LuxuryCarMagazine En Luxury Car Review and News
BMW has been promising this for quite sometime, and as such, our expectations were high. In the end, the German manufacturer didn’t disappoint, arriving at the 2016 North American International Auto Show with the altogether exceptional, brutish 2017 BMW M2.
Style-wise, you can see the M2’s lineage with the other M products in the line-up, such as the M3, M4, M5 and M6. I guess if we had to pick, we’d say the M2 most closely resembles the compact M models, with the extra winglets added to the front air dam, the headlight lenses and the M2’s take on the classic BMW split-kidney grille.
From the side, the stance is aggressive, thanks to wheelbase crammed to the hilt with 20-inch wheels. Out-back, we see more M4-ness, big, quad tailpipe roundels and a complex rear bumper and diffuser.
Interior highlights include carbon fibre appliques, with leather and Alcantara suede surfaces.
Under the hood, there’s (surprise!) a twin-turbo six-cylinder. Power is rated at no less than 365 horsepower and 343 lb.-ft. of torque. Thanks to a little bit of M magic, you can reach a torque boost to bring the total to 369 lb.-ft. All of it goes, naturally, to the rear wheels.
It’s enough to give a claimed 0-100 km/h time of just 4.4 seconds with a six-speed manual, and down to 4.2 seconds with the optional dual-clutch automatic.
The performance figures sound good; the fact that the M2 arrives in dealers in early April of this year is even better. If you have an extra $61,000 lying around, of course.
In other news: the M2 is going to make headlines because of its enthusiast chops, but the real big seller debut at this year’s show has to be the 2017 X4 M40i. Like the M2, it gets a 3.0L six-cylinder, although it’s been reduced to “just” 360 hp.
