It is official; The new BMW M2 CS is now the fastest compact car around the Nürburgring. With an official lap time of 7 minutes and 25.5 seconds, the competitive sport has dethroned the Audi RS3. The hottest G87 version has so far managed to shave impressive 7.6 seconds after the previous round record. Perhaps the gap between the CS and the standard M2 is even more remarkable, since the Hardcore special edition is 13.2 seconds faster.
The BMW M development engineer Jörg Weinger, who also drove the regular M2 in 2023, was behind the steering wheel. So how did BMW manage to dramatically improve the lap time? The new CS benefits from a stronger 3.0-liter inline-six-engine with two turbo and delivers an additional torque of 50 hp and 50 Nm (36 LB-FT). It is also 30 kilograms lighter or £ 97 for the US SPEC model. But the story has more.
The regular M2 set its lap with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. The M2 CS? The BMW BMW BMW ran on stickier Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS rubber. These are still road legal tires, so BMW did not bend the rules. When the car made his debut in the second half of May, the M division emphasized the availability of “ultra-track tires”.
As BMW suspected yesterday that BMW was teasing a camouflaged car, the record round was completed before the official debut. Weidinger set the new benchmark on April 11, about six weeks before the premiere of Concorso d’Elanza Villa d’Este. The lap time corresponds to the longer configuration of 20.8 kilometers (12.9 miles) of the Nürburgring north loop.
It is not surprising that the M2 CS is still slower than the M4 CS, which has divided 7 minutes and 21.9 seconds, which made 3.6 seconds faster. The fastest production BMW that the green hell has ever relocated remains the M4 CSL with a round of 7: 18.1, 7.4 seconds before the M2 CS. Another CSL model can need to beat this time. BMW has mentioned the possibility of an M2 -CSL, but nothing has been decided yet.
