Much like every automotive magazine, Automobile Mag features a “Best-of-the-Year” competition. Each magazine has a different name for it, with some different parameters, but Automobile’s is called “All Stars” and they essentially just pick their favorite cars of the year. Pretty standard stuff. Still, it’s worth noting because these journalists drive nearly every new car on the market, so when they add a car to the All Star list, it’s for good reason. This year, the BMW M2 Competition made that list, along with some other really great cars.

What are some of the other performance machines on the All Star list? Just the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, McLaren 600LT and Ferrari 812 Superfast. Pretty good dinner company, then.

So what were some of the reasons why Automobile put the M2 Competition among some of the greatest performance machines on the planet? “Immensely satisfying to drive, even back to back against the supercars.” said Automobile’s Todd Lassa “the BMW that best captures the spirit of the 2002 era more than anything in the marque’s stable.”

Lassa wasn’t the only one to praise the little M2, though. “A return to form for the M Division,” said Automobile contributor Jethro Bovingdon . “I love pretty much everything about this car.” In fact, Bovingdon even went as far as to say he’d like to own one, as did Automobile’s Marc Noordeloos. Journalists can be a cynical bunch, often nit-picking cars to death, and it can be hard to convince them of wanting to buy a specific car. So when more than one proclaim their desire to own the M2 Competition, it must be a pretty darn good car. Especially when they were driving it back-to-back with the likes of Porsches and McLarens.

We’ve driven the BMW M2 Competition ourselves and are big fans, so we’re not surprised by this result. Though, it’s nice to see it getting such high praise from other journos as well.

[Source: Automobile Magazine]