[Reesnat]

When I first saw leaked pictures of the new G87 M2, I, like everyone else on the internet was flabbergasted by what BMW had done. Yet, here I am writing an ownership review for that very car which I now own, and have grown to love.



The biggest issue with the car is its name and predecessors. It's called BMW M2, and that is its problem. Its SO radically different in styling and approach to the earlier M cars of its lineage (1M & M2) that its constantly compared to its predecessors with an expectation to better them on every count. While at the same time, fixing all the issues those cars had, improve performance and add modern safety, features etc. That is a near impossible task… to please everyone, myself included in this.

But, after the first few months of ownership and after learning more of what this car can do, I think we need to commend BMW for the attempt.

Pros:

• Outstanding chassis for an everyday sports car
• Same suspension, engine, cooling and gearbox as the M3/M4 - all fantastic!
• Adaptive suspension tuned extremely well to offer both daily usability and dynamics
• Modern, feature packed interior
• Aggressive body styling makes the car unique
• Solid brakes that keep up with the car’s speed and weight - a massive upgrade from the previous gen which had horrible stock brakes.
• Fantastic, modern 10 stage traction control that is both quicker to act and more sophisticated at the same time.

Cons:

• Weight (wish it was 100kg lighter), even though in practise the car manages it very well
• OPF Filter absolutely kills the sound
• Insulated driving experience
• Cast wheels instead of forged that such a car deserves
• Rear seats headroom is not great. How have BMW managed to make the car bigger and yet have lesser headroom in the rear?
• For those with more experience driving cars of this ilk - its setup from factory a bit more muted than it needs to be (probably in the interest of being more accessible)

Summary:

The phrase ‘dont judge a book by its cover’ gets overused, but in this case, it is apt. This is a car that has a wide breadth of capability in its driving characteristics that is easy to miss in a short drive. Want a car that can ‘feel’ almost like a normal BMW, put the engine in efficient, chassis in comfort, and gearbox at its lowest setting, and it can cruise around comfortably. Want a car that can drive like a sports car on track and deliver lap times that rival flagship sports cars? Put the chassis in Sport/Sports Plus, Engine in Sport and turn up the aggression on the gearbox to 3, and it will happily run laps around your favourite track all day long. Besides the 911, not many cars can do both those traits well, oh, and the 911 does not have usable rear seats or a big boot for practicality.

This is a car that I’ve grown to like more, the more time I spend with it. For a car that is trying to do it all, there are some compromises made, but those seem to have been judged pretty well. On the compromises, its largely around making the car more comfortable and easier to drive than the previous ones. This can be argued from both directions, of it being a good or a bad thing. However, the good news is the platform is shared with its bigger siblings the M3/M4 and there is a ton of aftermarket support to make the car become even more dynamic or playful, if you so wish. But as a base platform to start with, it’s a solid one, and one that I am excited about exploring and pushing. I’ve already made a few OE mods to the car, and its gotten better and better (for my needs) with every one of them. It is easy to make a car more playful, less stable, more unpredictable. But it is much harder to make a car that is highly capable, yet comfortable and stable in every scenario.

[Reesnat]

This review will make sense when read with the context of where I come from and my past cars.

VRS230/245:



I owe a lot to the vRS as the car that really got me into what performance cars can be like and the world of modding them. It is hands down, the best value for money enthusiast car ever sold in India.

I spent a lot of time between the 230/245 (lost the 230 in an accident and picked up a 245) and spent a lot of time modding them, learning what each mod does etc etc. This was my first taste into working on driving dynamics and understanding what car balance is.

Had a great time with the car and it did pretty much everything you asked of it very, very well both from a practicality and a performance standpoint (at least for what a FWD car can do).

