It looks like the attention the BMW M2 Competition is getting is not going to fade away any time soon. It was expected as soon as it was launched as it was something new from BMW, but it’s been a while now and it still gets plenty of spotlight time. In this instance, the M2 is being compared to rather unusual rivals to some degree. The Bavarian Coupe is being tested against two sedans of roughly similar size.
The Audi RS3 is the rival the M2 has to beat from Ingolstadt. The high-performance compact sedan does have plenty of power to rival the Coupe and comes with all-wheel drive which means it has the upper hand in a straight line drag race. The engines are quite different though, as the BMW uses a 3-liter straight six while the Audi has a 2.5-liter 5-pot that has also been turbocharged. The M2 has a bit more power but in this instance, that advantage is nullified by the manual gearbox.
Sure, changing your own gears is fun but when it comes to performance, the 7-speed DCT is just faster. That’s nothing compared to the Tesla though, a car that has no gearbox in the first place. Instead, the Performance model at hand here, uses a couple of electric motors. It is the most powerful car here, it has instant torque and all-wheel drive. It is simply unbeatable in a straight line as you’re about to see.
But how does it handle the intricacies of a track? The Model 3, even in Performance guise, wasn’t meant to be tracked. However, the BMW M2 Competition was almost exclusively created with that in mind and, in this particular instance, it shows. Is it the fastest, in the end? Yes, but there’s more to a great car than just being fast on the track. As an old saying goes: it’s not the destination, but the journey that counts.
