Meet the new BMW M2

Faster and more powerful but bigger, heavier and more expensive than before, this is the long-awaited new BMW M2. We have seen grainy spy photos of the finished thing already, but this is our first look at the car in more flattering professional photographs.

Your views on its appearance in the comments section, please. For me there’s still some clunky styling, but the basic proportions and muscular arches look great. It costs from £61,495.

The good news is that it remains rear-wheel drive when certain other BMW M-cars have switched to four-wheel drive, and a six-speed manual gearbox is available. The standard transmission is an eight-speed auto. The twin-turbocharged 3-litre straight-six is borrowed from the bigger M3 and M4, detuned slightly to produce 454bhp at 6250rpm and 406lb ft at 2650-5870 rpm. The engine redlines at a relatively heady 7200rpm.

Specified with the manual transmission the M2 weighs 1700kg (DIN, rather than EU which adds 75kg for a driver). The original M2 was lighter by at least 200kg. Performance doesn’t appear to be an issue, though, this new model reaching 62mph from rest in as little as 4.1 seconds, or 4.3 seconds with the manual. The optional M Driver’s Package raises the top speed from 155 to 177mph. That pack also adds ‘track tyres’, though BMW doesn’t say which ones.

There are tricks and gadgets wherever you look, like a 10-stage traction control system, BMW’s M Drift Analyser, adaptive dampers, a switchable auto-blip function for the manual gearbox and an Active M Differential. There are staggered wheels front to rear, measuring 19 and 20 inches, while further weight can be cut by specifying carbon fibre seats (saving almost 11kg) and a carbon fibre roof (removing 6kg). You get it all with the optional M Race Track Package.

The new M2 will be built alongside the 2 Series Coupé at BMW’s Mexico plant. The previous model sold some 60,000 units worldwide while opening up the BMW M range to a whole new group of buyers who couldn’t stretch to, say, an M3. But it was also one of the most entertaining semi-affordable cars on sale from its 2015 debut to bowing out in 2020. Will this new model pick up where it left off? We can’t wait to find out.