BMW M2 Competition:



My first taste of a sports car and what that experience is like was with the F87 M2 Competition. Absolutely loved this car, (have a thread on it here (Scratching the sports car itch - My BMW M2 Competition)) and was a wonderful 3 year ownership experience. This car taught me driving, car balance, throttle modulation and much more. It was a car that you needed to drive with respect and focus all the time. Take it easy and floor it off angle and it can bite you, as evidenced by the large number of wrecked M2’s around the world (India included). But that rowdy nature was also its charm, its unpredictability however started becoming an issue for me and I wanted a car with a higher capability of performance and one that I can drive hard with less fear both on road or on track.

At this stage I had two options - mod the M2 Competition and make it behave the way I want it to or sell this car and move to a platform that is inherently setup closer to what I’m looking for. To fix the driving characteristics of this chassis you needed to do a fair bit of work with the suspension, kinematics, etc. At that point we didn’t have as many people in India with a lot of experience in setting these M cars with the ideal street/track balance that I was after. The few that have done so have all been all out track builds, I’m not after an all out track build. I wanted a balance of street and track with as few compromises on practicality as possible.


BMW M340i:



This car was meant to be an upgrade to the vRS in my garage, living alongside the M2. Great package and enjoyed my time with it, but for my background and use case, it fell in no-mans land - not as practical and easy to live with like the vRS and nowhere near as fun to drive as an M2.

Had I not come from the vRS and M2 background, this would have been a great performance car with some practicality.

Got a good offer on the car so sold it and bought a Kodiaq for the family practicality and daily usability.

And the G87 M2 now serves as the fun weekend car.

Choices considered to replace my F87 M2 Competition:

Brief: Has to be enjoyable on the street and practical enough to take pretty much anywhere, as that is where it will spend 95% of its time. Yet, should be very capable on occasional track days. Has to be extremely engaging, emotional, fun and fast. I don’t care for 0-100 times as drag racing is not my fancy. Rolling performance is important for me, so the metrics that matter to me for comparison are 100-200 and lap times.

911 Carrera S:

Top most choice would be a 911 (obviously). But, for this to be a meaningful upgrade, it has to be a drivers car specced example. I wanted a 992 Carrera S with PDCC, rear axle steer, sports exhaust as mandatory options. With these and a couple other extras you are looking at 2.2-2.3Cr ex showroom new. Prices of Porsche’s in India have become ridiculous over the past couple of years and is a huge deterrent.

Cayman GTS PDK:

Cayman with its mid engine balance and that beautiful 4L naturally aspirated engine is a fabulous option too. The car has pretty much everything you could want in a pure drivers car. Two major deterrents for me were the extremely dated interiors for a car in this price class and the price - at 1.6 Cr ex showroom this is simply too much money for what this car offers. The GT4 offers are much more raw and engaging driving experience but unusable on the street for the most part.

BMW M4 Competition XDrive:

M4 is a fantastic car. I was lucky to drive it on track in Dubai and also drove it on the streets at home. Love the front end dynamics of the M4 from a handling point of view, very capable car. Not as much fun as an M2 but very sorted car from factory. XDrive on this is great, playful when you want it, and tons of grip when you want. Only fly in the ointment is its priced at about 1.5Cr ex-showroom, this is about 50% more than the G87 M2, is it 50% more car? Not quite, unless you are into drag racing where the XDrive matters. Especially considering it shares the same chassis, powerplant, suspension, brakes with the M2. Granted its tuned very differently.

G87 M2:

So this brings us back to the new G87 M2, after much ado, the new generation M2 still seemed like the most bang for buck sports car you can buy right now. Ultimately, what sold me on this car was the platform. It's based on a much more ‘sorted’ platform from factory, be it the extremely capable chassis, the power plant or the modern features you will secretly love, but say you dont care for in car forums, cause you are a true driving enthusiast.

I have a vision of turning this car into a M2 CS of my own. Try to find the right balance of parts that allows me to maximises the dynamics and fun factor from this chassis without making it too hardcore that makes it a chore to drive and enjoy on public roads.

[Reesnat]

The Spec I went for:

Color: Black Sapphire Metallic





When I booked the car I was still in two minds about the design and if I’ll like it in person, so black was the safest bet. Even though maintaining black cars in India is an absolute nightmare!

