The new BMW M2 is confirmed to debut on October 11 this year and is likely to arrive in showrooms during the first quarter of 2023. A more hardcore version of the car appears to be already in development which could potentially get a CS or CSL badge and get significant hardware upgrades over the M2. standard. We don’t have spy photos of the hotter M2 yet but a new report sheds more light on what to expect.
Autocar spied on an early prototype of the hardcore M2 which featured a more aggressive front fascia and an additional rear spoiler. The British publication was able to get some initial information and it appears the M2 CS/M2 CSL will receive a more powerful version of the automaker’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo engine. Take the following numbers with a grain of salt but Autocar claims the engine output can be 473 horsepower (353 kilowatts), matching the current base version of the M4.
If these power figures are accurate, it means the hardcore M2 will be 29 hp (22 kW) more powerful than the base M2, which will have 444 hp (331 kW). The power will be channeled to the rear wheels only through a modified version of the BMW eight-speed automatic gearbox. For the record, a recent leak hinted at an all-wheel-drive version of the G87 M2 but it’s not confirmed yet.
Not much else is known at this time but Autocar also reported the M2 CS/M2 CLS could be lighter than the standard M2. We could also see some tweaks to the suspension setup and perhaps a more aggressive aerodynamic package, but these assumptions are based purely on the way the F87 M2 CS is lighter and aerodynamically altered compared to the M2 Competition it is based on.
There’s no set timeframe for the new hardcore M2 yet, but we don’t expect to see it in 2022 or next year. BMW is currently focused on launching a “standard” version of the hot hatch and we expect to start hearing more information regarding the CS/CSL variant in the coming months.
