The Straight Pipes: A BETTER M4? 2023 BMW M2 Review

The Straight Pipes Video Transcript

Foreign 2023 BMW M2 with launch control with a police roadblock I’m going we got the police here we’re good fourth gear horsepower and torque 453 horsepower 405 pound-feet of torque from a 3-liter twin turbo inline six cylinder hmm and since we have the road closed [Laughter] It’s good that it can do like Smoky launches too yeah so you could definitely fully turn off the traction and then we have our M traction control system with the drift analyzer that everyone has seen in the M3 and M4 already so this is the all-new 2nd gen

M2 let’s talk about what’s different because we love loved the previous gen M2 the Cs specifically CS was one of our favorite cars ever so you want to get to the looks because holy crap has this ever changed from the previous generation yeah I mean it looks kinda interesting definitely not everybody’s

Favorite M2 yeah right off the bat when I first saw photos of it we posted on Instagram I was like no this ain’t it Chief like no this isn’t it now seeing it in person I hate to admit it I actually kind of like it I don’t love

The front or the rear but seeing the boxed fender flares from the side kind of reminds me of an E30 M3 yeah I think it does look good uh it’s not my favorite but uh do you like my Photoshop of the longer Grill you think I should have done that I don’t know

Is pretty uh all right and this is the first time that they’ve uh not put an outline on the grill and then it has horizontal Flats here right okay we got this cool light blue color but there is a red metallic Toronto color yeah Toronto we got the zonder boot zenfort

Yeah I like this color it’s pretty cool it is it kind of it doesn’t have any like metallic in it like it’s kind of flat I like the hood bulge because we got the m3m4 motor in here yeah yeah a little bit detuned but they say that

It’s slightly different but we’ll get to that stuff later do you like the wheels because they do nothing for me they do nothing but there’s nothing wrong with them either it’s just like a standard M wheel and it’s not screwed up and what would be the Continental recommended

Tire for a second gen M2 the extreme contact sport O2 which you can definitely do donuts with oh so the rear end we still have the muffler that hangs low like a little diaper yeah but there’s like a nice diffuser and stuff does it sound good from the outside let’s find out Yeah decent yeah pretty decent okay do you like the tail lights now because we didn’t really like it on the m240i but I guess they kind of look better now it works better with the wide body appearance I still don’t love them at all and like the squared off rear end is

Just it’s weird looking I like the rear end more than I like the front end but there is that cool like M performance one with all the carbon stuff or is it M sport that they had on display with the cool graphics with all the appearance

Stuff and you have the crazy uh Central stacked exhaust I like that Wing more than this little spoiler thing tacked on but I mean I understand they could just leave it blank back here yeah yeah but like overall I think it looks sick wide body people are going to be stoked to

See it on the road and even those little awkward people are going to get used to it faster than they got used to the M3 M4 front bumpers yeah and talking to a lot of the other Automotive journalists on this trip everyone’s kind of in agreeance that it does look better in

Person yeah which is also the most cliche thing that everyone always says but legitimately this card does look better in person but does it look better than the m2cs first gen that they absolutely nailed no not not even close however M3 M4 let’s stick to the M4 do

You think that this looks better than the M4 M4 looks better than this to me I think this actually looks better than the M4 because of the wide bodyness yeah yeah I don’t know and the smaller Grill and stuff I know you like the big grill

But I like the smaller Grille yeah but overall good job especially in person so talking about that previous m2cs the best M2 ever prior to this one let’s find out let’s take it through some of these twisties and see how good the Benchmark is for the base M2 because yeah spoiler

Alert there’s going to be an m2cs probably yes but seems like it’s going right to Cs and not competition so it’ll probably be an all-wheel drive version I think yeah so anyways this thing handles really well I wouldn’t expect it not to because all the previous m2s that we’ve driven like

Every iteration of it has been fantastic so this thing is also no exception but it does kind of feel like an M3 M4 but it’s still way more nimble like it’s actually really fun to drive this through the twisty air Arizona and we have the six-speed manual

But there is also a 8-speed CF yes so it’s not a dual clutch it’s just traditional Auto but that is a really good Auto so this manual transmission does feel a little bit rubbery I don’t love it but hey we got a manual in here you kind of can’t complain at this point

