The new BMW M2 was confirmed for a debut on October 11 this year and it will likely arrive in the showrooms during the first quarter of 2023. A more hardcore version of that car is apparently already under development potentially getting either a CS or CSL badge and gaining significant hardware upgrades over the standard M2. We don’t have spy photos of the hotter M2 yet but a new report shines more light on what could be expected.
Autocar spied an early prototype of the hardcore M2 featuring a more aggressive front fascia and an additional rear spoiler. The British publication was able to get some preliminary information and it seems that the M2 CS / M2 CSL will receive a more powerful version of the automaker’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo S58 engine. Take the following numbers with a grain of salt but Autocar claims the output of the engine could be 473 horsepower (353 kilowatts), matching what the base version of the current M4 has.
Gallery: 2023 BMW M2 Prototype: First Drive
If this power figure is accurate, that would mean 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 BMW’s eight-speed automatic gearbox. As a side note, a recent leak hinted at an all-wheel-drive version of the G87 M2 but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Not much else is known at the moment but Autocar also reports the M2 CS / M2 CLS could be lighter than the standard M2. We can also see some tweaks to the suspension setup and possibly a more aggressive aerodynamic package but this assumption is based purely on the way the F87 M2 CS was lighter and aerodynamically tweaked compared to the M2 Competition upon which it was based.
There’s no exact 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 the launch of the “standard” version of the hot hatch and we expect to start hearing more information regarding the CS / CSL variant in the coming months.
