One of my Sunday morning rituals is a sunrise drive in the canyons with friends, in this case, Angeles Crest, for those who are familiar.
My friend just received 9 new M cars. He is the largest Turo host in the world, and as a side benefit, I get to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
While Ive had a fair amount of seat time in the current G80 M3, from the Autobahn to BMW M Driving School in Thermal to backroads here in SoCal, I had yet to experience the new M2. I have a long history of owning M cars (including my M2 CS) and was a big fan of the last gen M2 Comp and CS. I have already been impressed with the capabilities of the current M3, albeit its not the most involved machine, and I still find that front end ugly. Also, its a large car now and back up in weight compared to the last generation.
What I didnt expect yesterday was to walk away, preferring the M3 and rather significantly at that, especially as it was auto and the M2 was 6-spd. Angeles Crest is a high-speed drive, more like the Nurburgring instead of a very technical short course, and the stability and confidence it inspired were truly fantastic. I am a faster driver than my friend but couldnt keep up with him in the M2, at least comfortably. The M3 was extremely stable at speed, turn-in, and braking, while the M2 being shorter, tended to move around more. It felt like BMW didnt spend the time to hone in the dynamics as much as they did in the M3- which could be one of the reasons for the $15k price difference and also to maybe make it feel more "alive."
On that note, both these cars were brand new, so we didnt want to push them too hard. We did set the ideal tire pressures in them at the start; the M3 had Pirelli P Zeros, and the M2 had Yokohama Advans with BMWs star, interestingly enough- Ive never seen a Yokohama on an M car.
Emotionally, I always prefer lighter, smaller, and manual transmissions. However, objectively, the M3s size benefitted it in this type of driving and made it feel lighter because the weight was spread over a greater length. Also, the S58 pulls unrelentingly with the 8-spd ZF, just never-ending acceleration- you hardly know its boosted. While the manual was a nice gearbox to shift, it didnt feel like it was the right choice for the S58; it would come off/on boost slightly between shifts, and the longer gears made it feel more lethargic. Also, that auto allowed me to be in the zone and focus on nailing the braking zone, hitting the apex, working the weight transfer, and powering out.
It goes against my internal beliefs, but the larger and automatic M3 was more impressive and really seems to be one of the best all-around vehicles you can buy if performance along with usability are important to you. You can commute in it, take a long road trip, fill it up with friends, take the kids to school, and lay down some serious times at the racetrack out of the box. Its really hard to be good at everything, and because of that, its certainly not the most soulful vehicle, but objectively, it does everything exceptionally well.
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