BMW M2 Competition 2018 Review - International

BMW’s M division has just turned a serious problem into the solution nobody knew the wonderful M2 even needed. And in doing it, M has created the brilliant BMW M2 Competition.

See, the M2’s beloved N55 single-turbo 3.0-litre straight petrol six engine no longer meets European WLTP emissions rules, so instead of an expensive rework, M took the far simpler step of just bolting in the M3/M4’s twin-turbo six instead.

The BMW M2 still gets its rear-drive mojo happening via either an eight-speed automatic transmission or a six-speed manual gearbox, which brings the delightful surprise of a three-pedal foot well.

If the M2 rocked the big-engine/little-car thing like a boss, the BMW M2 Competition turns every drive into a New Year’s Eve fireworks display. It’s a Boy Toy of unsurpassed excellence and frivolous ferocity, all in an easy-to-manage package.

And yet, the stronger, twin-turbo engine never overwhelms the M2 Competition’s chassis, and that’s some trick to pull off.

It’s arrival also means the standard BMW M2 is dead and there’s a glitch in the traditional M model range that now makes the M2 Competition the only M2 money can buy.

But while the M2 Competition is expected to be priced around $105,000, by the time it arrives Down Under in October BMW Australia may also land a cheaper M2 Pure model powered by the same engine but with less equipment to keep the M2 starting price under $100K.

Currently, the outgoing BMW M2 costs $99,900 plus on-road costs in both manual and auto form, while the stripped-out, manual-only M2 Pure (which also does without heated front seats, adaptive headlights and keyless start) opens the range at $93,300 plus ORCs.

At the other end of the scale, up the size ladder in M3, M4 and M5 Landia, they have both kinds and the M3 and M4 even have the range-topping CS versions.

So will the BMW M2 Competition give birth to an even quicker M2 CS? You can take that to the bank, but in the meantime, an M2 Competition seems like a pretty fine place to park some money.

BMW’s upgraded M2 doesn’t start with the engine, but with upgrades to the visuals, including a black-painted kidney grille at the front and fat quad exhaust outlets and a deep diffuser at the rear, to go with the departed M2’s swollen wheel-arches and stumpy look.

The trick is doing all of this and accommodating the new engine. Even though it still reads ‘3.0-litre turbocharged inline six’, things get very different from there. There’s a yawning chasm between the old M2’s N55 engine and the new one’s S55B30 unit.

For starters, there are two turbochargers instead of one, with the BMW M2 Competition using each of its two monoscroll, variable-geometry turbochargers to feed three cylinders.

This also dictates a new oil-cooling system, a new coolant set-up with bigger air intakes, new exhaust headers and a particulate filter. That last part is only really necessary on European cars, but will still probably make its way to Australia. (The Americans won’t get it as the M2 Competition passes all the emissions laws there without it.)

Still, there seems to be scope for even more tuning (M2 CS, anybody?) because the M2 Competition’s version of the engine has 302kW of power and 550Nm of torque, yet the same engine in the M4 has 317kW of power.

It’s the kind of engine that is menacing and deep and belligerent at low revs to middle revs, then snarling and anxious to go from 4000 to 5000rpm, before turning just plain sweet and urgent up high.

The engine hammers hard with its fairly short gearing, and 7000rpm arrives in a wailing metallic aria, feeling like it could easily spin beyond 8000rpm if the electronics didn’t arrest it.

M claims the BMW M2 Competition will sprint to 100km/h in 4.2 seconds with the dual-clutch auto (4.4sec for the six-speed manual), making both cars one-tenth quicker than before.

That feels right on the money, as does the raised-limit version’s 280km/h top speed, but it’s not overwhelmingly powerful. It’s be-careful powerful on a bumpy, winding road, but it’s never scary powerful — even if the short wheelbase and enormous urge suggest it should be.

A big part of that is down to a chassis that’s so well sorted it feels like it could comfortably swallow another 100 horses, but it’s also down to the engine’s delivery.

There are good manners afoot here, with the torque (50 Isaacs up on its predecessor) peaking at only 2350rpm and still on station at 5200rpm.

There’s just a 50-rev gap between when the torque peak trails off and when the power curve hits its 5250rpm maximum, and it retains that all the way to 7000rpm.

The engine will accelerate away from 10km/h in fifth or sixth gear without a murmur of complaint and will start off the line quite well even in third gear.

It also overtakes well in sixth gear at Australian highway speeds, but (sorry, purists) it’s at its best with the dual-clutch paddle-shift transmission.

The dual-clutch is faster in a straight line, better on fuel economy and way easier to use on a racetrack, letting you seamlessly short-shift up a gear mid-corner without any impact on the suspension or body stance.

