If you’re not interested in my background, jump to My Cars.

My Background

There are people who buys cars by saying, “Right, I want to a new car, I think I’ll have… that one!” and then go and buy it. That’s not me. Not even close. It took me a couple of years to decide to change my last car and a year to actually find and buy it. I did all the leg work but the decision was a joint one with my wife, who is commuting to work in it two days a week. There were spreadsheets involved.

To choose the new car I had a set of criteria that it had to meet. There were some hard and fast criteria and there were some more flexible ones. It MUST:

• Fit in the garage (so less than 4.5m)
• Be a proper, well handling sports car
• Be less than 60K
• More than 380L boot space
• Electrically folding mirrors

and it SHOULD:

• Be rear wheel drive (or at least, not just front wheel drive)
• Manual transmission
• Have a limited slip differential
• Have more than 400bhp
• Four door and four seats
• Have electrically adjustable seats with memory
• Be tunable/modifiable
• A hatchback
• Easy to clean alloys

MUST NOT have:

• Sun roof
• Smokers’ pack

So that’s quite a list and proved impossible to satisfy completely. The majority of cars on the market were ruled out almost immediately (due to not being very good) which left a selection of BMWs, Audi RS3, Mercedes A45S, Porsche Cayman, Ford Mustang and RS, Golf R, Jaguar F-Type R, Alpine A110, Honda Civic Type R, Toyota GR Supra, Alfa Romeo Guilia and Nissan GTR.

The BMW M3 and M4, the Mustang, Guilia and GTR were ruled out because they were too long for garage. The A110 was just too small, as was the Cayman realistically. Similarly the Supra’s boot wasn’t up to it. Even the RS3’s boot was a bit tiny. Focus RS was a bit too slow and front wheel drive, as was the Civic. The Golf R was just a bit too bland and the F-Type, too expensive.

Thus we were left with the M240 xDrive, the M135 xDrive, the M2 Competition and the A45S. The M135 was too similar to my old M135i. The M240 was in contention but only had a DCT, was the same price as an M2C and quite ugly. The A45S looked very interesting but, in the end, I really wanted a RWD, manual car while they’re still an option (cf. electrification). I regret not test driving the A45S, if just for the fun of it.

I had a brief thought about buying a brand new 2023 M2 Competition but a) they were more than £60K, b) I’d have had to wait at least 8 months, c) they’re too long for our garage and d) they look awful.

So the M2C meets all the criteria, except it’s only got two doors and is a saloon. It’ll mean we can’t transport elderly relatives and the boot’s access is a bit restricted. No more carrying fridges.

My Cars

If you’re not interested in my cars and just want to read about the M2C then just Straight To It.

I learned to drive in my Dad’s Mazda 323 1.4L estate. I think it’s where my love of rear wheel drive started. Good fun.

Mazda 323F was the first car I bought. I was attracted by the pop up headlights and ‘sporty’ look. From that car I learned an important lesson about not overworking your brakes or boiling brake fluid.

Mazda 626 GSi followed a few years later. A 2L engine appealed, as did the extra power. From that car I learned a very valuable lesson about unbranded tyres and their desire to leave you unexpectedly pointing the wrong way. Since then I’ve only ever used premium makes and replaced them regularly.

Mazda RX8 PZ (spotting the pattern? I liked Mazda) was the scariest purchase we’ve ever made. It was so far removed from the sort of car we’d ever thought of owning. A Mazda open day at Bruntingthorpe set us on the path. They let us drive, and be driven in, RX8s. I loved it. We bought the PZ and it was amazing. So, so much better than anything else I’d driven. The handling was sublime due to the low weight, low centre of mass, 50/50 distribution and minimal moment of inertia. I always so confident in that car’s ability to change direction. The car was designed around the engine, which was weird but interesting. Really loved that car. I learned so much about handling, the value of a tuned suspension, weight distribution, limited slip diffs and that wide tyres and good brakes make a difference. Basically that performance is about much, much more than horsepower. We had some great days out with the owners’ club.

