When the Internet gets excited about something, it gets really excited.
If you're not on the hype train, it'll run you over. So get on board or get out of the way.
The BMW M2 incited the kind of rabid fandom the car world hasn't seen in months. It was just like that time Kim Kardashian broke the Internet, except safe for work. Everyone who was anyone (in the online comment sections) was talking about it.
I was there, online, when BMW unveiled the M2 – you imagine one day telling your kids. I remember exactly what I was doing: I was at my desk, not really working, checking blogs and scrolling Twitter and whatever, when this bright blue coupe suddenly appeared everywhere. You couldn't not see it. You couldn't not get swept up in the fandom, the excitement, the nitpicking, the speculation.
In the collective gearhead imagination, the M2 is 1,570 kilograms of pure heel-toe daydreams, infinite burnouts and the facilitator of epic Chris Harris-style drifts.
For non-car people, it must seem frighteningly random. Occasionally, a bunch of strangers on the Internet collectively get all fizzy about a new car. New cars are announced everyday, each named with a random series of numbers and letters. The M2 got under the Internet's skin, but news of the X4M and 228i cabrio went largely without any trolling. What's so special about the M2?
Gearheads are excited because BMW made a new car with roughly the same specs as a really old car.
The thrust of the hype around the M2 goes like this: It's the one we've been waiting for, the car that will return BMW's M Division to greatness.
The M2 is roughly the size and weight of the 2001 M3 – a car from the glory days of M. In fact, the M2 is nearly as small as the 1995 M3.
Back then, Alanis Morissette was going platinum, Taylor Swift was still in grade school and the M3 was a genuinely small performance car. Today's M3 isn't even called the M3. BMW had to call it the M4 because it got so big. It's closer in length to the original M6 than it is to the 1995 M3.
With every iteration, the M3 gets bigger, safer, faster and more luxurious. BMW is just following the market. Part of the reason is feature bloat: infotainment. Part of the reason is higher safety standards. Part of the reason is simply that most people want more space.
The M4 is so big, so fast and so luxurious, there's room in the lineup for a smaller, more affordable M car.
Enter M2, son of M4. But is it really a return to the M cars of old? Or is it just marketed that way?
When it arrives in 2016, it will come with a turbocharged straight-six, 370 horsepower, 343 lb-ft of torque (plus overboost) and a 7,000 rpm redline.
The M2 also gets some parts from the M4: aluminum suspension bits, steering rack, an electronic rear locking diff, a six-speed manual or optional seven-speed dual clutch.
Internet commenters were quick to point out what the M2 is missing: a carbon-fibre roof and M-style door mirrors. But the M2 was built to a price. It has to split the difference between the M235i and M4, which are $45,000 and $75,000, respectively.
BMW has done a wonderful job tapping into gearhead nostalgia. Including the original the E30 M3 in the initial barrage of M2 press photos was genius.
But M cars have changed. If recent models are anything to go by, the M2 will be a torque monster. It'll be a brawler, not a ballerina; a fighter, not a lover. Classic-era M cars were softer, and all about linear engine response and perfect balance. Turbo motors and increased weight mean the old days are gone for good.
But the M2 may still be the M car we've been waiting for. For one, the price – it'll likely be in the low-to-mid-$60,000 range – makes it more attainable than ever. For another, it looks great. Plus, M still knows how to make hugely entertaining machines that happily pull double-duty as track car and daily driver.
Anyway, this is just more hype and speculation. We'll have a proper road test out when we drive the car early next year. And again 20 years after that once the M2 becomes a classic, and we get all fizzy and nostalgic about it, wishing for the good old days.
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