More hardcore versions of the BMW M2 are under development, with company bosses weighing up what they believe could be a growing market for a suite of increasingly driver-focused CSL or GTS versions of their cars.
Recent spy pictures suggest that BMW is already testing an M2 CSL on the road. Insiders suggest BMW will use a detuned version of the S55 turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six petrol engine from the M3 and M4 rather than a highly strung version of the M2’s older N55 unit, due to the increased reliability and improved responses the newer technology enables.
Drive will nevertheless be sent exclusively to the rear wheels via a six-pace guide or seven-velocity DCT twin-seize computerized gearbox. Despite the overall performance advantages provided through the latter, BMW M vice president Dirk Hacker confirmed to Autocar that marketplace call for for driver-focused cars will ensure the manual stays an choice.
?The M2 is monitoring at forty-50% above our expectation in phrases of income, with almost 1/2 of buyers specifying a guide,? He told Autocar. ?Demand for cars just like the M2, which might be our purest M product today, has surprised us, and that opens opportunities for constructing more excessive vehicles, in the vein of GTS and CSL background models.
?Any car that has authentic historical past to motorsport is an opportunity for us. New markets are always beginning for the ones automobiles and in order to increase, so long as we hold building cars that are sufficiently unique.?
Sources propose that the M2 CSL will arrive after the standard version?S facelift, that's due to go on sale next year. Instead, it's miles probably to go on sale 12 to 18 months later, because the M2 methods runout.
The desire of the CSL moniker is also relevant. It became first used on a homologation unique model of the CS, the 3.Zero CSL, in 1972. The L changed into added to designate the auto's lighter weight. It shows that the GTS name, that is presently in use on the M4, might be reserved for faster however potentially bulkier variations of larger, extra effective vehicles.
The development of extra enthusiast targeted motors is thought to be being driven by way of growing purchaser call for amongst traditional M vehicle buyers; at the same time as M sales keep growing extensively, much of the improved call for is coming from new markets or from widening the enchantment of the vehicles with, for example, broader dynamic abilities.
To this stop, Hacker showed the M2 is likely to be the final M automobile provided with a guide gearbox, pronouncing: ?I like guide very a good deal, but the take in price from clients on automobiles aside from the M2 is simply taking place. The truth is that a double grab gearbox supplies higher performance and efficiency.?
However, he did hint that the next generation M3 and M4 may not have to follow the M5 in using a four-wheel-drive system. “We will increase the power of these cars, but we don’t want to increase the weight,” he said. “We’ll use four-wheel drive where we need it.”
Hacker also ruled out ever making a front-wheel power M car, saying: ?You have with the intention to feel the automobile with thru the steerage and the throttle. Today, there's no solution for the front-wheel-power.?
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