Earlier than I faucet the purple begin button, earlier than I press the leather-tipped shift lever into first gear, earlier than I stupidly dump espresso dregs in my lap as I prep for the tense half-hour forward, I say a bit of prayer. 

I’m about to seize the Tail of the Dragon—hallowed floor for sports activities automotive drivers, motorcyclists, or actually anybody who desires to drive 11 miles by 318 turns with none mailboxes, with none driveways, with none interruptions aside from the carpenter-bee buzz of sport bikes tilting and whirling round 15-mph carousel kinks whereas they lay practically flat. 

I pray to the gods of grip. All I need to do is preserve it protected, preserve it shiny, and keep out of sight of something with a municipal crest on its doorways. I’m in all probability already breaking the legislation earlier than the primary flip. I’m doing drag, in spite of everything: I’m principally cosplaying Little Pink Using Hood in a spot the place, even when the Trump indicators have pale, the sentiment hasn’t. 

Then I put all of it out of my thoughts. The Tail of the Dragon isn’t a time for distractions. It requires extensive eyes, radio-free ears, sharp reflexes, and the suitable blade with which to chop—which is why I grip the thick-rimmed steering wheel of BMW’s newest M2 with a bit of further drive. It’s as much as the event; I need to be, too. 

2023 BMW M2

2023 BMW M2

2023 BMW M2

2023 BMW M2

It’s a stiff-kneed long-distance tourer, however the BMW M2 comes into good deal with roads just like the Tail of the Dragon. 

BMW M2: a stiff-kneed long-distance tourer

In any case, we anointed the final M2 our Motor Authority Greatest Automotive To Purchase 2017. This one, as earlier than, evolves the newest 2-Sequence Coupe into M standing by horsepower, tuning, and bodywork. As soon as once more, the M2’s gotten larger. Total size has risen by 4.7 inches, observe has widened by 1.5 inches in entrance and 1.6 inches on the rear, and the wheelbase has stretched by 2.1 inches. That makes it extra livable. It doesn’t make it a bit much less lovable.

The Appalachian mountains puddle up on the horizon like a comforter on an unmade mattress as I attempt to easy out the street to get to the Tail with the rear-drive, turbo-6 M2 in its must-have manual-shift configuration—what was the norm, now a bittersweet throwback. 

This one’s a winner, largely. It has rubbery detents in its shift motion and within the clutch pedal motion, too. It retains completely easy shifts a half-step out of attain, nevertheless it’s nonetheless higher than what’s doable on some rival sports activities vehicles—the place they nonetheless exist. 

It’s right here on the interstate the place the M2’s at its least. It’s a stiff-kneed long-distance tourer, and it drones an excessive amount of on textured concrete pavement. The street noise generated by its large Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer time tires (275/35-ZR19 in entrance, 285/30-ZR20 in again) overwhelms the voice recognition of the infotainment system; it even mutes the silken twin-turbo inline-6. That 3.0-liter inline-6 posts up at 453 hp, some 48 hp greater than its predecessor, and twists out 406 lb-ft of torque because it winds towards a 7,200-rpm redline. 

The tire noise can’t damp the M2’s gusto. Snick down a gear and step into it, and it erases the gap to the following exit ramp. BMW claims a 0-60 mph time of 4.1 seconds (3.9 seconds with the obtainable automated) and a high velocity of 155 mph (177 mph with the M Driver’s Bundle).

In its transformation to M2, the 2-Sequence will get a number of upgrades, from an energetic rear differential to a stiffer chassis, aluminum suspension items, adaptive dampers, and extra finely tuned electrical steering. It’s nearly too taut to day by day. On one stretch of freeway, the M2 pogoed rhythmically and couldn’t be calmed: no damper setting was unfastened or agency sufficient to resolve it. As soon as it obtained to asphalt once more, it settled down, however the slight wandering on heart didn’t; the M2 desires to bump-steer with pavement blemishes due to these staggered wheels.

2023 BMW M2, Tail of the Dragon, by Killboy.com

Larger, heavier, and costlier: what’s to not love in regards to the newest BMW M2? It takes the suitable street to disclose its magic.

BMW M2: grabbing the Tail of the Dragon

The M2 wasn’t meant to thrive in that setting, anyway. It begs for roads just like the Tail; the one clue you want is the pair of purple toggles on the steering wheel coded M1 and M2. Programmed by the driving force, these presets can flick the automotive from one configured with extra relaxed steering and throttle tip-in, to 1 that’s on the right aspect of frantically engaged. I depart it in a user-configurable M1 drive mode as I make a left flip and trundle by a dozen miles of small-town North Carolina, earlier than the street interferences drop out of sight, together with cellphone sign.  Even Slack goes slack. It’s the right time for M2—the opposite user-set change and the automotive, naturally.

Right away, I’m in the midst of a Foreman/Ali match with the esses, duking it out with very slim runoffs and tangoing with a line of Miatas, bikes, and various Broncos, all parading by cameramen from Killboy.com who relaxation safely within the corners to take photographs of vehicles flying by the ever-tighter corners. It’s a scene: each corkscrewy bend within the street has been bejeweled with candy-colored Camaros and Corvettes and fifty shades of German-car grey.