In time yeah it feels pretty much exactly like that M3 that we drove it was man it feels the car feels exactly like that but a little more nimbly gimbaly because it’s a smaller car yeah this thing the chassis is set up really well through here the steering is also

Quite nice it is I don’t like the Comfort steering but I do like the sport steering like this thing does want to move like really quickly like as soon as you move the steering wheel the car is moving which is really nice and we do have adaptive suspension so Comfort is

Actually pretty decent but Sport Plus is totally fine in this car I kind of expected it to be too stiff judging by the M2 comp because that was the non-cs one because the Cs fixed all of our problems but this is actually really good yeah fantastic suspension in every

Mode and then because this is the newer infotainment with you know no one to eight no climate it means we can do our gear shift assist through the M setup and not only when everything all the traction is off and what is gear shift this is Siri uh rev match yeah uh yeah

So I actually love turning it off and leaving it off because my pedal placement for me is totally fine even with these carbon buckets although my leg kind of just does hit the outside of them but I know you have some problems yeah with these uh sport carbon fiber

Seats or whatever I have trouble heel toe downshifting it’s not as easy as I like because like when I twist my leg it hits this like crotch bucket thing and yeah rear wheel drive I love that this is still rear wheel drive they haven’t made this all-wheel drive yet yeah

Probably come but if you want a all-wheel drive two-door you get the M4 you’re not wrong the only choice you have only an automatic not in manual yeah but we do still have a lot to talk about haven’t really touched on this interior and what else do you want

To talk about when you drive Yuri let’s get to it That is such a good launch control for a manual yep seems like there’s no cool down yeah exactly you can just keep going and keep going because we got a police road closure so first thing I noticed being behind the wheel we have the carbon buckets which aren’t my favorite for

Manual if you’re getting the manual I highly suggest getting the normal seats but if you’re getting automatic you’re going to the track the carbon buckets are probably great yeah I think the carbon buckets are good for a specific use case if this is if you have the

Privilege of having this as your weekend car and you’re going to hit the track 100 get these seats if you’re even remotely going to think about dailying this especially with the manual just get the regular sport seats because we also sat in them and they’re very comfortable

Next thing I noticed no manual handbrake just a little electronic one which kind of sucks you can’t do like as much dumb stuff with it where’s the last one had yeah so now we have the full digital screen which you didn’t have in the last one and the M3

M4 just got we’ve got very cool gauge cluster and head up display so in uh track mode and sport mode you’ve got a nice gauge that goes up and then you can get your shift lights in the head-up display and in your gauge cluster and then you have your traditional Road mode

As well yeah and you can get all your info in there but I really like this gate cluster setup considering it’s not as nice as like you know an old school analog Round Tack yeah but they’re giving the same uh m style infotainment to all the M cars like the XM got

Something very very similar to this as well yeah and then in the XM they’re like this is the first dedicated M car since the M1 but then this also has the M1 in the gauge because if you’re tire pressure so it’s like okay whatever everything’s now an M1 like Heritage thing Yeah I really like handling through here it’s nice it definitely feels nimblier than a M4 would yeah it’s just nice and short oh man this this kind of embodies E46 M3 ish Vibes and like even if you’re 30-ish vibes wouldn’t know from the looks never

Driven one in my head this is what they drive like ish I keep having to say ish foreign let’s just say this thing will be good at leaving Carmen yes it will you’ll probably go in a straight line thanks to that rear differential as well do I feel

As confident in this you know spinning around lying about as I did in the m2cs the last gen I feel like I don’t feel as one with this vehicle as I did in the last one I also agree with that but the m2cs was Perfection this is just the

Beginning point of this this is a good version of this for modern BMW yeah and then I guess I should do a little pull so Flights are great the power is great do you not feel like it’s a lot more power from the passenger side than the driver’s side yes it feels faster from this seat and the power number is 453 horsepower is a little bit less than what you get in M3 M4 I think it’s 473

In the non-competition does it really feel like that not really yeah I feel like it’s the same engine that they had to advertise with less power yeah yeah that’s what they do yeah this is the s58 which is the same engine in this manual transmission don’t mind it it’s nice