BMW M135i followed after about 6 years. I decided to go to the polar opposite since Mazda had no sensible options. The RX8 had very little torque at low revs, the M135i had masses. Overtaking was trivial and the kick in the back was addictive. However, the handling left a lot to be desired. It was heavy in the nose, rolled around corners and the brakes were… ok. I wanted to get it tuned, with an LSD and springs from Birds but never managed it. Too scared of it going wrong I guess. I learned a bit about torque and how lovely a good engine really can be. Also, that build quality and a big boot make day-to-day living a pleasure. We held on to this one for nine years and it was just as solid at the end as at the start. Those alloys were a sod to clean.

Following these cars would be a tough act. I wanted something that had everything: flat cornering, power, hot brakes, LSD, character, fantastic grip and really nice handling characteristics. An M car seemed the obvious choice. Manuals were hard to find but eventually I managed it.

I suppose there should be the obligatory ‘Manual v. DCT’ discussion? Ok, well I’ve always had a manual and never driven an auto (I had a very short (300m) drive in a DCT M2C so can’t really compare the two). For ages I watched Autotrader hoping for a manual M2C close enough to test drive but most seemed to be on the South coast and the specs just weren’t right. After a while I started losing hope and looked at DCTs. My wife hasn’t driven much for the last 15 years so I thought it might be a better choice for her now that she’s started commuting on her own in the car. However, she pretty much refused to try an auto so that ended that discussion. Before too long we’ll be forced into electric cars and, even if that wasn’t happening, autos are becoming the norm. It’s harder and harder to find manual cars of the sort listed above. So I wanted to keep to a manual as long as I could anyway. The DCT sounds pretty impressive and I’d like to give it a proper try but I’m happy with my manual.

M2 Competition

My car is a manual 2018 M2 Competition in Hockenheim Silver with about 17K miles. Options-wise it has pretty much everything: virtually all the factory options, a load of dealer options and a fair few aftermarket ones and then some more. Here’s the list:

Factory:

• Driver’s, Comfort and Plus packs
• ‘2NH’ Upgraded brakes
• High beam assistant
• Through loading system
• Grey Shade band (which precludes the Driving Assistant package and Speed limit info display)
• Electric folding mirrors
• Heated Steering Wheel
• Carplay
• Wifi Hotspot

It’s missing the Driving Assistant package (thankfully!), the Speed Limit info (which I used to find useful), Chromeline (thankfully!), sunroof (thankfully!), smoker’s package (really, really thankfully!).

Dealer options:

• Pro Steering Wheel (which isn’t heated!)
• M Performance Coilover kit
• Interior Carbon
• Full Exterior Carbon
• 763M CS alloys

Third party modifications:

• Akrapovic Titanium Slip-on exhaust with Evolution link pipe
• Akrapovic Stainless Steel decat downpipes
• Litchfield stage 3 remap
• Crank hub fix

And the dealer who sold us the car, Performance 28, also added their own touches:

• CTCarbon carbon fibre front wings
• Aluminium CS-Style bonnet
• Piano black PPF on the roof

So, it has both the looks and the ability to back them up. 530 bhp/700Nm, unlimited stop speed, good brakes, adjustable suspension, lightweight alloys. £85K of car for a lot less than that. I’m not planning on any further enhancements. The Litchfield tuning is an old one and needs updating but that’ll get done when the decat is swapped out (see below).

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Updates: 2/5/2023. Recently the OEM brake hoses have been replaced by Goodridge Carbon Fibre-effect stainless steel braided ones in an attempt to make the brake response a bit sharper. The brake fluid was replaced with RBF600 high-temperature fluid at the same time.

Aesthetically, the front lights have been wrapped with a ‘light smoke’ tint and the door puddle light have been replaced with ‘M Performance’ projectors off eBay.

Updates: 1/7/2023. Back at the end of May, Performance M have replaced the Akra downpipes with Garage Whifbitz 200-cell sports cat. This has made a massive difference. The 4K rasp has mostly gone (it’s the engine that rasps and the cat just amplified it), the exhaust is a bit quieter overall, there’s no more unburned fuel smell – overall it’s a much more pleasant car to drive. I’ve yet to have the emissions tested but, apparently, if I get the cats hot then it should pass.

