BMW has been extending its M brand for an awfully long time, adding fast SUVs, luxury convertibles and even the fully bespoke XM.
Yet when you imagine an M car, it’s a compact, rear-wheel-drive coupé. ‘E30’ M3, ‘E9’ CSL ‘Batmobile’, 2002 Turbo: these are cars with a stature that demands a modern inheritor. And the M2 CS feels fully up to the job.
It’s a car defined by the little details, which come together to amount to something very special indeed. And that’s why I picked it as my favourite car of 2025.
The shortened, stiffened suspension springs, and recalibrated wider running gear; the stiffened engine mounts, for a straight six boosted beyond 500bhp; the forged wheels, the carbonfibre brakes and the wider weight-saving programme that has resulted in it tipping the scales at 150kg less than the four-wheel-drive M4 Competition.
At every turn, you can feel the benefit of each little tweak and tune-up that it has received.
Like everything in the car is rowing in perfect time, and all in the same direction. It’s not often a modern performance car feels quite that way- and more seldom still one for which you can pay less than £100,000.