REVIEW: The M2 arrives as BMW M's £66,090 swansong to the manual gearbox - taking it on UK roads for the first time, we find out if it's a fitting farewell
The straight six’s wonderfully even supply of torque, its excellent response and outright range, and its tuneful, rasping audible character make it a big draw in itself. £65k certainly isn’t over the top for it, not by today’s standards.
But in order to really drink in all that engine offers, to tap synaptically into the chassis’s indulgently balanced throttle-on handling, and to have the most meaningful relationship you can with its driven rear axle, the M2’s manual gearbox is a transformative factor. You’ve simply got to have it – for the way it draws you into the driving experience both physically and mentally, if not for the M2’s slightly springy shift quality and very marginally squeezed-feeling three-pedal footwell layout.
With the manual, the M2’s driving experience is fully absorbing. It gets your brain going in thinking your way down the road ahead, where an auto might invite you to switch off. Having picked the gear for the bend you're approaching in advance yourself, you're also given supreme confidence over how much torque is going to hit that outside rear wheel - and precisely when. Because that's precisely what a manual driveline that you're fully in control of yourself does.
The M2’s manual gearbox costs £454 on its own, but because it nudges the car's CO2 emissions up slightly, you get clobbered for nearly £700 of extra first-year UK VED showroom tax. Even so, I absolutely would.There’s an affecting blend of the old and the new in the make-up of this latest compact M car, as well as of usability, wieldiness, performance and value. It's pricey, sure - but it offers plenty more than old compact M cars used to, and in numerous ways.
If BMW intended to make an entry-level sports car with an evocative flavour of what has made its performance icons so special over the decades, as well as a greater helping of what’s exceptional about them today, I'd say it’s done a bang-up job.
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