It’s like rubbery but hey you got a manual it’s not the worst it’s still pretty sick oh Supra so I do like the manual transmission in the manual super that I drove more than this but I don’t know if that could handle more power because the supers got less power

Because it’s the old motor whatever exactly so whatever it’s all good and this still has the command center the rotary download that stuff we are not at X1 territory where we’re getting rid of that but yeah not having the one to eight button sucks not having your

Climate there sucks you got the slide down for your shortcuts we have no Drive recorder in here because this does not have 360 camera because this is manual we also don’t have Lane centering and adaptive cruise which sucks but this does have the carbon fiber package which

Takes out six kilograms up here yeah it’s like a 13 000 package that gives you the carbon roof the carbon on the inside and all that you also get to drive on a race track with the m people so you get to learn what you’re doing

And you also you also get to raise your speed limiter I would skip out on the carbon fiber but I would take the performance package that lets me go faster however you can individually pick some of those options so you can still get the carbon roof and not have to get

These carbon buckets I really need a carbon roof it’s just a cool thing to say and look at I don’t know I think I think I’d like it more feels color matched okay do they have summer maybe sun room no oh yeah there is a sunroof

Option you know yeah I like my sunroof you do okay and then back seat room I fit like just enough but I feel like there was more room in the last gen and it’s probably the exact same as that m240i that we drove earlier and I wouldn’t dream of going back and then

Trunks Miss pretty good yeah decent yeah can’t really complain it just it’s I mean it’s a lot like the m240i it’s not yeah but speaking of that trunk we got like a nice like duck bill with an extra little spoiler on it it’s cool is that duckbill I don’t think it’s it’s a

Little bit just a little bit and then on the steering wheel we have our M1 M2 button which is great for customizing so you can get into the mode you want to very quickly and if this was an automatic the 0 to 60 time is in the

Low four second range a little bit higher for the manual obviously so then we also have an exhaust button so if I click that to turn it off let’s hear what it sounds like no backfires or anything okay no and let’s hear if it pumps in with it on

Like the valves are open doesn’t feel like there’s like any pumped in this on this no I think it just actually made the exhaust louder yes I think we think you can’t confirm confirm if they did then it’s a really good job it did not feel like I’m

Getting any pumped in this Hans Zimmer has not touched this vehicle and then the regular tests visor test three two one oh perfect did not expect that cup holders fit a small cup fine but we do not have heated or cool top holders tier it doesn’t matter no

Wireless charger in this particular one as well good Wireless carplay only I’m trying to get that changed I had a long conversation with an infotainment guy yes if if things go right we might have SiriusXM tune mix and uh plug-in Apple carplay in a couple of years or we will

Have the answer as to why they don’t have it and that’s it or he’s gonna just turn down my LinkedIn request and never answer any more questions exactly and if we wanted to get ourselves a lovely set of floor mats for this vehicle we go to tuxmat.com straight pipes they do have

Them for the 2 Series I’m sure the M2 will be in short order so as good as this car is I don’t think there’s much left to talk about because it’s just a totally awesome rear-wheel drive manual transmission sports car that still exists in 2023 I think it’s time we get

To the price it starts at 76 500 Canadian or 62 200 U.S and this one is specked out to 94 350 so that’s a little bit less than last gen mgcs yeah like within like five thousand dollars of what that one cost okay so my order of

All this stuff I would take I think M4 over this but m2cs over both my order would be M2 over M4 but m2cs over both and obviously previous generation is what we’re talking about and obviously manual rear-wheel drive only 100 automatic is not considered and I would

Not do the carbon fiber buckets even though they were probably great if you’re a track rat yeah yeah if this is a weekend card just get the buckets and deal with you can tell everybody you got carbon buckets in your M2 and if you are considering buying this car or a 2

Series or anything else go to tsp.truecard.com discounted price offers maybe you’ll even find a previous gen M2 CS yeah find one on there that would be pretty good yeah so let us know what you think of the new M2 it’s great just believe us it’s great it is great

Especially as a starting point and it might be the last manual M2 it might actually be the last manual rear-wheel drive gas M2 non-hybrid inline six cylinder yeah yeah not no electrification which is actually fantastic and when we say this might be the last that also includes the Sia special car