Nothing stirs the soul like
BLUE BLOOD: M2 COMPETITION’S 302KW POWERTRAIN IS WHAT YOU CALL A PROPER M ENGINE
What a week! I didn’t just get to drive one special car, but two, in BMW’s M2 Competition and M5 Competition. BMW M and Mercedes-AMG are going at it hammer and tongs and the result is that the brilliant and exciting machinery just keeps coming the way of performance enthusiasts.
BMW M2 Competition
I will start with the R1 105 500 M2 Competition. The biggest difference for me is that the car now comes with the engine from the M3/M4 and this is a real BMW M engine in my humble opinion. I really felt that M owners were short changed with the M2 that ran a tweaked 272kW/500Nm version of the 240i engine. Ironically my test data backed this feeling up and in a straight line, the two cars were almost identical in performance terms.
This is no longer the case with the Competition. Off the line, using the launch control function of the M-DCT gearbox, it’s a dice only to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds (only so much power you can put through two wheels), from there the 302kW/550Nm Competition gets away from the M2 and gets through the quarter mile mark almost 10km/h faster, to 200km/h some three seconds earlier and crosses the longer 1km mark a full 12km/h faster. And it stays ahead all the way to its electronically limited top speed of almost 290km/h. Competition adds some goodies that make the car fast through the twisties and a great track day machine too. You get a carbonfibre strut brace up front for added rigidity and a standard Active M Differential which helps in putting the power down. This is backed up by a race ready motorsport oil supply system and the far better than M2, cooling system from the BMW M4 Competition too. Delving into the options, which our car had, you get bigger six-pot front and four-pot rear M sport brakes and good looking lightweight 19-inch forged alloy wheels. Outside of the obvious gloss black trim, an enlarged BMW kidney and a new front skirt with increased air flow are exterior signs that point to another important race feature, improved cooling.
On the inside the Competition you get selector switches that control the dynamic characteristics of the car and save them to be accessed easily via the M1 and M2 Buttons. Optional, as fitted once again, M Sport seats keep you well
and truly in place when you start to push on.
This is true driver’s car and before anybody else asks, no the BMW M2 Competition is not faster than the AWD Audi’s RS3
Sportback or RS3 Sedan or TT RS in a straight line.
But as fast and brilliant as everyday cars the Audi offerings are, they do not stir the soul quite like the BMW does.