The 2023 BMW M2 Is Here. But Can It Beat the Nimble Competition to a 435-HP Pulp?

And, especially, to see who’s who when it comes to rivals. For its own story, BMW has made sure that everything slides (with help from a ten-position M Traction Control) in its favor. The Bavarians talk of “purebred driving pleasure, intensely concentrated” and of building on “a winning formula.” Indeed, the F87 predecessor was great, especially in latter formats such as the M2 Competition or M2 CS.

The all-new 2023 M2 tries to embrace the classic elements of a high-performance sports car, such as the 453-hp M TwinPower Turbo inline six-cylinder engine, RWD, and a purist’s delight of a standard six-speed manual transmission. It also wants to bring a fresh design to the fold, something that is not as outrageous as the M3/M4 and XM, for example. Well, it will not escape the preying eye of purists, who already consider it sculpted in Minecraft or something.

Plus, it wants to double down on cutting-edge technology, throwing inside everything from the new BMW Curved Display with iDrive 8 (naturally, with “M-specific content and graphics”), standard M Drive Professional with Drift Analyzer, and much more. But the competition is not sleeping, either. And although we are dealing with a premium offering, the North American sports car segment is prepared for a big brawl among nimble coupes.

The main gist of the 2023 M2 offer in the United States is simple – this is going to be the entry point into the M GmbH family from the second part of next year. And it is not going to be too far away from the current base option, the $72,800 BMW M3 Sedan. This is because the automaker announced an official starting MSRP for the 2023 BMW M2 at $62,200 plus $995 destination and handling. Yes, that is a good ten grand below the current M3 sedan deck.

But do take into account that there are other interesting options across the field. And this is shaping up as a major North American-Austrian-Japanese brawl, although not everyone comes from where you would expect it. Again, this is because BMW will manufacture the 2023 M2 at the San Luis Potosí plant in Mexico instead of its home in Germany. So, the Euro hoot will be none other than Toyota’s fifth-generation GR Supra that is made – alongside the 2023 BMW Z4 roadster – in Graz, Austria by Magna Steyr.

The Japanese brother from another Z4 mother rocks a couple of engine options, both from BMW, so that makes it quite an interesting match for the M2. Sure, the latter is slightly more powerful at 453 hp as opposed to GR Supra’s 382-horsepower inline-six mill. And Toyota is not great at pricing, either, so their 3.0-liter options kick off at $52k (so, another $10k drop off the pricing ladder) and can easily surge to $58,345 if the owner wants an A91-MT special edition to play the stick shift game alongside the M2.

Secondly, there is a seventh-generation 2023 Nissan Z already out there, as well, to jump the pedigree shotgun above these two BMW ‘siblings.’ The stylish neo-retro Japanese sports coupe ups the ante to 400 horsepower via the company’s iconic 3.0-liter VR30DDTT twin-turbo V6 engine, which can be had with either a six-speed manual or a comfortable nine-speed automatic for no extra charge and slaps the MSRP quotation in their face with a $39,990 base of operations. Naturally, everyone will have to upgrade to a $49,990 Nissan Z Performance to get all the goodies, but it is still cheaper than both the M2 and GR Supra.

And last, but not least, let us talk about the pony options. No need to bring them all forth, it suffices to take the Dodge Challenger (which outsold both the Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro during Q3 of the current year) as a conclusive example. So, the SXT kicks off at just $30,940 in RWD form and comes with a 3.6-liter VVT V6 engine that is mated to a TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic. Not bad, right?