Get the show on the road
There’s a touch of the am-dram about this M240i, says Andrew Frankel. No Olivier gong, but an engaging crack of the boards
All-wheel drive and a bit of kick from a 3-litre straight six – but it’s missing a gear stick
You can spin the story of this car in two quite different ways.
The easily pleased will point to the fact that here is an ‘M-performance’ 2 Series with near enough the same pace as the previous pure ‘M’ M2. They’ll point out also it is now alone in its sector in offering a proper six-cylinder powertrain and, more, that while there is now no choice but to have four-wheel drive, almost all of that power is directed almost all of the time to the rear wheels alone.
By contrast the cynics among us will point out that even if it’s not used very often, fourwheel drive still carries a weight penalty.
They’ll point out too that manual gears are no longer available and that the automatic transmission is of the torque converter rather than the double clutch variety. They’ll say that the additional performance which appears to make it a match for an old M2 is a smoke and mirrors job, speaking more of all-wheel drive traction than real potential. And to prove this point they’ll point out that such is the increase in weight brought by its bigger body, automatic gears and all-wheel drive that despite a rise in engine output its power to weight ratio actually fails to improve on that of the old, manual rear-drive M240i.