BMW has caught a lot of grief regarding its recent changes in design language. Namely, people take issue with the big grilles (which still exist, at least for now) and the rather sharp lines that kind of just exist everywhere. Some folks are fans, and others simply aren’t. C’est la vie, right?
One such car is the new BMW M2. We’re grateful that a compact BMW performance car still exists, even if it comes at the price of some unorthodox design changes. But, we think that BMW may have actually solved its own design quirkiness with the release of the new 2023 MotoGP Safety Car.
Now, BMW has been supplying the safety cars for MotoGP for a quarter-century, so this isn’t something that it just pulled out of thin air. It recently used a beautiful M3 Touring peppered with striped livery and previously unveiled an M2, albeit with clothes that didn’t quite fit the car’s personality. BMW revealed this week that the new M2 has officially pulled duty for this season’s safety car.
The M2’s livery has been updated from the outgoing M3’s and previously revealed M2’s regalia. Thankfully so, because this new design matches the M2’s design language so much better. In fact, I’d argue that it not only looks great on the car, but the lines and angles baked into the livery actually disguise the M2’s visual flaws, making it seem longer with wider hips.
I feel like M2 is a good-looking car, but it has some lines and angles that are…kinda perplexing. The makeup with paint and livery doesn’t work alone as a lot of that heavy lifting is done through some light body reshaping. For example, the front bumper loses the clunky folds under its headlights and oversizes the vents at the bottom. The car’s rockers are also outfitted with some more aero parts, which look fantastic.
Moving on to the rear bumper, I’m kind of torn. The space next to the rear reflectors has been covered in carbon, as has the rear diffuser. In turn, the exhaust routing has also undergone some changes so now it’s routed through the center of the diffuser rather than poking out of the sides like a typical dual-exhaust tailpipe configuration. The real winner out back is the spoiler which feels reminiscent of the E36’s classic LTW wing.
These changes aren’t on the production M2, which hurts a little. I feel like BMW could at least put these changes into a special car like the M2 CS. Or, less likely, maybe we’ll see some slight changes with a lifecycle update in a later year. Either way, it’s refreshing to see these tiny visual tweaks making so much of a difference. Now let’s slap them onto a production car.
What do you think—should BMW make some changes to the current-gen M2, or did it perfect it with the outgoing generation?
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