BMW, a brand usually content with testing the structural and aesthetic boundaries of its massive front grilles, has actually listened to its enthusiast base once again. Remember a few years back when they realized right-hand-drive countries desperately wanted the M3 Touring super wagon, despite originally engineering it exclusively for left-hand-drive markets? Well, the exact same corporate miracle just happened to the baby of the M family, giving birth to the upcoming all-wheel-drive BMW M2 xDrive.
During the Goodwood Festival of Speed, BMW M CEO Frank van Meel confessed that this new G87 sports coupe variant owes its existence entirely to heavy customer peer pressure. Specifically, the unrelenting demands came from performance enthusiasts living in the American Snowbelt and the snowy valleys of Switzerland.
Apparently, drivers in the northern United States have a deep, spiritual aversion to swapping out their beloved all-season tires when a blizzard hits, making a tail-happy, rear-wheel-drive sports car a shortcut to a roadside ditch. So, rather than trying to convince Americans to buy proper winter rubber, the head of the M division happily chose the engineering route: completely reworking the car’s drivetrain to send power to all four wheels.
Before purists begin weeping tears of premium gasoline into their three-pedal shrines, take a deep breath. The traditional rear-wheel-drive variant isn’t dead, and the glorious manual transmission remains fully available for the hardcore traditionalists. The incoming xDrive beast, however, will be offered exclusively as a two-pedal automatic, expanding the lineup rather than replacing your favorite setup.
Power distribution isn’t the only plastic surgery the second-generation M2 has undergone. Production actually took a three-month coffee break to swap out the heart of the machine. The twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six engine has been heavily updated with pre-chamber ignition technology all to satisfy Europe’s strict Euro 7 emissions overlords.
Next month, the San Luis Potosí assembly plant in Mexico will fire up the production lines for this updated version of the S58 engine. While the horsepower output numbers remain mathematically identical, BMW claims fuel consumption is dropping and the exhaust soundtrack is slightly better than before. European buyers of the refreshed M3 and M4 models are also getting this revised engine starting this month.