Carbon Roof:



I wanted this car to look and feel special and nothing makes that statement more than an overpriced carbon roof that looks great and you can pacify yourself saying weight savings from the top most part of the car.

Carbon Interior Trim:



Again, wanted it to feel special inside as well, and the carbon trim pieces on the dashboard and especially on the steering wheel and the paddles look and feel very premium and classy.

Shadowline Headlights:

These take away the chrome highlights on the headlights and make the headlights look a lot more aggressive. Works well for the black I thought.

Red Compound Brakes:



Effectively red paint for your brake calipers.

Wheels:

I specced the bi-color wheels but BMW India messed this one up and got me the all black wheels. I’m not a black on black wheels kind of guy (I’m generally not a fan of black wheels anyway). But the time it would take them to fix this would have delayed the delivery even more (car was already 6 months late). So I settled for the black wheels and decided I’ll get them painted straight away.

Seats:



The new M2 comes with the Sports Seats as standard. I was one of the first few to book the car and at that time BMW India confirmed that the bi-color seats were not coming to India, which of course changed later. So I ended up with the seats in black with blue contrast stitching. Initially I was a bit disappointed with this, but later felt like it may have been for the better for my age and what I wanted this car to end up as. I am going for a clean look and these bi-color seats are a bit shouty and are always poking out of the interiors calling for attention, especially on a black car.


Now lets come to the elephant in the room (or cabin), the Transmission:



While every ‘enthusiast’ would have advised on the manual transmission for this car - after all, its the last M car to come with a manual transmission. But for my needs and usage I think the auto is the better choice.

Indian conditions and traffic being the way it is, means for any meaningfully ‘fun’ driving, I have to do about 1 hour of city driving in traffic. The manual is not fun in traffic, at all. The Manual transmission has only 6 gears vs the 8 in auto which means the gears are much longer and not as tight for a car of this type (for my taste at least). These modern high horsepower engines are designed around the auto for maximum performance, no two ways about that and I want to extract the most out of this car both on the street and on track.

The only fly in the ointment for this choice is the fact that we have moved to a torque converter from a DCT. However, having spent some time with it now, I can say its a good choice for this kind of car (more on the transmission later).

Price:

The new G87 M2 is priced about 1Cr ex showroom. The car it replaces - the F87 M2 Competition was last sold at about 85L ex showroom. Since the last 3 years, inflation and currency escalation itself has added about 15-20%. On top of that you get a new chassis, adaptive dampers, new engine, modern tech etc etc. Factoring all that in, its actually a great value proposition!

[Reesnat]

Exterior Styling:

Clearly, the most controversial bit of the car is the looks. Let me start by saying this, this is a VERY un-photogenic car especially when shooting with standard wide angle shots from close to the car. The shapes and angles really don’t come through in photos. In person, it’s a lot better and from longer shots, looks really aggressive. This design isn’t as classic as the old car which was instantly recognisable as a BMW and was pleasing instantly.

If you debadge this car, it can pass off as one from a different manufacturer all together. It’s very radical and very aggressive. This seems to be the goal of BMW. In black, it looks mean and wide and has a very strong presence.

Fun fact - I’ve had so many non-car people come up to me and tell me what a cool looking car. Far more than the earlier M2 did.

Personally, I’ve grown to like it’s aggressive and unique looks. The biggest issue with the looks of the car from factory is the terrible stance, needs some spacers immediately.

Interior:

While the exterior can be subjective, the interior leaves no doubt - it’s a massive step forward! Everything is put together really well and screams high end, like a 1+Cr car should.

From my time with some of the more mainstream cars that use the new large single screen interface, I found it to be a backward step, and was not looking forward to this part. The large screen interface which takes away some buttons from the older platform car seemed like an unnecessary change for the sake of it.

With the earlier cars I used to setup the shortcut buttons to the things I go to most often - CarPlay, Tyre Temps, Car Status, Sports Displays, Setup.



