The BMW M2 CS is considered by many to be one of the most collectable cars in the world right now. This car was deemed so good, by so many publications, it’s impossible to overlook it in any comparison or test. It won several ‘car of the year’ awards from various magazines and managed to do so while beating considerably more expensive cars. It’s also a great car to drive, as it has a balanced chassis, it’s light and has a lot of power.
The guys from The Fast Lane Car decided to bring out to their usual proving grounds and see how the M2 CS compares to the other models that were raced there, on their track. In order to do that, they brought in their usual test drive pilot, pro racing driver Paul Gerrard. He lapped all the performance cars on the track at TFL so far and if you want to keep things comparable, you need to isolate all external factors.
What’s interesting about this test though is how the tires affect the final performance of the car. The BMW M2 CS comes fitted, as standard, with 245 and 265 section tires, on the front axle and the rear one respectively. Those said tires are Michelin Pilot Cup 2 tires, some of the best you can get on road-going cars these days. However, when the first run was done, they were pretty shot and that reflected in the 1.06:21 lap time.
The guys then came back, with the M2 CS on a fresh set of tires. While on the first run Paul was complaining about having no grip in the corners, the second run was completely different. As a result, the time he recorded was nearly 5 seconds faster, at 1:01.88. That’s a huge difference on a track this short. Furthermore, that makes the M2 CS just barely slower than the McLaren 570S and faster than the BMW M5 and Porsche Cayman GT4.
