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By Jonathan Crouch

BMW's M2 remains an addictive track tool in second generation form. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 45

There won't be many more combustion-powered BMW M cars and the brand's second generation M2 brings that era to a close with a bang. It's unashamedly extrovert, politically incorrect and very fast. Choose one and in fifty years time, show your grandkids what they're missing.

Backgroundword count: 174

Is there any other car quite like the BMW M2? The Munich maker doesn't think so, claiming it to be 'in a segment of one' and most of the 60,000 enthusiasts who bought the original 'F87' 2015-era model would probably agree. For BMW, M used to be merely a performance badge; now increasingly, it's a sub-brand, with this Mexican-built model now the entry point to a widening portfolio of rocket-fast road racers. It's very different this time round - and not only because all attempts at visual subtlety have been dispensed with; if you want that, we'd recommend a look at this variant's less frantic close cousin, the M240i. That car has 4WD, but for M2 folk, that wouldn't offer the purist potential being sought here. Those people must have breathed a sigh of relief when the current 'G42' 2 Series Coupe retained a rear-driven platform. And been even more relieved when BMW announced that a manual gearbox would be retained within the M2 range. So what's in store here? Let's take a look.

Driving Experienceword count: 269

The switch to the cluster platform used by larger BMWs meant that pretty much all the engineering here could be borrowed from the M3 and M4 models. The downside of using a big car chassis comes with the inevitable increase in weight, but the engineers are adamant that the advantages of that outweigh the drawbacks. It really comes down to the kind of M2 you want. BMW freely admits that this model's predecessor was 'a bit more playful' (read as 'looser at the rear end'). This one's grown up a bit, though it's still rear-driven, it can still drift and do all that tyre smoking stuff - plus it'll be faster in lap time. Not least because it's more powerful, the S58 3.0-litre straight six engine's 460hp output (with 550Nm of torque) being 90hp more than that of the previous M2 Competition and M2 CS models. That means 62mph takes just 4.1s with 8-speed three-setting paddle-shift auto transmission - or 4.3s with the manual stick shift that BMW's M division fought to retain with this car. Top speed is usually limited to 155mph, unless you pay extra for an 'M Race Track' pack, which raises the speed limiter to 177mph. To control all that grunt, there's an Active M differential allowing up to 100% of torque to be transferred to either of the rear wheels. In addition, unlike any other M2 to date other than the old CS, there's adaptive damping. Along with punchy 6-piston brakes and a 10-step M traction control system. Track fiends even get an M drift analyser which rates the standard of their smoky slides.

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