Thankfully with this new layout, BMW didn’t completely waste the space but added a lot of widgets that an ‘M’ car needs. This includes the setup menu which is now a very important aspect of the car since it has so many options, the tyre pressures, etc. The Steering wheel has the M1 and M2 buttons which is such a boon on these cars. Being able to quickly switch between a bunch of settings is a huge time saver and makes it so fun to switch modes instantly.



After a few days I have it setup with the information I need the moment I start the car and during the drive. I’ve laid out the essentials on one page - Setup, Tyre Pressure and Engine Info. So no need to click through at all, I have all that, all the time! And there is a shortcut button for CarPlay right there on the right, so whenever I need to jump there, its a click away.



Driving position:

Driving position is spot on for a sports car. You can sit nice and low with great visibility, and steering reach and rake is enough to get the perfect driving position. This alone makes such a big difference in how you feel while driving and how connected you feel. Only complaint I have with the seating position is with the seat lowered to its max position (it does go much lower than the earlier car), the arm rest gets in the way.


The Drive:

Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this review, how does it drive and how does it compare to the previous gen M2C.

Let's start this comparison with a couple of Dyno graphs that explain the whole story fairly simply.




Looking at the power delivery curves of both the cars its pretty obvious what is happening here. The old car was violent in the mid range but would flat line in the top end. The new car has a perfect, text book power delivery that is extremely linear throughout the rev range and keeps pulling, you never run out of gas with this. To truly enjoy this car you need to rev it out till redline, which ends up happening more often than you would expect, keeps you engaged throughout, and turns into a gas guzzler .

I much prefer this style of linear power delivery, makes the car much more predictable and enjoyable on the limit. It doesn’t catch you off as much.

Talking about catch you off, the chassis is setup so neutrally that you never feel like its going to bite you when you least expect (unlike the old one), its extremely stable and capable. The massive tyres (275/35/19 in front and 285/30/20 in the rear) are a big contributor to this. The thick sidewall in the front helps give the car a lot of cushion up front. To put this into perspective, the M2’s front tyre has more sidewall than the M340i!

The chassis is extremely rigid, and you can feel that all the damping work is being done by the suspension alone.

The adaptive dampers have been tuned with a wide band, in comfort its very comfortable (a bit too soft for my taste), and in Sports Plus its nice and firm. The way the car behaves in each of these modes is quite distinct when you start to push it. For me, with traction fully on and in comfort, the car is quite bland to drive. For it to feel like an M2 should, you need to be in Sport mode on the chassis and the traction set to MDM or Mid-way with Level 5-6 on the 10 stage traction control.

Talking about traction control - this is one of the big highlights of the car! The standard MDM as available from past M cars is here, this mode allows a bit more slip and does make the car feel more lively. However, putting traction off allows you to set the traction control anywhere across a 10 stage level, giving you finer control on how much slip you want. The big difference with this generation is that they have moved to a much more advanced traction control system that communicates with the ECU much, much faster than before and doesn’t use the brakes at all in this traction control mode. It manages torque only using the engine power! This is the kind of traction control is what you’ll find in proper race cars. On this car it feels awesome, car is so elegantly balanced, yet playful.

My default driving mode has become traction off - set to level 5, this I find to be safe, yet playful.

The biggest gripe I have with the car on the driver engagement side is the heavy insulation for a car like this, its very damped and sucks away the feel. The steering, while very precise and responsive, has very little feedback or feel either.

Coming to the transmission:

The DCT of the old car was a rough but extremely fun transmission, that was a blast to use when ‘on it’. But was jerky at low city speeds. This torque converter from ZF has come a very long way from the rubber band torque converters of the past and BMW have done their best to tune it to suit the car. There are three levels of aggression you can set it to. In its most docile setting it’s easy to drive in town and you hardly notice it doing its job, no jerkiness at low speeds like the old one. Set it to its most aggressive level and the shifts are crisp and quick. Upshifts I’d say are as fast as the old DCT, the downshifts though are where its let down a bit. Not quite as sharp or fast as I’d like it to be. An interesting thing here is that BMW tweaked the same transmission to be much sharper in M4 CSL and M3 CS, so one option is to flash that software on or get a full XHP tune for the TCU which can take this transmission very close to DCT levels. The hardware has it in it to deliver full super car performance. The tight gearing also really helps keep the engine on boil at all times and minimises turbo lag from the two large turbos that are designed to handle a lot more power than previous gen.

