2024 BMW M2 Gets More Power, Keeps The Manual Gearbox

BMW’s on a bit of a roll at the moment with facelifts for some of its most important models – not that you’d know from looking at them. The latest to receive the treatment is the BMW M2 and, yes, it looks exactly like it did before.

In fact, the only really noticeable visual changes are some new wheels and the addition of some much-needed lairiness to the M2’s previously limited and rather restrained colour palette – you can now order it in some properly lurid shades like Java Green and Sao Paulo Yellow.

Luckily, it’s under the bonnet where BMW has concentrated its efforts. It’s liberated an extra 20bhp from the M2’s 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged straight-six, taking it up from 454 to 474bhp. Torque is unchanged on the six-speed manual car at 406lb ft, but goes up to 442lb ft in the eight-speed automatic version. All this results in a 0.1sec drop in 0-62mph time, with new figures of four seconds flat for the auto and 4.2 seconds for the manual.

Top speed is still electronically limited to 155mph, but tick the box for the M Driver’s Package and this goes up to 177mph.

Oh yeah, just in case BMW’s decision to drop rear-wheel drive from the M3 and the M4 in the UK had you worried, the M2 is not only the last M car standing that purely sends its power to the back, it’s – as you’ve already seen – still the only one left (and likely last one ever) with a manual gearbox in the UK market, although it’s still a cost option. How times change, etc., etc.

The inside’s been given a very quick going over, too, with a new steering wheel and some fresh materials, as well as the latest version of BMW’s operating system for its infotainment.

It still remains a one-model prospect so far, with no sign of the long-expected Competition version that’ll up the power further and likely add four-wheel drive. On sale in the UK now, the not-very-new M2 starts at £63,360.