Its no secret that I like love BMWs. I’ve owned a few, like this E46 M3, this E60 535i, this supercharged E36 328i, and this screaming E92 M3. That’s not even half of them, just the ones we’ve featured here on RFD. So while I may be driving the real Godzilla at the moment, my heart is still in Bavaria, which has made the past several years of BMW enthusiasm difficult. Turbochargers have replaced high revving inline 6’s and V8s in the name of fuel economy and “going green”. BMW has hardly campaigned any M cars in actual motorsports events. Their race-what-we-build history was the allurement to BMW for me in the first place. Now it’s gone.
So is hope lost or can the new BMW M2 show me its still got what I thought had been missing? As luck would have it, we had Dominion Raceway all to ourselves for a few hours to find out. Watch the video to see if this is a story of redemption or if BMW is just chasing sales on the coat tails of the most powerful letter in motorsport.
Sounds the part! Debating whether it can really pull double duty as the DD, canyon and track car – seems like my two car 228i/Z4M setup is still a winner so long as I have the garage space.
That’s a pretty solid 2-car setup. I’ve driven the M2, helped film the video, I think it’s compliant enough on the street to be a good DD and it definitely has the canyon/track angle down. We were pleasantly surprised.
I was finally able to get behind the wheel of an M2 on a proper CA backroad. Wow. This car is so planted and stable, it just picks up speed and makes some decent noise too! A great proposition for a do-it-all DD/Track/Canyon car, but it definitely lacks the soul of the older makes. Hard to beat the hydraulic steering, S54 and low slung coupe I am afraid.
Now more confused than ever…
Josh felt the same. I don’t think he’d actually buy an M2. Keep your Z4M!