Updates: 1/7/2023. Early in June Litchfields retuned the ECUTEK with the lasted version. It now has four maps. Standard/Original power, 99RON full power, soft-pedal for wet/snow and 95RON which I hope never to have to use. The start up noise has changed too: it take a second or two more to settle and is slightly louder so I’m glad we have the sports cat. We now have selectable maps, selectable torque and upgraded displays. The pops and bangs have been turned most of the way down. Pops and bangs generally mean letting unburned fuel through the exhaust which can destroy cats.

Updates: 30/8/2023. The major service has been done by PerformanceM for a very reasonable price.

• Oil and oil filter
• Air filter and pollen filter
• Spark plugs – The stage 1 NGKs mentioned in the M2 FAQ post
• Gearbox Oil
• Differential Oil
• Handbrake adjustment – it was feeling a bit lengthy
• Wheel Alignment
• Differential seal replacement

This was the third attempt at the wheel alignment but is now complete. It seems that the Rimblades I added to protect the alloys were enough to skew the alignment process.

The differential seal on one side was found to be leaking. It’s a known problem – see the M2 FAQ section about known issues – so it was replaced during the service.

The car went for its MoT a few days later and passed, just about. The cats needed to be pretty hot. A run of at least 20 minutes is needed before an emissions test.

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It’s a pretty special road car (at least for us) but the idea was to get the most extreme version we could and see what we liked, what we could live with and what we had to change. Worst case, we hated everything had to sell and buy a stock M2C.

So, let’s start with the negatives. There aren’t many:

• Decat, the elephant in the room. It adds noise, about 10bhp and makes life difficult once a year. So that’s going to be replaced with a high flow cat. I can live with 10 fewer horses and an easy emissions test. Selling the Akrapovic downpipes will probably pay for the sports cats and fitting.
• Akrapovic. It is loud. We knew it would be loud and in Sports it is too loud for the street. Fortunately, in Efficient at commuting speeds, it’s no noisier than a diesel family hatchback. Putting the cats back should make it a little quieter. In Sports mode there is a quite a loud drone when pulling between about 2.5K and 4K.
• Suspension. When we got it it was quite hard. It wasn’t harsh but you did know the exact depth of the potholes. The coilover kit is adjustable for compression and rebound. I don’t really know what these do but I know they affected the handling. Also, I had no idea what they were set to so I had a BMW specialist adjust them back to the defaults. Turns out they were set to, pretty much ‘maximum hardness’. This fits with the overall ‘track day’ feel to the car. Anyway, they were now at factory setting and feel much better on the poor quality British roads. And I can always get them changed again in the future if I want them a bit firmer (or softer!)
• Rough start. In the cold and for the first minute a gentle throttle is required to stop it stalling when manouvering at low speed. As part of the tuning, the Cold Start option can be removed so that loud exhausts don’t annoy the neighbours. We think that’s what’s going on here. Really we should leave the car on idle for a couple of minutes before going anywhere.
• Comfort Access. It’s a security hole and a liability. Don’t want it but can’t code it out. It would cost £150 to have it removed.
• Runnings costs. When we first got the car the fuel efficiency was pretty bad, about 20-22mpg on a commute but after a few months, a remap and some practice it’s more like high 20s. More lengthy trips with a mixture of urban, rural and motorway consistently give 32-35mpg. We think that the car had been sat around for months and/or had been doing short trips.
• Heated steering wheel. It isn’t heated because the Pro steering wheel can’t be. We’re getting quite picky now.
• Low ground clearance. Even though the suspension is set to roughly stock height the front splitter still catches slightly on multi-storey car park ramps (we park in a multi-storey at work).
• Some of the default settings are silly and can’t be changed. The car always starts in ‘Efficient’ engine mode and ‘Sport’ steering mode. ‘Comfort’ steering makes more sense.

Apart from the decat, these are things we can live with. The Akra sounds pretty good when not disturbing the neighbours. The suspension is what you get when you want to be able to go around corners fast. As for fuel costs, well, money well spent for being able to drive this car.

