2026 BMW M2 CS review: Australian track test

The thought that cars could soon be more than just transport for commuting makes me sad. I fall into the whiny generation that complains about the lack of new sports cars on the market, while also having nowhere near the financial means to buy one.

That want, but no demand, has caused the number of vehicles that spur excitement, with their quirks and charms, to dwindle in the last decade. I often wondered if my taste stayed the same from my formative years, or maybe cars just got boring.

I think cars became boring because they lost their quirks. No one makes an inherently anarchic car anymore. Everyone is just ultra-conservative when it comes to aesthetic and performance design.

That was until I realised I’m just not in the tax bracket where the fun really begins. This was only further shoved in my face when greeted with a line-up of BMW's M CS cars.

The latest is the M2 CS, which sees a power increase from the same twin-turbo inline-six-cylinder found across all M2 trims, more carbon-fibre than an Olympic bobsled, and is lighter than many new small SUVs.

It’s angry, unapologetic, and godly quick for a stout little two-door coupe, which is somehow larger than its previous generation, yet looks like a yapping chihuahua next to something like an M4.

BMW loves a special edition and the CS is no exception. It’s the range topper for most M coupes and sedans in 2026, but it has lineage dating back to the '60s with the E9 2800CS Coupe.

While the meaning behind the word changed from Coupe Sport to Competition Sport with the revival of the nameplate in 2017, the sentiment stayed the same – more power and less weight.

The M2 is the latest to join the fray of updated CS models in Australia. This nameplate was last offered with the previous generation in 2021.

Before I get too nerdy about what this car has over your standard M2, we must first talk about pricing, as the parts don’t come cheap.

A standard M2 in Australia will cost you $128,100 plus on-road costs. The CS sees a price upgrade to $172,900 plus on-road costs – more expensive than a standard manual rear-wheel-drive M3 at $169,100 plus ORCs.

The CS retains the same S58 3.0-litre inline-six twin-turbocharged engine as the M2, M3, and M4 but pushes the power up from 353kW/600Nm to 390kW/650Nm with a new tune and new titanium mufflers, increasing top speed from 250km/h to 302km/h, and reaching 200km/h from a standstill in just 11.7 seconds.

Aside from the power upgrades, BMW has replaced the boot with carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP), while adding a ducktail spoiler, CFRP rear splitter, CFRP mirror caps, CS-specific air inlets/kidney grilles, and 19/20-inch CS-specific wheels.

The interior is not safe from carbon fibre, dressing the centre console, bucket seats, and a few small trims in the woven material. The CS badge is displayed throughout the car, and the steering wheel is trimmed in Alcantara. All of these carbon-fibre parts add up to a kerb weight saving of 30kg, dropping the M2 CS to a flat 1700kg (kerb).

Chassis components have been upgraded too. The engine mounts have been stiffened, the suspension has been lowered by 8mm, and a CS-specific tune for the springs and dampers has been applied, while the computer was tuned to provide a sportier feel for the differential, stability control, steering, and braking.

You can upgrade the brakes on the CS to BMW’s carbon-ceramic option for a whopping $19,000 if you’re a serious track-day fanatic.

Perhaps the biggest change is that the power upgrade means the M2 CS is only available with the eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox. If you want three pedals, you will have to settle for a standard M2.

The rest of the car remains the same. You still have a 14.9-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and in-built sat-nav, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, Harman Kardon sound system, adaptive suspension, safety/driver aids, wireless phone charger, and a head-up display.

By the time you’re on the road in NSW, you’d be looking at an on-road cost of around $186,589.

It’s a big jump in price from a standard M2, and while my brain is telling me that you could do most of this for a fraction of the price with aftermarket parts, you need to look at it from a BMW development perspective. All of these changes have been made by a team of engineers, probably smarter than you and me combined, rather than Damo in his shed with a laptop and some adjustable coilover suspension.

It’s not exactly as close to a road-going race car, as something like a Porsche 911 GT3 RS or Ford Mustang GTD, but it's also a fraction of the price, which translates into a bit of road-drive ease.

You look at something like an M2 CS on the showroom floor, and you think about back spasms, sore necks, and spine tingles as you attempt to drive your new, near-$200,000 car on the street every day. But the reality is it’s a weirdly fine car to drive on the road.

For starters, the car only comes as an eight-speed torque-converter automatic, so you’re already moving one less limb. It has adjustable dampers with three settings from Comfort to Sport Plus, and it’s got that valved exhaust so as not to blow your neighbours' eardrums out every time you start the car, or need to deal with low-rumbling exhaust drone all day.

As for comfort, it somehow handles bumps and the terrible Australian roads better than some passenger cars.

Sure, there’s some cabin noise from those giant, fat tyres that dress the 19/20-inch wheels, and sure, the exhaust drones a little when the valve is open, but it honestly just feels like a regular car before you plant your foot on the throttle.

The carbon-fibre seats, a $9231 optional extra on the standard M2, offer a decent amount of comfort alongside very aggressive support. You’re able to use the electric adjusters to move them into the way you want, with bolsters that can squeeze you pretty hard if you’d like. I managed to adjust my seating position to suit my odd long-legged body quite quickly, and those carbon-fibre bucket seats seemed to really promote a comfortable yet in-control driving experience.

You'll note in my ratings that I've placed the car comfort relatively high for something with the deepest and most aggressive road-car bucket seats before we get into the supercar category. It's purely because they offer decent comfort while providing a functional solution for holding you in as tightly as possible. I wouldn't recommend the CS as a daily driver to anyone with bad hips or knees, but it's a manageable car despite its angry seats.

I can’t help but feel like some of that lovely driving experience is ruined by the position of the throttle. If you have bigger/wider feet, the accelerator pedal is too far to the right, and your toes drag against the interior panelling. You move your foot to the left a little and suddenly you’re bridging the gap to the brake. It’s strange.

