s 100 per cent M-ness points heavily towards the twin turbo straight six 3.0-litre engine. That’s the first time any BMW M car below the M3 has shared the most vital of componentry – where cars like the 1M and previous M2 were criticised. Was it down to brand anti-cannibalism, or was it just sanity? We live in a technological world where more power has rarely made ill of the car but I do want to meet the man who signed this off and give him a firm pat on the back. You just can’t see Audi doing something this crazy – taking the 3.0-litre V6 from their RS4 and shoehorning it in the RS3 sedan. And who knows how the equivalent foolishness will translate to the EV world. BMW’s iNext batteries in an i3? Terrifying.

You want comparisons to the M4, right? Fortunately for you, we’ve tested them both up here at reef altitude and there’s 0.4sec to 100kph – a margin which is held to the 400m line – in favour of the more powerful M4. That could be intentional to preserve the pecking order. But if you want to parlay the M4’s straightline performance into everyday fun, it’s the M2 Competition that comes out on top. Small dimensions, for one. It’s why the Porsche 911’s silhouette is so masterful on a twisty road. The M2’s inexplicably gripper too and suffused in feedback versus the stabbing M4.

The rumour mill is that new M3 will be all-wheel drive with an uprated version to the one fitted in the 340i xDrive, modified with the microchip brain that permits rear-wheel drive lunacy. When that happens the M2 Competition will drive a stake in driving purity to become almost biblical. I think it’s already halfway there. To go the rest of the way BMW’s reportedly developing prototypes in the way of the M2 CS and M2 CSL.

Specification

• R1 026 500
• 2979cc, 6cyl twin turbo petrol, RWD, 302kW, 550Nm
• 10.0l/00km, 227g/km CO2
• 0-100kph in 4.4secs, 250kph
• 1550kg
• Tester’s notes: Power tends to corrupt. But absolute power has not corrupted absolutely