BMW unveils new M Performance Track Kit for M2
Really serious about tracking an M2? Can't get a CS? Try it with a GT4 wing...
Attend pretty much any track day in the UK and you’re almost guaranteed to see a BMW M2 of some vintage there. Good out of the box, relatively easily made even better, and liveable enough for the drive home, they’ve become a popular track tool of late. BMW, having cottoned on to the situation (we'll assume it's also a thing in Germany), has decided it wants a bigger slice of the modified M2 pie: ergo the new M Performance Track Kit.
As the name suggests, it promises ‘even sharper handling and performance on the race track’ thanks to new features like the adjustable front splitter, ‘wheelarch diffusers’, front flics and spectacular swan neck rear wing. Usually when manufacturers suggest a part is borrowed from motorsport, it tends to be a term used quite creatively - but when BMW says here the spoiler is used ‘on the M4 GT4 and M4 GT3 customer sport models’, that sounds very believable, even with a brake light included.
As you can see, it’s enormous. A Race Mode can move it 50mm further back for even better downforce, while the restricted Street Mode keeps a Track Packed M2 compliant with German Road Traffic Licensing Regulation (StVZO). That’s probably what you call serious fun. The attack angle can also be adjusted, so best pack your Allen keys.
New suspension is also a feature of this M2 package, BMW claiming that what it’s offering here is the ‘first special motorsport damper system to also be road-legal.’ Some others would surely contest that claim, but it sounds trick alright: four-way adjustable (low-speed and high-speed compression and rebound), adjustable support bearings, and 20mm of ride height adjustment. Between the suspension and the aero, you’ll be so busy fiddling at the track day there won’t be time to drive any laps…
BMW reckons the Track Kit, optimised in the wind tunnel and signed off by its record lap driver Jorg Weidinger, is ‘a truly special achievement that requires the exceptional know-how of a carmaker like BMW’. For the moment, this M2 option has only been confirmed for Germany, where it will be available from July, but given its missive was enthusiastically thrust into our hands by the UK press office, it's safe to assume wider availability is in the offing. We love a track day and we love an M car, after all. The price over there will be €23,500, before installation and without what are being called ‘ultra-track tyres’, so assuming it does come here, that’s got to be at least £25k all in. A lot to spend on what’s a £50k car even secondhand, but we all know of track projects that have ended up much more expensive…
To ensure that M2 CS customers don’t feel left out with the regular M2 getting a new tracksuit, an M Performance exhaust has been announced at the same time for the 530hp flagship. While there’s no additional power, an ‘exhilarating, exceptionally sporty engine sound’ is promised. Moreover, it is made of carbon and titanium, so it looks cool, and eight kilos is taken out. There’s also the small matter of €8,343.50 being taken out of your bank, before installation, although given what everyone had to pay for a CS anyway perhaps that’s not so bad. Like the Track Kit, the CS M Performance exhaust is another modification currently only for Germany that presumably could make it here in time. Whether it’s the visual or mechanical change, it sounds like you’re not going to mistake either for a standard M2…
1. 4-way adjustables are hard to set up consistently. Professional race teams using them will have a very expensive damper dyno to check and match damping characteristics across individual units. A weekend warrior would just have to assume they are all consistent at the same settings. IME 4-way adjustables are inconsistent and require frequent servicing compared to fixed valving or 2-way adjustables.
2. 99.9% of users won’t have a clue what they are chasing with 4-way adjustability. That’s an awful lot of combinations to test. It’s hard enough to make sense of it as a professional race engineer with pro driver feedback and data.
3. The potential laptime gain compared to a quality set of fixed valve bespoke dampers is vanishingly small. Let’s sat 0.1 sec on a typical short lap if you dial them in perfectly for that specific track. Probably more chance of being a bit slower in reality, especially if you end up chasing your tail with all the permutations.
1. 4-way adjustables are hard to set up consistently. Professional race teams using them will have a very expensive damper dyno to check and match damping characteristics across individual units. A weekend warrior would just have to assume they are all consistent at the same settings. IME 4-way adjustables are inconsistent and require frequent servicing compared to fixed valving or 2-way adjustables.
2. 99.9% of users won t have a clue what they are chasing with 4-way adjustability. That s an awful lot of combinations to test. It s hard enough to make sense of it as a professional race engineer with pro driver feedback and data.
3. The potential laptime gain compared to a quality set of fixed valve bespoke dampers is vanishingly small. Let s sat 0.1 sec on a typical short lap if you dial them in perfectly for that specific track. Probably more chance of being a bit slower in reality, especially if you end up chasing your tail with all the permutations.
2 way are more enough for all but the most competent peddlers.
I have adjustable coilovers on a Fiesta, but only one adjustment, but there are also four of them plus ride height, camber, castor and toe in/out, four way in addition to all that is serious stuff.
The wing and colour is just too much for me, like driving a giant highlighter pen.
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