My eyeballs begin to slosh round like pickles in a barrel and my intestine begins to swish in rhythm with them because the M2 will get into its groove, tracing the steps taken by a yellow clapped-out Mazda Protégé. Sport bikes slip by ever so carefully within the oncoming lane, adopted often by a Bronco or, worse, by an enormous crossover full of gawkers who rapidly get paralyzed by concern, like a straight bro stumbling into his first homosexual bar, unwittingly or in any other case.

Its weight will get unfold round practically equally, a 50/50 cut up, however the M2 is a thick one at 3,814 kilos with the handbook. A stomp on the gasoline obliterates a lot of the leaden really feel it could possibly have at low throttle, as pure energy lifts the M2 out of its commuter-speed doldrums. 

It’s a second-gear rapper’s delight, and I depart it in rev-matching mode for the odd upshift-downshift into third and again as a result of the pedal array proves difficult for my dimension 12EEE ft. Not solely does the tip of my left shoe get caught within the toe field after I declutch, the peak between brake and gasoline doesn’t sit at a pleasant distance for heel-and-toe shifting.

Braking barely begs a query: it simply stops, and stops laborious, thanks to large 6-piston calipers and 15.0-inch rotors in entrance and single-piston calipers with 14.6-inch rotors on the again. The calipers are blue, peeking out from inside these staggered wheels (9.5 inches throughout in entrance, by the best way, and 10.5 inches on the again).

I reel off 100 turns or extra earlier than I discover fatigue and earlier than the veins begin to stand out on my forearms. After I first obtained within the automotive, I didn’t assume the steering wheel wanted to be as fats as it’s, nor did I imagine the steering wanted to be as heavy as it’s. The Tail proved me at the least a bit of fallacious. As soon as I began to filter by the 15-mph curves, chasing my very own tail round them, the heft stored the wheel from getting chucked off-line from the stray pothole or rock. The M2 has misplaced a number of the lightness and precision of its steering, positive. However in trade, it simply sticks. It sticks it out longer than most drivers can. It’s a homicide hornet that eats up nearly every little thing in sight. 

2023 BMW M2

2023 BMW M2

2023 BMW M2

2023 BMW M2

The M2 passes the touchscreen take a look at, with an enormous show and wi-fi Apple CarPlay. However who cares, when there’s 453 hp on faucet? 

BMW M2: passing the touchscreen take a look at

I take a breather after I attain the tip of US 129, on to an hour of silly visitors on the interstate, and darkness. Whereas the M2 disappears the 2 hours of street between me and a resort mattress, I faucet into its creature comforts.

I’m not offered on the type: it’s puffy and its air intakes look unsuccessful at letting a number of the air out of the automotive, a bouncy home of a two-door coupe with simply sufficient shove-ahead from its wedgy stance to make me neglect it. Order it in black for finest outcomes. The rear diffuser and its quad exhaust ideas get essentially the most approving nods, however there’s lots of Lexus RC right here.

Inside, the M2 transforms my notion of a sports-car inside by digital shows. It has a conjoined pair of extensive screens set collectively beneath glass, and wakes up with an M-logo splash display screen within the gauge cluster and a spinning M2 on the touchscreen. The cluster will be configured with navigation at its heart, in case you like. It’s a flourish of progress thrown in your face—however how nice wouldn’t it be in case you flipped into Sport mode and it traded its hockey-stick digital gauges for some correct spherical dials? 

Elsewhere, BMW prints the door panels with purple and blue pixels and embosses diamond patterns into it, each of which tie in with the leather-based sport seats. The usual entrance chairs (carbon-fiber seats can be found) get so much proper, with nice under-leg help, a cinched waist, and a reclined headrest—and nonetheless, with all of the adjustment obtainable, I am unable to fairly get the M2 driving place precisely as I would prefer it. With the seat as little as doable, the steering wheel doesn’t drop as a lot, so I grip the wheel at 4 o’clock and eight o’clock, as an alternative of three and 9. 

I hardly fear in regards to the glass sunroof tucked above my head, or the automated emergency braking that’s by no means referred to as into obligation, however I give thanks once more for the protection internet of the M2’s 10-stage stability management system, although I by no means get to have interaction the Observe mode that turns off all help. Nor do I get to pattern Drift mode; I just like the M2’s tires an excessive amount of, and folk with badges in these elements are likely to frown on strangers doing donuts in parking heaps.

It prices an excessive amount of to deal with that casually, in any case. Inbuilt Mexico alongside its frumptastic 2-Sequence kin, the M2 prices $63,195, together with $995 in vacation spot. Now {that a} 1,341-hp electrical BMW M2 is reportedly within the works, and can little question be much more costly, you’ll need to savor this candy throwback whereas it’s nonetheless dewy and recent. 

Take it to the Tail, in case you can. Positive, different sports activities vehicles will take you from level A to level B. The M2 will take you to church.