Track performance:

So it does really well on the road, but how does it handle on the track, and how much will the weight penalty affect the on track performance, this was the real acid test for me.



With the run in period well behind me, I got my first track day done with the car at MMRT, this was something I was really looking forward to. And it didnt disappoint! Car felt very well balanced and quick to change directions, while offering a lot of confidence to push. It doesn't feel as unpredictable as the old one and the new traction control system really shines on track! Even when the car breaks away from you, it does so in a very progressive and linear manner, making it much easier to catch.

Even though I feared it might, the weight is a non-issue on track, car moves very quickly and never gets in your way. Mind you, MMRT is a very technical and challenging track, and if there is any weaknesses in dynamics, it will show up plenty here. The brakes are fantastic on track too, absolutely no brake fade over 2-3 hot laps at a time and braking power is constant, delivering a lot of confidence. BMW even put removable brake ducts in front which is advised on track to allow some more air to circulate in the wheel wells. Track driving capability is clearly something BMW thought about a lot with this generation of M cars, and it shows.



So what kind of numbers does this all add up to? In stock form on stock PS4S* marked tyres, I managed to do a 1.54, this is a fantastic result considering its my first time out on track with the car. To put that number into perspective - Narain Karthikeyan managed a 1.52 with a 992 Carrera S on an AutoCar track day. For an amateur driver like me to get just 2 secs off from a Pro in a car that's twice the price is incredible. In the hands of a pro the M2 will easily shave off another 2-3 seconds. I can say with confidence that any doubts on the capability of this car by online spec sheet readers is dumbfounded.

So what's next? I've done over 7500kms over the last 6 months with the car, and its gone through a fair few upgrades. My vision for an M2CS build of my own is half way there already, will share that part of the story in the coming posts.

[KarthikK]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[androdev]

Congratulations!! Very insightful review - thoroughly enjoyed reading the comparison of the cars you have owned. Very rare to come across anyone who owned such lovely cars, has an objective point of view - and the thought to pen it down :-) Not in the sports category, but as someone who owned a bunch of family sedans across a wide budget range, I can truly relate to the appreciation you have for the Octavia. Skoda Laura was my first fancy car and still serves as a reference when I evaluate a car.

Have fun with your new acquisition!!

[Reesnat]

First Cosmetic Mods:

The very first mod I did to the car even before I took delivery was protecting the front transmission cooler that is completely exposed in the M2 automatic cars.



In our conditions there is a very high chance of this getting peppered badly and losing its efficiency, or worse, failing completely. The simplest solution I came up with was to purchase a honeycomb grill sheet (similar to the ones BMW use on their cars of older generation), cut to size and secured via zip ties around the radiator.

Found a cheap one on Amazon - https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0C...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I felt it was important to not put the grill right in front and securing it on the bumper, but securing it on the radiator itself. This is because underneath the transmission cooler, sits the engine oil cooler, so it was important to not block any air coming into that lower front area.




With that done and delivery taken, immediate next step was to get the car to my friend Niranjan at OCD for a full body PPF and to get the wheels painted. Being a black car, I knew going in, I was going to be in for pain of maintaining a black car in India. Let me put it this way - no matter what you do a black car is only clean for 5 minutes in India. Sad, but I still fancied owning a black car for that look, so took the plunge. For any darker coloured car, good quality, self healing PPF is a must if you want your car to look swirl free over longer periods. So we settled for the most expensive PPF on the market, Llumar Valor. Plus 3M CR70 tints all around.

Next we wanted to tackle the wheels - after some looking around we settled on a shade of silver that compliments the wheel design and contrasts the black paint well. We ended up with a satin finish instead of going full matt or gloss.

