FIRST DRIVE I BMW M235i
PART SEDAN, PART
CROSSOVER, PART
M CAR, THE NEW 2
SERIES GRAN COUPE
TRIES TO DO A LOT
WITH A LITTLEWORDS
SCOTT EVANSA
s much as we hope the average
consumer, upon stepping into a
rear-drive car for the first time, will
experience an epiphany regarding
the thrill of properly tuned vehicle
dynamics, it’s a fantasy.
A decade ago, then-BMW CEO Norbert
Reithofer told us 80 percent of 1 Series
owners believed their cars were front-
wheel drive. He pitched it as a good thing,
seeing an easy path to introducing front-
drive products in the future. Well, here
we are: the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe.
Specifically, the 2020 BMW M235i
xDrive Gran Coupe. The xDrive compo-
nent of that long name is critical, as
every 2 Series Gran Coupe shipped to
the U.S., be it an entry 228i or this sporty
M-improved car, will be all-wheel drive.
Primarily, though, the transversely
mounted engine will power the front
wheels, with the rear axle disconnected
until it’s needed.
It’s a familiar design, one you’ll recog-
nize from BMW- and Mini-branded
crossovers. Indeed, the 2 Series Gran
Coupe is just the second sedan built on
the UKL2 architecture and the only onesold outside of China. Make no mistake,
though: This platform (unlike the UKL1
derivative) has been a crossover-SUV
platform from day one.
What do you get when you build a
sport sedan out of a crossover? A sedan
that drives like a sporty crossover. Think
X2, but with a trunk. It’s quick around a
corner and has plenty of power, but it feels
like driving a simulation of a sport sedan.
People who’ve never bought a sport sedan
before, the exact kind of people who might
be looking to get into a new BMW for the
first time, will think it’s very quick and
handles very well.
Sure, it does, but it’s an artificial feeling.
A facsimile of performance. It’s a half-day
high-performance driving experience,
not racing school. It’s safe and sane, not
Roman candles.BMW engineers say they’ve gone to
tremendous effort to ensure the car
doesn’t feel like a routine front-drive
hatchback and have even coaxed the
all-wheel-drive system into drifting in just
the right conditions.
Those conditions are not to be found
on public roads, where the M235i Gran
Coupe either just grips or, if you try to
carry real speed into a tight corner, under-
steers until you go back to throttle. It’s
counterintuitive, but that’s how you drive
a modern performance all-wheel-drive
system. All that weight in the nose is going
to fight a change in direction, but power
and grip distributed correctly via the stan-
dard Torsen limited-slip front differential
and brake-actuated rear torque vectoring
can pull the car through a corner.70 MOTORTREND.COM MAY 2020