I waffled on so much I hit the character limit







The "original" M2: So not having driven the original M2 was "driving" me mad... I needed to know the difference between an M2 and an M2 Competition... Surely it couldn't be that big a difference, right? Wrong...

I was in Joe Duffy last week crunching some numbers on a Competition when they mentioned they had a 171 M2 in stock, excited to hear that I went upstairs to view it, and apart from the less obvious visual differences I first noticed the "standard" mirrors, then opening the doors I found the lacklustre standard seats, and up front there was the original headlight design rather than the razor sharp laser lights, but it looked good in the way M2s do, so I arranged a test drive for Tuesday, having driven the M3 and M4 in the meantime, Tuesday rolled on and in I hopped into the M2 that was gleaming outside in the sun in its' sapphire black paintwork waiting for me and I quickly realised there was no engine mode button, so I couldn't put that in Sport Plus like I planned to, the steering had no settings either and neither did the gearbox... all there was was the comfort/sport toggle next to the gear lever which adjusts everything together... I immediately felt more restricted. As I pulled away I noticed the difference in sound with the N55 - no problems here, the N55 sounds fantastic. As I gradually start to throw it into the bends and around roundabouts there was no complaints about the suspension or steering. It's when I buried the throttle that I was shocked to see just how much of a difference there was, I'm not going to call it slow, that would be ridiculous, but it doesn't have that "holy shit" factor the competition has, it doesn't brake traction anywhere near the same way, even provoked in bends it didn't wiggle the way the competition does, there's none of that "alive" feeling the competition has, none of that wonderfully excessive amount of torque, no sense of danger and none of that excitement... It felt like a beefed up 335i power-wise which is exactly what it is I suppose since the N55 is straight out of the LCI e92 335i with some tweaks. It's funny, while every car journalist raved about the M2, everybody I met who drove one told me they were underwhelmed which almost used to upset me, to me the M2 was - at least on paper - it! The perfect car! When we were speaking about this on Sunday Moe told me how he remembered grabbing the steering wheel and "pushing it to go faster"... I couldn't imagine that at the time but that's exactly what it was like. In contrast, in the M2 Competition, you hold on for dear life your eyes are on the road, you can't spare milliseconds to look at the speedo... and THIS is the difference between the two. This puts the original M2 with the e46 M3 character-wise, it's a car you can take liberties with, you can wind it up and use every last horsepower but it just lacks that magic the Competition has ...that has completely ruined my life and makes me want an M2 competition more than any other car I've ever driven or been in.

Conclusion: The original M2 is great because it is absolutely the spiritual successor of the e46 M3, it's the same size, has the same character, you derive the same kind of driving enjoyment out of it and you can be confident flicking off DSC and ringing its' neck!

With all of the above in mind, the e46 M3 is probably the best value for money ///M car or sports car out there at the moment (although I still need to get behind the wheel of an e92 M3 - I'm working on that) it was so much fun, as is, SMG and all. It's where the smart money is and it's definitely the thinking petrol head's M car. I think if we were at the foot of the Wicklow mountains right now about to do it all over again, I'd probably ask Moe (very nicely ) for the key to the e46 for the entire spin this time. I'd absolutely love one, but I'd need an M2 competition too...

Moe, you're dead right to have both the M3 and M4, they are 2 different kinds of fun and really complete each other!