(Above) Interior truly feels
special and very premium
(Above Right) Signature
straight-six with 410 PS, so
the two turbos are forgivable
(Below Left) Door-sills bear
a nice inscription/reminder(Above) Old-school look for
the dials it may have, but
check out that red-line.driver’s car yet. And, again arguably, not just from BMW!
The M2 Competition is less than 4.5 metres long, has two doors, two M
Sport front seats, two rear seats (let’s say that), and some important bits — a
signature BMW M straight-six engine mounted longitudinally with M
turbos, an M DCT twin-clutch gearbox (there’s a six-speed manual but we
don’t get that here), and rear-wheel drive with an Active M Differential.
That’s a mouthful and a half but does it feel that way? In one word, yes. But
there’s a lot more to it, too.
Compact it is; there’s no two ways about it. A sub-2.7-metre wheelbase
stretches between two pairs of 19-inch wheels wrapped in mixed 35-profile
rubber: 245s front and 265s rear. The ride height of 117 millimetres may not
seem like much, but the M2 Competition can pretty much handle anything
you throw at it — save for a couple of outrageously high speed-humps. It
looks sharp and as lean as an athlete with a low single-digit percentage body
fat. There’s nothing that doesn’t need to be there and everything serves a
purpose or two. LED headlamps look rather menacing; more so in rear-view
mirrors. The smooth bodywork is far from plain and the curves are evident
at all times, whether daylight or after dark, when city lights catch its doors
and panels.
Inside, the cabin gets dashes of leather, alcantara, and an interplay of
smooth matte chrome and piano-black trim details. The soft leather steering
wheel feels straight out of the M5 and the all-digital info console behind the
wheels has a pleasing old-school display of red needles and white text on
black dials. The BMW iDrive controller sits ahead of the centre arm-rest and
ahead of that, an M3-style compact round gear-lever. There are no real drive
http://www.carindia.in May 2019 CAR INDIA 55