BMW M2 – performance and 0-62mph time
If you can shift quickly enough, the manual M2 reaches 62mph in 4.3sec. The automatic M2 is quicker still at 4.1
The M2’s S58 turbocharged straight-six really shines. With peak torque spread from a lowly 2650rpm all the way to 5870rpm (and peak power at 6250rpm), it has a lovely, flexible driveability. You can cruise on the groundswell of torque or wring it out and be rewarded for doing so. You could pull away from a junction in third gear, should you wish, and take it all the way to three-figures thereabouts in one gear on the right road.
That manual gearbox is fine rather than fantastic. Compared with the short-throw shift in Toyota’s GR86 or even Ford’s Tremec-equipped Mustang, not to mention the benchmark H-pattern in the FL5 Civic Type R, it’s a slower, wider-gated, more knuckly-feeling set-up. But then, it has a heck of a lot more torque to deal with than those cars (Mustang excepted), and is still perfectly enjoyable to use.
The eight-speed auto, on the other hand, feels more urgent in the first few, shorter gears – 0-62mph is two-tenths quicker at 4.1sec – and although it’s a torque-converter in place of the dual-clutch transmission of the old car, you can dial the shift speed and abruptness up and down in three stages. On three out of three it chomps through the gears with clipped punctuation; it’s slurry-smooth on one out of three, and it’s perfectly smooth and fast enough on the middle setting. You can keep both hands on the wheel and use the slightly tacky-looking carbonfibre-trimmed, wheel-mounted paddles to shift manually, or punch the gear selector forward and back like you’re in a DTM car at the Norisring.
