Re-writing the anual

The new generation of the BMW M2 is here, with a new motor from the present generation M3 and M4, a new styling package. We tell you what it's like from the driver's seat

I’m going to start this review by venturing an extremely unpopular opinion. Modern sports cars are extremely pointless to the enthusiast. It’s turned into a bit of a numbers contest. And since they are basically undrivable in their absolutely unleashed forms they have to be bubble wrapped in a labyrinth of safety net after safety net to ensure that the old men driving them don’t end up offing themselves on their way to the next drive-thru or golf club or wherever it is people take most supercars. Sure, some of them do end up as track cars, but I’ve rarely seen a track day regular show up with a bone stock supercar. For the real enthusiast, those that really love driving, where it’s at is the 400-500bhp, seats two, occasionally four. That should explain why the last generation of the BMW M2 was the singularly best-selling M-car of all time. This new one is a little more expensive less democratic and all, but is a full level up, hear me out.

Here are the headlines, this is the new generation of the M2, codenamed the G87 and no facelift-y cosmetic job either. Ground up new. That means while it still is underpinned by the new generation of 2-series, it’s stiffer, sharper but perhaps most importantly under the hood is the 3.0-litre S58. That’s the same twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight six that’s under the hood of, both, this present generation of M3 and the M4. Slightly detuned to 460bhp, but still belting out 550Nm of glorious tarmac churning bliss. You could have it with the, quite a bit faster 8-speed ZF, or the 6-speed manual. I reluctantly will admit that both gearboxes make an equally convincing case for themselves, right before justifying the 6-speed manual for reasons that only a few might relate to. But we’ll get to that later.