"This is not a tech-laden, speed-focused machine, but one that wants to have a good time. The manual matches that character"

We have driven the mighty 370bhp BMW M2 a couple of times: Out at Laguna Seca earlier this year, while Chris Harris drove it on the TV show. However, we’ve not reviewed the 3.0-litre single turbo, entry-level M car with a six-speed manual gearbox in the UK.

Tenuous? OK, we just wanted an excuse to drive it again. And answer a few questions, too. Such as, M2 or M3? Manual or M DCT twin clutch? Does it work on UK roads?

Can you answer the last of those first, please?
Yes. That’s the answer.

The M2 is great fun to drive in the UK and works very well indeed on our roads. I am going to throw a couple of caveats into that now by saying that the ride tends towards the jiggly and can occasionally pogo along if it gets out of sync with the surface. It’s not a car that glides along, shrugging bumps aside.

Sure, it’ll calm itself down pretty well when you get on a motorway, but on single-laners it demands you pay attention. And there’s nothing wrong with that, because you should be. And because you’re paying attention, you notice what the car is up to, and what you notice is that it’s up to good stuff. And since it’s up to good stuff, you have a good time.

So to paraphrase, because the ride is jiggly, you have more fun?
That’s a fair assessment. We’ve pointed out before that technical perfection is no guarantee of driving entertainment and that the occasional flaw or bad habit is often quite engaging.

Anyway, you’re there, you’re concentrating, you’re having to work a bit and the M2 rewards you by being entirely bombastic. Honestly, it’s such a rip-roarer, that even if you’d managed to stay disconnected until you got to the first corner, you wouldn’t be after it. I once wrote that the 1M was a boisterous thing and BMW has clearly carried the same elements forward into the M2. It’s really amusing to drive. Simple as that.

{gallery}BMW_M2_Manual1{/gallery}

More so than the M3?
I think so yes. The M3, even with the new Competition Pack fitted, is a more serious car than the M2. More serious-minded, more seriously likely to catch you out, too. With potentially serious consequences. I’ve been running an M3 as my daily for the last eight months and the more time and distance I do with it, the more in love with it I fall. But others don’t feel the same way, and I freely admit that it can be a bit sharp and snatchy, and will give you a proper heart-pumper of a moment if you get careless or foolish. The rear axle can get mobile with very little warning.

The M2 has a more generous spirit. It uses a lot of the same suspension componentry as the M3/M4, but the result is a more magnanimous. Neither has great brakes as standard though, so bear that in mind – and the M2 can’t be had with optional ceramics, either.

So which would you have?
Given a straight choice, the M3, but fronting up my own money, then the M2. The M3 feels a fraction more special to drive and the engine is sharper and more eager to rev. But the M2 has the better front end turn-in and steering response. That’s the highlight for me, actually – the way you turn the wheel with your wrists and feel the tyres respond by getting on their shoulders and knuckling down to work. You sense the whole car instantly hunch to the task and you know, even at modest speeds, precisely what the car is up to and how much it has in reserve.

Open the throttle mid-corner and where the M3 can become a handful, the M2’s differential has been better set-up, so it’s more progressive when it starts to break away.

Is the M3 faster?
I know it’s only got another 61bhp, but yes, it is faster. BMW claims there’s only a couple of tenths in it, 4.3secs for the 0-100kph sprint in the M3, plays 4.5 in the M2 (those are for the manual gearbox cars, M DCT’s are 0.2secs faster), but when we figured both the 0-100mph (161kph) times were 8.8secs for the M3 and 9.7 for the M2. It’s top end savagery that gives the M3 the edge.

That and weight actually. Because the 1495kg M2 is a bit of a porker when the M3 only weighs 1520kg with its extra doors. The M4 coupe? That’s 1497kg…

How’s the M2’s engine?
Not as feisty or tuneful or raucous as the M3’s, but it’s still a smooth straight six, aided by a single blower. It’s great to use, has to be stirred into life a bit at very low revs, but when you’re up and running and the rev counter’s nudging further up you won’t find yourself wanting for response or reaction. It hits hard and fast.

So gearbox: manual or M DCT?
Well, I’ve driven both and the manual suits the car better. This is not a tech-laden, speed-focused machine, but one that wants to have a good time. The manual matches that character.

However, the shift isn’t that great. The lever/throw combination is a bit long, the clutch travels too far and the shift quality isn’t snappy enough – the transmission occasionally baulks if you try to hurry it through too fast. It’s slightly tricky to drive smoothly in traffic. Oh, and I like to heel and toe myself and in the BMW you can’t stop it rev-blipping for you in any mode. You might like that, of course.

But I’d still have it because, unlike the M3, the M2 feels like it was born to have a stick between the seats.

So it’s a fun car, then?
It is, genuinely eager to please, a bit of a show-off and tremendously engaging. It looks ace, it’s a good size, I’d have it over an A45 or Audi RS3 in a heartbeat and reckon it would press the newly-turbocharged Porsche Cayman very hard.

In approach and demeanour it has more in common with the Focus RS than any of those, actually. We strapped the test gear to one of those recently too – 4.7secs for 0-100kph, but 11.3 to hit 161kph – over a second and a half slower than the M2 (although that was an M DCT version). Trouble with the Ford is its weight – it’s 1600kg.

Anyway, enough of that for the time being, I’m just glad to be able to report that the M2 is corking good fun to drive. If you’re tempted, there aren’t many options you absolutely have to add because it’s well equipped as standard (are you listening Porsche…), but do me a favour and think twice before spending an extra £2,645 on the double clutch gearbox.

- Ollie Marriage

{gallery}BMW_M2_Manual2{/gallery}