BMW M2 – ride and handling

The M2 feels alert, responsive on the road, its elbows-out, four-square exterior stance percolates through in the car’s movements, but it’s refined and well-mannered too. It’s an easy car to acclimatise to: driving position, visibility, interior ergonomics, software slickness all feel bang-on from the get-go. 

As always, there’s a fair bit of tyre roar, those M4-sized wheels and tyres oversized for the squat, compact M2, but it’s no deal breaker. The ride, on the other hand, is really rather smooth in Comfort mode, but perhaps a touch too wallowy when on the wrong stretch of road. 

The firmer Sport setting feels just right, without sacrificing ride comfort, on lower-speed, more undulating routes, the car maintaining resolute control of itself in the exit phase of every compression, yet there’s still just enough roll to build a usable dialogue with the chassis. Over smoother, higher-speed sections, the firmest Sport+ setting keeps the body movements in better check without rendering the M2 crashy or jarring.

Like its bigger brothers, it has a great front end and changes direction keenly (gut feel says even more keenly than the longer, heavier M3/M4, especially in this updated car) but never feels nervous. It’s a good communicator and you’re always in tune with what the rear tyres are up to via the messages that come up through the chassis, if not so much through the steering.

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The speed-sensitive, variable-ratio power steering still isn’t standout-special in terms of feel and feedback. It’s direct but perhaps a little more nervous than before – more prone to being drawn into road furrows just off-centre, especially in its Sport setting. 

The off-centre sensitivity pays dividends on the right roads though, the latest M2 feeling more crisply responsive to your inputs than ever. Only when throwing it down a bucking, undulating B-road, does its weight come ever so slightly to the fore, and it can feel a little disjointed at high levels of commitment.

Happily, M’s active locking rear differential and ten-stage traction control are enablers for you to get the measure of and clarity on the M2’s attitude quickly. Before long, you’re dialling in that voluminous swell of torque in second- and third-gear corner exits in a neutral, or slightly oversteered stance. 

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The M2 does lockstop yobbery too but the deftness of its execution is best felt in more measured cornering stances. For what is a relatively heavy little thing – 1705kg for the manual trumps even a manual F80 M4 by 200kg – it’s agile, exploitable and controllable.

Around ten per cent of M2 customers spec theirs with a manual. While it does give that little extra degree of involvement, the ergonomic issues associated with the offset pedal box and the carbon seats could be off-putting. When you’re not in the mood for footwork, the nicely calibrated automatic rev-matching software is very slick. But the auto is far from a poor relation, and in certain circumstances is a swifter and equally satisfying drive.

Michelin Cup 2 tyres are available as an option in place of the Pilot Sport 4 S but ceramic brakes aren’t. The standard stoppers can be adjusted in terms of response between Comfort and Sport modes – the latter too grabby for the road and the former lacking a little initial response. Perhaps ceramics may be saved for the as-yet-unconfirmed but strongly rumoured CS version. Meanwhile, the cooking M2 is strong source material to work with.