BMW M2 Performance Parts quadruple the intensity

It’s a big year for BMW, welcoming the 50th anniversary of M and the debuts of the M3 CSL, M3 Touring, and M’s first wholly developed crossover, the XM. The 2023 M2 is going to take a bow this year as well, and it’s clear from a prototype spotted on German roads that the automaker isn’t taking a break from big design ideas for its smallest scalding coupe. Instagram user berlin_cars wound up behind a car wearing a couple of new M Performance Parts. With the help of all the camo print squiggly lines, the rear fascia looks like the result of a design department honcho ceaselessly demanding “More intensity.”

Set atop the trunk is a structure that’s less of a wing, more of an architectural arch that will show up in every glance at the rearview mirror. Bolting a giant grab handle out back is nothing we haven’t seen before on production cars like the Porsche 911 GT3 and Dodge Viper; its aftermarket appearance here could have also come from racing. The M2 CS Racing campaigned in the TC America series fitted with a similar appendage. The exhaust we’ve also seen before and closer to home, the central, trapezoidal quad-pipe configuration available from the M Performance Parts catalog for the M3 and M4. If this is the same setup, titanium pipes shed about 11 pounds compared to the stock exhaust, and a controllable flap offers a throatier sound.

Those wider cars give all of the design details room to breathe, though. On the more compact M2, even with its robust haunches, the standard car’s turgid detailing is all crammed in there even before these vigorous aftermarket bits. 

The new M2 is expected to pack a number of other big punches. Output from a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six is rumored to run anywhere from 400 to 450 horsepower in base spec, torque estimated at 406 pound-feet. The M2 Competition will add another 30 or so ponies to whatever the base car comes in with. Then there will be CS and CSL versions after that, bringing harder dynamic edges at the very least if not harder engines. Power is thought to go to the rear wheels only, through either an eight-speed automatic or six-speed manual. Inside, a big, curved display will show off everything the M2 is up to via BMW’s latest iDrive 8 infotainment system.