Next was to address a big issue with the look from factory - the stance. The wheels are unusually inset very deep (for an M car) and comes with pretty high GC for a car of this type so the wheel gap is significant. So spacers were much needed. I’m usually not a fan of spacers but in this case it was a necessity to fix the look.

Getting high quality spacers is very important to not have any sort of vibrations or seating issues. The seat between the wheel hub and wheel has to be perfect and even the slightest misalignment can cause vibrations. I picked up a set of Japan Racing spacers - 15mm front and 12mm in the rear. In addition to the spacers, you need matching longer wheel bolts to match.




The addition of spacers has pros and cons to keep in mind - pros being better stance/look and increase in the track width, this will improve grip and handling characteristics of the car, making it more sharper to drive. Cons are that it will add some weight (negligible) and will introduce a little more transmission into the chassis from the road due to the leverage increasing. In the case of the M2, it has little feedback from the steering wheel so a little more transmission from the road isn’t too bad. The spacers certainly delivered on the promised improvement in driving dynamics - noticed this straight away.

On the exterior, I also wanted to compliment the carbon roof with some more carbon bits, so picked up the carbon fibre mirror caps and rear lip spoiler.

So with all that, this is how the car looked at this point:




It's finally starting to look like an M car. The aggressive body design seems to fall flat with the way the car is stanced from factory. Just the spacers makes the whole design come together so much better!

[Aditya]

Exceptional, unbiased & detailed ownership reviews of cars have started going to our homepage reviews box. It's the ultimate stamp of trust from Team-BHP (as a platform) because lakhs of visitors every month check out reviews from there & make purchase decisions.

Your review has also gone here. Thank you so much for sharing .

[gururajrv]

Just WOW! You've got a great taste there, sir! Those wheels with new paint shade, damn it melts straight whoever is looking at it.

I shouldn't just get carried away by M2. Because, that vRS of yours with clean looking wheels look smashing. Spacers installed on it as well I believe considering the wheels look slightly poking a bit outside the body line may be. vRS is certainly poor man's sports car.

But your M2 in black is pure Gangster. Wheels are my favorite to be honest as it compliments the car pretty well!

[Dippy]

What a delicious looking machine you have there.

Many congratulations on buying one of the best driver's cars out there. And I completely agree with you that its a value for money proposition in this space of overpriced cars across all spectrums.

I also fee the M2 is just right size of sports or performance car you need for our country. I have always been a Ferrari person and still aspire to own one someday. ( I can dream cant I) But over time Ive come to realise that these sleeper cars make more sense than super cars or even sports cars.

A preowned E63 AMG, M3. M5 or a 911 Carrera is something that my wishlist comprises of now.

Wish you many happy miles and smiles with your new beast.

P.S. Love the wheels

[adityaNview]

Hello and Congratulations on yet another beautiful acquisition.
We definitely take pride in being enthusiasts when it comes to automobiles. However, you sir, have so much more because of your patience and persistence. I have to read your threads more than once to absorb all the knowledge. Thank you for taking the time out.
Do you still have the Polo?

[Bullonprowl]

Wow, your car is absolutely stunning! Thanks for sharing all the details and comparisons. Here's to many enjoyable miles ahead! Just a heads up, I hope the console isn't overloaded with too much distracting information.

[PreludeSH]

Exceptional ! Both the car and your review. The car looks really sporty and bad ass (literally ) Sports cars should not be big and try to do everything and this is has the right proportions. Wishing the best of drives.

[san9jay]

Lovely review and details.

1:54 on MMRT is great.

How about an in-car video with track overlay on your next track day?

Regards
Sanjay

[mrinmoy_s]

What a car and what a review! Congratulations to you. You are living the dream of many car enthusiasts.

Given the thicker sidewall how does the overall ride quality feel compared to the M340i on regular roads? Not sure if the M2 will still be available once I am done with my new M340i but it is good to know

Once again, congratulations and wish you thousands of exhilarating miles driving the beast!