Let loose, but it’s scary

It is amusing to see my colleague Shaun Holland’s eyes light up when the subject of modern performances cars comes up. It reminds me of myself not so long ago (okay, a bit longer than I’d admit to).

I see it, too, in the comments of the petrolheads I follow on social media platform X. If you had to ask them about the one car they’d spend the rest of their lives with (outside impractical supercars), top of the poll would be BMW.

Most probably can’t afford the just over R1.5 million the German maker is asking for its latest 338kW M2. But they understand this car is one of the finest – yet somehow unappreciated – iterations of the iconic M brand (for Motorsport, in case you’ve been living under an automotive rock).

After a spell at the wheel of

the M2, before handing it over to Holland, I was re-acquainted with the motoring truth that BMW is one of the world’s best at making fast cars.

I also met the Ghosts of Beemer Rear Axles Past, when I gave the throttle a squirt one night as an Audi S5 pulled up next to me with ideas well above his station. As the BMW left him for dead, I could feel the back of the M2 squirrelling around – and that was with all of the electronic safety net systems on.

When I got home and got out of the striking blue Beemer, I looked at my own, blue, twodoor sports car and realised that, as the poem Desiderata advises, it is probably time for me to gracefully surrender the things of youth.

This BMW is a triumph of tech and near peak automotive perfection.

But it can scare the daylights out of you if you’re not careful – or worse if you’re reckless. Also, it somehow feels just too good, leaving behind character, if you ask me.