New BMW M2 CS will be a "race car with licence plates"

The most ferocious BMW M2 Coupe ever released is just days away from being officially revealed and it will be the purest BMW M model in years.

That’s according to BMW M boss Markus Flasch, who told carsales at the BMW M Festival in South Africa that the new BMW M2 CS will be revealed soon before it becomes available next year.

Flasch described the upcoming BMW M2 CS as “the most crisp and pure BMW M model that we have launched in quite some time” and added that it is “phenomenal and drives like a race car with licence plates”.

As we’ve reported, the ‘Clubsport’ version of the award-winning BMW M2 will offer more power and less weight than the Competition variant on which it’s based.

And when it comes to performance, given the latest BMW M2 Competition already offers 302kW/550Nm from its 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six, the only question is whether the CS will match or better the 331kW/550Nm figures of the M4 Coupe.

The CS will not only be the final fling for the current M2, but the last hurrah for BMW M’s S55 engine, which will be replaced by the S58 3.0-litre twin-turbo six that debuted in the X3 M and X4 M with 375kW/600Nm – figures expected to be eclipsed in the next M3 and M4 due in 2021.

Aimed at hard-core enthusiasts, the BMW M2 CS will be offered with the choice of both seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and – at least in Europe -- six-speed manual transmissions.

So you can expect the rear-wheel drive coupe to shave a few tenths off the M2 Competition’s 0-100km/h claims (4.2sec auto, 4.4sec manual) and deliver the same 250km/h top speed, rising to 280km/h with the optional M Driver’s Package.

Potentially making it the finest compact rear-drive sports coupe of its era, the BMW M2 CS will bring more chassis upgrades to the M2 Competition, which already borrows most of the M3 and M4’s tweaks, including a carbon-fibre front strut tower brace, forged aluminium control arms and wheel carriers, a rigid-mounted five-link rear axle and ball joints instead of rubber bushings.

Upgrades could include adaptive dampers, stickier (but no wider) 19-inch Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, the first-time option of carbon-ceramic brakes with massive 400mm discs and six-piston callipers up front, and perhaps even the option of a carbon-fibre roof.

Naturally there will be a more focussed body kit with lashings of carbon-fibre, borrowing from both the M Performance Parts catalogue and the M2 Competition-based racer that replaces the BMW M240i Racing as BMW M Motorsport’s entry-level customer race car in Europe.

To be available in both Racing and Clubsport versions from the second quarter of next year, the M2 racer made its race debut in camouflaged (pictured) at the six-hour VLN Endurance Championship event at the Nurburgring Nordschleife in August.

Inside, it’s unclear whether the M2 CS will, like the M4 CS, just add racy Alcantara trim to the steering wheel, arm rests, dash, centre console and seats, or if it will feature many of the light-weighting measures seen in the M4 GTS, such as skinnier race seats, a stripped out centre console and door trims with fabric door pulls.

We understand the BMW M2 CS will be produced for around 12 months before the current-generation F87 M2 is pensioned off and BMW delivers its new G42 2 Series Coupe and then the new G87 M2 Coupe from around 2022.

We expect the next 2 Series Coupe to remain rear-drive and share either the Z4/Supra platform or the CLAR architecture that underpins everything from the 3, 5 and 7 Series to the X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7.

Meantime, the next 2 Series Active Tourer people-mover and 2 Series Gran Coupe sedan will ride on the same front/all-wheel drive FAAR platform as the new F40 1 Series hatch range, which will be topped by the M135i. Therefore there will be no M1 to rival the Audi RS 3 or Mercedes-AMG A 45, and no transverse-engine M model.

Expect more details about the BMW M2 CS to become available in early November, ahead of its global release in 2020.