New BMW M2 rendered following preview drive

After seemingly endless spy photos, teaser images, leaks and our first drive of a camouflaged prototype this week, the clever graphic designers over at kolesa.ru have mocked up what they think the upcoming 2023 BMW M2 Coupe will look like in its finished form, and it looks awesome.

Featuring a decidedly squarer frontal theme than the semi-skim BMW M240i, the rendered next-gen M2 reminds us somewhat of the old F13 BMW M6 in terms of the headlight and kidney grille relationship.

Crucially, the BMW M3/M4’s controversial vertical kidney arrangement is nowhere to be seen.

The square lower intake and corresponding air-vents are complemented by horizontal slats running parallel across the kidney grille, but that’s largely where the square theme stops.

The rest of the car’s body is covered in subtle, gentle curves while ultimately serve to instil a quiet sense of menace including the flared front wheel-arches, the wide haunches and stout little rear-end.

If the new Audi RS 3 is the new upstart trying to match lairyness of the Mercedes-AMG A 45 S 4MATIC+, the M2 will be the more quietly spoken character… visually at least.

At the back we predictably find the exact same design as seen in the recent Instagram leak, right the way down to the quad exhaust outlets and diffuser proportions.

As previously reported by carsales, the second-gen BMW M2 will be powered by a detuned version of the M3/M4’s force-fed S58 straight-six petrol engine that’s set to churn out around 321kW/580Nm in its most potent Competition application, or 306kW/580Nm at the entry point.

While the global debut isn’t expected to happen until October, carsales has been lucky enough to test drive an advanced development vehicle ahead of time and just in case you haven’t read it yet, it’s a very good thing.

Once it launches, the new M2 will inevitably do battle with the aforementioned A45 S and RS 3 hyper-hatches, but previous versions have also been pitched against the Porsche 718 line-up, as well as the now-defunct Lotus Evora – superseded by the Lotus Emira.