Now for the positives:

• Beautiful looking car. Great to be seen in it. The exterior carbon works well with the Hochenheim Silver paintwork. The jet black 763M alloys give it a much meaner look (and are dead easy to clean!). The piano black roof in obviously trying to look like a CS but that’s no bad thing.
• Lovely cockpit. Comfortable. Good driving position. Really nice, easy to read instrumentation.
• iDrive 6 is an improvement. Decent interface with plenty of options and features. Being able to easily find petrol stations is useful.
• Harmon/Kardon is very pleasant.
• The manual gearbox is pretty good.
• Brakes are great. They could have a better initial bite but otherwise they’re really good.
• I’ve not been able to give the car a really good test on proper roads but there’s almost no body roll and it sticks to the road like glue.
• Feedback from the wheels is pretty good and the steering wheel, with its Alcantara leather is much better than the standard one, even if it isn’t heated.
• Last, but not least, is the power. There’s a lot, a hell of a lot. You have to be gentle with the throttle on wet roads as it’s easy to get the wheels to spin. It’s trivially easy to get from slow to fast.

This list doesn’t really reflect on how great the car is. It feels solid and predictable to drive. The steering is very positive and the car goes exactly where you point it. In fact, there’s no ‘dead’ zone so you have to pay attention to what you’re doing. Just thinking about changing direction will move the car. It’s a precision machine. Note: the wheel alignment has made the steering a little less sensitive. It’s still very positive and accurate but much easier to keep in a straight line.

The M2C is a fair bit heavier than the RX8 so the suspension is considerably stiffer but it gives a very similar ‘on rails’ feeling. I’m sure that the roads have gotten a lot worse in the ten years since we owned the RX8 but the M2C handles even the roughest.

The engine responds instantly and there’s no sign of turbo lag.

The rev limit for the M135i was about 6.5K and is 7.5K on the M2C. The power in the M135i comes in quite early, about 1.5-2K revs, but on the M2C you have to have about 3K revs before you really feel it. I’m guessing that’s down to how the turbos have been configured to ensure they work up to 7K+, more like a race car. Note: after the Litchfield remap the power delivery is more linear. So the engine feels a bit more like the RX8 (where you have to drive it above 7K revs to find the power) which red lined at 10K.

However, there’s enough power at the low end to make driving around at 20mph in sixth gear quite achievable. Sixth is pretty versatile: 20-190mph.

It’s an easy car to manouevre and to park; visibility is good, steering is fairly light and the mirrors are big. Including mirrors the car is no wider than the M135i but the ‘hips’ make the body about 10cm wider.

One day I was out for lunch at a rural pub and decided to drive home the scenic route. It was only a couple of miles but I hadn’t realised that the recent cold spell had left a layer of snow and ice on the country road I chose. The journey out had been clear but the return road hadn’t been used much. It was quite rough, undulating and narrow. I’d have been worried in the M135i and was, well, scared in the M2C. It behaved perfectly, even going up snowy, icy rises without a problem.

Straight after we bought the car I loaded it up with all the bits and pieces from the old car, stuffing most of the items under the boot cover, next to the battery. Shovel, anoraks, toolkit, locking wheelnut, seat covers etc. all went in and I forgot about them. Since we bought the car we’ve had Covid, not been many places and the weather has been, almost exclusively, wet where we live. So not much scope for good driving. However, on the few times I had chance to stretch the engine the exhaust howled above about 3K. It was painful, like a cat being tortured. We were starting to think that this Akrapovic/decat stuff was really not for us and could limit the enjoyment of fast country driving until I could have a sports cat installed.

Then, one day when I was trying to isolate a noise from the rear suspension, I emptied the boot of all things that could make a noise and went out for a drive. It didn’t help with the suspension but, driving at motorway speeds in 2nd/3rd, the screeching feline noise had gone! We have this metal ‘puck’ which fits the jack points, which had been in the boot, sat just above the exhaust and was reverberating at higher revs, rattling like stones in a spin dryer. It was a big relief to hear the sweet sound of the actual exhaust. Quite the “d’oh” moment when I realised just what had been plaguing us for months.

However, that wasn’t the end. Whilst the puck was causing a lot of noise, the S55 engine itself has a bit of a drone about 4K RPM. Replacing the decats removed the majority of the noise.

Summary

Overall, the car feels like a panther: sleek, relaxed, beautiful but can explode with strength, agility and fury when poked. For me, it incorporates all the lessons I’ve learned over my 30+ years of driving. The only better car out there might be the Porsche Cayman but the boot is still too small.