2026 BMW M2 CS Breaks Nürburgring Compact Car Record

It’s official; the brand new BMW M2 CS is now the quickest compact automobile across the Nürburgring. With an official lap time of seven minutes and 25.5 seconds, the Competitors Sport has dethroned the Audi RS3. The most popular G87 model up to now managed to shave a powerful 7.6 seconds off the earlier lap document. Maybe much more outstanding is the hole between the CS and the usual M2, because the hardcore particular version is 13.2 seconds faster.

Behind the wheel was BMW M growth engineer Jörg Weidinger, who additionally drove the regular M2 back in 2023. So, how did BMW handle to dramatically enhance the lap time? The brand new CS advantages from a stronger twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six engine, delivering an additional 50 hp and 50 Nm (36 lb-ft) of torque. It’s additionally 30 kilograms lighter, or 97 kilos for the U.S.-spec mannequin. However there’s extra to the story.

The common M2 set its lap utilizing Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. The M2 CS? BMW’s rear-wheel-drive coupe ran on stickier Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS rubber. These are nonetheless road-legal tires, so BMW didn’t bend the principles. The truth is, when the automobile debuted within the second half of Could, the M division highlighted the provision of “ultra-track” tires.

As suspected yesterday, when BMW teased a camouflaged automobile, the record-setting lap was accomplished earlier than the official debut. Weidinger set the brand new benchmark on April 11, about six weeks forward of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este premiere. The lap time corresponds to the longer 20.8-kilometer (12.9-mile) configuration of the Nürburgring-Nordschleife.

Unsurprisingly, the M2 CS remains to be slower than the M4 CS, which clocked in at 7 minutes and 21.9 seconds, making it 3.6 seconds sooner. The quickest manufacturing BMW to ever lap the Inexperienced Hell stays the M4 CSL, with a 7:18.1 lap, 7.4 seconds forward of the M2 CS. It could take one other CSL mannequin to beat that point. BMW has talked about the potential of an M2 CSL, however nothing has been determined but.