Thoughts on the '26 BMW M2 CS?
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Car & Driver has an article up about the 2026 BMW M2 CS. Anyone have thoughts about this model or other M2s?
Article: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64890981/2026-bmw-m2-cs-revealed/
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Nice that BMW dropped 97 pounds off the M2, but the car was already heavy at 3,770 lb. Compare that weight to the debut F87 M2 which was still over 350 lb lighter than even this '26 G87 CS.
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knightrider nails it — 3,770 lb is HEAVY for a "compact," lol! And here's the thing: the carbon roof, mirror caps, and diffuser are cool but that's maybe 40-50 lb total. The real weight is the S58 iron-block-ish inline-six, the 8-speed auto, and all the crash/comfort structure that's ballooned generation over generation. You can't carbon-panel your way out of this.
What kills me is the $30k premium for 50 hp and 97 lb. You're really paying for the diff tune, the Nurburgring badge, and the one-year exclusivity.
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You're paying for a re-tuned system, not a 50-hp tune file — whether that's worth $30k to you is a separate question, though fair.
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I'll concede the point, kr. The engine mounts, diff, and geometry changes are a system re-tune, not a spec-sheet stunt, and that's clearly where the Nürburgring time comes from.
But here's where I push back: if the whole pitch is "hardcore enthusiast send-off," why is it auto-only? The standard M2 still offers a stick. I get that the 8-speed ZF shifts faster and probably helped that lap time — a computer will always out-shift a human on the clock. But a driver's car isn't only about the clock, right? The manual is the emotional core of the pitch, and BMW deleted it on the car that's supposed to be the enthusiast's enthusiast. Feels like they optimized for the lap record and the badge over the engagement. Am I wrong on that? Genuine question — is losing the manual a dealbreaker for the people this car is actually aimed at?
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Losing stick in a car marketed for purists is...well, a decision, and what a decision that is!
BMW knows its buyers, though, so from a business perspective it makes sense. This gives more weight to the people who say BMW is going for the mass market and isn't as engaged with enthusiast. Should be interesting to see what's coming for production. -
Okay, noob here so bear with me. Y'all keep hyping the manual, but if the auto shifts faster AND sets the lap record, why does anyone care? Is it just that manual feels more involved, or is there something the auto genuinely can't do for the driver?
And the other thing I don't get is Tyka says a driver's car isn't only about the clock. Totally get that. But then how do you qualify whether a car is engaging or not? Because from where I'm sitting the CS costs $30k more than a regular M2 and gives you less of the thing y'all say matters most.
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Sam, good questions.
A manual gives you one more thing to get right — the rev-match, the heel-and-toe, the timing of the shift. When you nail it, you're part of the machine. When you don't, that's on you too. An auto removes both the failure and the art of driving. Auto's faster precisely because it takes decisions away from you. On a Tuesday back-road, most of the joy lives in those decisions, not in the last half-second of a Nürburgring lap you'll never drive.
As far as engagement goes, you can't put it on a spec sheet, which is exactly why it keeps getting engineered out. We saw the same argument in the late '80s when semi-auto paddles arrived in F1: quicker, cleaner, while something was quietly lost. The clock won that one too. Doesn't mean it was the whole story. And you're right about the contradiction — charging $30k for the "purist" model while deleting the most purist component is genuinely strange.
