FUTUREICONS
‘ANY 911 IS ALREADY ANICON. FINESSING THE PROCESS
makes fast feel reassuring and gives you a gentle dig in the ribs
to try harder. Despite the obvious power deficit in this company,
I seriously doubt I’ll drive anything capable of a better point-to-
point time over the course of the day.
Manual gearbox, natch. It’s not a snickety, short-throw
affair but has a lever that moves easily and quickly through a
well-defined gate and works satisfyingly with a compliantly
progressive clutch. Nice, cool-to-the-touch, knurled metal
gearknob as well. Along with the leather-rimmed steering
wheel and aluminium pedals, its inclusion gets the go-faster
appliqué just right without the need to entertain tasteless boy-
racer frippery. Yeah, I’m prettysure Steve would have approved,
especially if he needed a pesky Dodge Charger to shrink from
the rear-view mirror. And bonus, no axle tramp in reverse.
The Audi has hit a groove and rhythm I’d like to stay with and
possibly build on. The BMW M2 Competition would appear to
be perfectly equipped to do just that. I’ll admit I have a slight
problem with the car’s icon candidacy in that its lineage lacks
purity. Emotionally, it’s another hotcha new M-car with a glam
paint job. Functionally, it’s a belated fix for the underachieving
M2, a likeably ebullient, handily compact rear-drive coupe held
back from heavy-duty goodness by unresolved M-carness. And
it’s taken more than a few choice tweaks to get that right.
There were two basic problems. Fine as BMW’s single-turbo
3-litre straight-six was in the Motorsport-lite M135i, the full-fat
M2 cried out for something with extra push and passion. Yet,
undermining the need to fill the velocity vacuum, its chassis
lacked the acuity and finesse to properly exploit the notional
horsepower upgrade – benignly ragged on the limit, yes, but
ragged nonetheless. And strangely numb, too. Addressing this
issue was easy. The M135i motor was replacedbythe joyousM3/
M4 S55 unit with its twin-turbos, ‘closed deck’ block, lightened
crankshaft, enhanced cooling and strengthened pistons:
404bhp and 406lb ft of torque – much more like it. Making
the M2 handle more precisely required a deeper dive than just
recalibrating the ESP and electronic LSD and so extended to the
fitment of its bigger brothers’ rigidity-enhancing carbonfibre
brace, which links the front strut tops with the nose of the car.
Fire, focus and finesse (v2.0) thus installed, the result is a
different and altogether superior car – nimble, nuggety and a
little bit nasty (in a good way). The M2 Competition, perhaps
against the odds, fans up a flame that arguably burned brightest
when E30 M3s roamed the planet. It’s still not the prettiest
coupe in town but, as already discussed, that doesn’t matter.
Its core asset – one mirrored by the A1 quattro and Aston V12
Vantage – is compactness pulled tight around an engine more