The normal M2 impressed us greatly when it made its debut in early 2016, not least because BMW M had the faith to hold the launch event at Laguna Seca, a track that really separates the men from the boys. In a world where most performance cars have paddle shift gearboxes, BMW realizes that many enthusiast customers still want to select gears the old-fashioned way. So the choice is left to their customers and a roughly even number...
The normal M2 impressed us greatly when it made its debut in early 2016, not least because BMW M had the faith to hold the launch event at Laguna Seca, a track that really separates the men from the boys. In a world where most performance cars have paddle shift gearboxes, BMW realizes that many enthusiast customers still want to select gears the old-fashioned way. So the choice is left to their customers and a roughly even number of manual and DCT M2s have been sold.
“The M2 Competition tilts the focus more towards race track performance so we have increased the amount of content from the M3/M4 models,” explained Dirk Häcker, BMW M’s VP of Engineering. Given that the bodyshell and front and rear inner structure was already modified to accept the M3/M4 suspension and wide rubber no further work was required here apart from stiffening the front end.
“Since the track is identical to the M3/M4 carbon-fiber engine compartment brace bolted straight in. This significantly reduces torsional flex in the engine compartment ‘box’ and keeps the front suspension geometry closer to spec under load,” he said. “We experimented with variations of the M2 spring and damper rates but found that with the improved front-end stiffness the original settings were ideal,” explained Peter Schmid, Project Manager for Driving Dynamics. “This is the first time ever in my career that this has happened, and all we needed, in the end, was some software recalibration of the control electronics.”
Modified under the supervision of Project G.H.O.S.T