That torque turns a potentially frightening car into a flexible car that won’t back down from any fight, any car or any corner. It almost makes you feel as though it’s disappointed in you if you back off when it still wants to give more.

There’s a surprise addition that makes this behaviour normal, and it’s a big carbon-fibre reinforcement strut that gives the car’s front-end torsional rigidity a major boost.

Unless you needed the extra rear legroom, there is just no way a purist would ever choose the M4 over the M2, not even in the M4’s CS guise. The M2 is just that good, that nuanced and that joyous.

There are faster cars in a straight line, even in its own class, and there may even be faster competitors around a track or a winding road, but nobody will ever get out of them having enjoyed themselves, having become part of a party, like they would in the BMW M2 Competition.

It’s a bit heavier, too, at 1550kg (up about 55kg on the M2), with the extra cooling systems and bonus turbo being the main culprits, but you don’t notice it. It’s scarcely lighter than the M4, even though its wheelbase is 120mm shorter, but it doesn’t feel anything like as heavy to drive.

You just notice a car that is impatient to play in Dynamic mode and just a regular – albeit slightly stiff – fast car in its default settings.

The ride quality will take some courage to live with in some Sydney suburbs, though. It is firm but wonderfully damped and its fixed-rate springs work best when they’ve got some energy being pushed through them.

There’s an Active M Differential tasked with getting as much drive out of the engine as possible, with its multi-plate differential able to vary the locking rate instantly anywhere between zero and 100 per cent. Flexibility is this car’s calling card.

It’s also great for stability, locking up to 2500Nm in just 150 milliseconds and able to pre-emptively stop the inside rear wheel from spinning. That just means drive, drive, drive.

It also means the BMW M2 Competition can, and will, slide just for giggles if you want it to, or simply punch through corners as straight as you could want it to.

Its DCT retains its ‘Smokey Burnout Function’, so it can match Michelin destruction levels with the manual versions.

There is accurate feedback from the steering wheel that only gets better in Sport or Sport+ mode, and you never have to worry about what’s happening at the front of the car because it’s always telling you.

It belies its short wheelbase by being brilliant on long, fast sweepers as well as when it’s being chucked around to change direction in a hurry in a chicane.

It hustles and stops and leans on its suspension in a way that trickles with juice and the harder you bite it the more juice you get.

There are places where we ran it out of grip on a testing road loop with patches of slippery new tarmac, but it just told us about it instantly, then made it easy for us to fix, time and again. Sliding the M2 Competition feels like a natural gift, rather than a challenge.

It does all this in its efforts to destroy Michelin Pilot Super Sport 245/35 ZR19 tyres at the front and 265/35 ZR 19 boots at the rear, all mounted on custom forged 19-inch rims.

There is an all-aluminium multi-link rear suspension, while the front-end’s architecture uses aluminium double wishbones, control arms, wheel carriers and sub frames. The struts are also aluminium and it uses hollow anti-roll bars to save another few grams.

BMW also worked on both the bending and torsional rigidity of its baby coupe, fitting an aluminium reinforcing plate between the front axle’s sub-frame and the car’s side sills, much like it did on the M3/M4.

Most of the technical bits of the five-link rear axle are also aluminium, including forged wheel carriers and control arms that cut 3kg from the unsprung mass of the standard coupe. The rear-axle’s sub-frame is steel, but is directly connected to the body, doing away with rubber bushes in favour of greater wheel accuracy.

The BMW M2 Competition’s body shell is stunningly aggressive, making the stock 2 Series Coupe look a bit vanilla, with its wheel-arches bulging out 55mm at the front and 80mm at the rear.

The deep front splitter boasts proud air intakes for the radiators and muscular 400mm, six-piston front brakes, and there’s a small spoiler on the boot lid.

The driving position has a huge offset between the middle of the driver’s seat and the steering wheel, but it translates well into feeling immediately at home.

And while the interior remains the BMW M2 Competition’s weak point, it makes more sense now. There are heavily bolstered sports seats or proper fixed buckets as an option, and the red start-stop button is unmissable.

It’s easier to miss the steering and powertrain mode buttons on the console, so it’s probably best to just use the M1 and M2 buttons (which jump between go-fast and go-faster modes) instead.

It’s hard to see how M could have ruined the BMW M2 Competition, which would have taken some effort. Instead, it’s taken the M2 and made it even faster, more convincing and more everything.

How much is the 2018 BMW M2 Competition?
On sale: October
Price: $105,000 (estimated)
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six cylinder
Output: 302kW/550Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual, seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 9.0L/100km (DCT, NEDC Combined)
CO2: 206g/km (DCT, NEDC Combined)
Safety rating: TBC