The praise for the BMW M2 Competition just doesn’t seem to have an end anywhere in sight. Ever since the revamped version of the M2 was launched, every reviewer out there and every magazine and Youtube channel has been praising it as a true comeback for the M division. The guys from Evo have included the brilliant Coupe into their nominees list for the 2018 Car of the Year awards, a list made up of some pretty interesting cars.

The M2 Competition will have to go up against some fierce rivals but unlike what we usually see in some ‘car of the year’ lists, the guys from Evo cared more about the complete package and performance/buck ratio. That means, one of the competitors is the Volkswagen up GTI, a rather unexpected choice is you ask me. And yes, the Up is really an underdog here but alongside it you’ll find the Ford Fiesta ST, for example, yet another small and extremely fun car that’s become a sort of darling of the international press lately.

Moving up in the automotive world, there’s the Renault Megane RS listed here and then we arrive at the BMW M2 Competition which sits right in the middle of the 2018 class followed by the Alpine A110. After that, the supercars kick in and the field is open with the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, followed by the McLaren 600LT and then the Ferrari 488 Pista. These are the sort of cars the M2 Competition goes up against and if that seems like a long shot, imagine how the VW Up GTI must feel like.

The guys spent five days with these eight cars up in the Scottish Borders driving for thousands of miles to make sure they choose the right car.  In the end they had to come up with a winner and no, it wasn’t the Ferrari 488 Pista as some might expect and it wasn’t the M2 Competition either, even though the BMW beat the Ferrari, coming in fifth overall. The winner was the McLaren 600LT, a rather predictable outcome for a British magazine.