BMW M2 – performance and 0-62mph time
If you can shift quickly enough, the manual M2 reaches 62mph in 4.2sec. The automatic M2 is quicker still at 4sec.
The M2’s S58 turbocharged straight-six is a barrel of teutonic muscle. The peak torque curve and therefore the feeling of muscularity was strong before. Now the breadth of that availability has been extended further still, by another 260rpm, from a lowly 2650rpm (as before) all the way to 6130rpm. Peak power still comes in at 6250rpm, meaning there’s motive reward in pushing the taco further.
The result is a flexible, drivable feel to the M2. You can cruise on the groundswell of torque or wring it out and be rewarded for doing so. You could pull away from a junction in third gear, should you wish, and take it all the way to three-figures thereabouts in one gear on the right road.
Is it an emotionally satisfying engine? Possibly not. We could swear it’s quieter in the updated car, the familiar gruff growl of the S58 a little more distant. It’s a thoroughbred performer, if not one to set your heart fluttering. Like a dehydrated bodybuilder on-stage for Mr Olympia, the S58 bristles with muscle, but its sinews and striations are impressive if not attractive.
Fine would be a complementary description of the manual gearbox, too. Compared with the short-throw shift in Toyota’s GR86 or even Ford’s Tremec-equipped Mustang, not to mention the benchmark H-pattern in the FL5 Civic Type R, it’s a slower, wider-gated, more knuckly-feeling set-up. But then, it has a heck of a lot more torque to deal with than those cars (Mustang excepted).
Like a doctor specialising in resetting joints, you get used to what is at first an uncomfortable-feeling shift, that feels like you're stirring someone’s rotator cuff. It’s never a fast throw but in the end, it doesn’t get in the way of your enjoyment. Thicker-thighed folks might question the ergonomics of a manual M2 when fitted with the carbon shell bucket seat, however, given the, ahem, gentleman holster, is a constant obstacle for your left leg when seeking the clutch.
The eight-speed auto feels more urgent in the first few, shorter gears – 0-62mph is two-tenths quicker at 4sec and up 0.1sec compared to the last M2 – and although it’s a torque-converter in place of the dual-clutch transmission of the old F87s, you can dial the shift speed and abruptness up and down in three stages.
On three out of three it chomps through the gears with clipped punctuation; it’s slurry-smooth on one out of three, and it’s perfectly smooth and fast enough on the middle setting. You can keep both hands on the wheel and use the slightly tacky-looking carbonfibre-trimmed, wheel-mounted paddles to shift manually, or punch the gear selector forward and back like you’re in a DTM car at the Norisring.