Nearly 400kW in a car that weighs 1700kg sounds terrifying to drive on the road, but I can assure you it is not. The linear way that BMW techs have tuned the M2 works well. You have to wind the car up on the throttle to really unleash the full power. It’s not a sudden shock of power. It almost sneaks up on you while you slowly squeeze that all-important loud pedal.

I drove the CS with the $19,000 upgraded carbon-ceramic brake option on the road, which typically require heat before they work well. Even when the car was stone cold, brake feel and stopping power is great, in this instance.

Comparing it to an M3 Touring Competition, it is noticeably firmer yet an easier car to steer. It feels as small as it looks, but the obvious trade-off is that you don’t have the more mass to dampen sharper bumps in the road.

As I mentioned earlier, when you’re not at Mach 10, it just feels like a regular car to drive on the road. However, I unfortunately did not get to spend enough time on the road to really try everything out, such as the safety systems and all of the settings you can adjust on the dash.

Fuel economy also doesn't get a rating, as the road drive didn't provide a long enough opportunity to return an average reading. However, the CS has a claimed consumption of 10.0 litres per 100 kilometres, while the standard automatic M2 claims 9.7L/100km.

Unfortunately, there were no on-track images of the car at Mount Panorama, so some in-car screengrabs will have to do for your imagination.

I’d love to say that the M2 CS is a completely different animal on track, and in some parts it is, but it’s very clinical and clean, easy to drive, and simply at home when exceeding 270km/h.

It was my first time on the circuit at Mount Panorama after those years of sitting behind a racing sim, shaving milliseconds off my time as I lapped the track for the hundredth time that night.

However, none of that preparation compares to a reality in which one small mishap could result in one of the most horrific experiences I have ever had. But I’m going to spoil the story slightly for you – I didn’t crash the car.

Exiting the pits, you feel the overwhelming sense of the simplicity that comes with driving an M-car fast. You set the settings you want, you leave traction control on, and you punch the throttle. It’s all very basic for a car that probably has more processing power and lines of code than my gaming PC at home.

Now, Bathurst is a difficult track. The corners are a mix of cambers. The car becomes light as you turn in through the majority of the corners at the top end of the circuit, yet heavy on the front end through the downhill and hard-braking sections, which is more than enough to show the cracks of any nice-handling car.

At no time did I feel out of control of the car. Stomp the throttle too early leaving a corner? Traction control allows a little bit of slip before reminding you it knows how to handle a car better than you. Front end gets light over a crest? As it comes down, downward compression provides your front end with oodles of traction. Brake too late into a corner? I don’t think it’s possible with the friction that comes from those carbon-ceramic brakes.

With that being said, the M2 CS feels strangely 'on edge', as its short wheelbase and relatively low weight make it twitch and turn as it exits corners, yet somehow the electronics keep it in a straight line.

Having spent a fair bit of time with all-wheel-drive BMWs in my personal time (M3 Competition and X5M Competition), the rear-wheel-drive M2 feels less balanced, more rowdy, and marginally lighter at the front. It’s a bit unhinged, but in the way of walking a tight rope at an adventure course, where the fear of falling is still there, yet you're connected by a harness and a million safety briefings. It hangs the rear end out just enough to rotate the car, then grips the rear to keep you pointed where you want to go.

Its on-edge nature is solidified as you crest the hill on the mountain straight at over 200km/h. You feel your lunch work its way back up your esophagus, and you glance down at the dash to see the yellow traction-control light flashing at 7000rpm.

Despite my time at Mount Panorama, spent behind a BMW instructor keeping us at around five-tenths, a straight-line speed of around 270km/h was achieved down Conrod Straight, where the M2 CS was as stable as ever, and strangely enough the wind noise didn't really pick up until over 200km/h.

Then you slam on the brakes, realising that you could’ve braked much later, and you roll into the corner much slower than you could’ve. Everything on the M2 CS gets hotter, and yet you seem to be going faster.

You unload the brakes and begin your turn in, as a light touch of the wheel is enough to rotate you through the corner with the uber-short wheelbase, and you snap back the other way as the car seems to settle and compose itself.

The S58 inline-six engine is a rev-happy one. As I mentioned in the road-drive section of the review, you really need to load the power on to unleash its full potential, and unleash it I did. All the way up to redline, it feels like it's building more and more, almost catching you out as it bounces off the limiter, seemingly interrupting the glorious inline-six as it’s still getting up to full pelt.

The most surprising thing is the torque-converter gearbox that acts all well behaved at low speed, yet presents itself like a straight-cut sequential when you have your foot pinned to the firewall.

The automatic function works okay when driving at speed, but the manual mode is where you want it to be. You can keep your foot pinned and slam up gears around 7200rpm with zero consequences. Similarly, on downshifts, it provides enough resistance from the engine braking to behave like a manual gearbox, but with the added driving simplicity and, dare I say it, reliability of a torque converter.

I ended up rewatching videos of me driving the car, and it almost looks like none of the outside forces are moving me physically in the car. Nice thick sway bars, a stiffened-up Sports Plus suspension, and the car's Olympic-gymnast-type balance kept me very planted.

I’d like to use the cliché that 'oh, it handles like a go-kart', but it’s so much better than that. Whereas a go-kart would lift a front wheel through the turns, leaving you with just three tyres' worth of grip, the M2 almost glues itself to the road. While a go-kart has a solid axle making slow turns challenging, the M2 utilises its electric-active differential to allow for some inside wheel slip to make turn-in light off throttle. And, of course, whereas a go-kart needs momentum to set a fast lap time, the M2 CS allows you to power it out.

Whatever I thought the limit of the car was, I think I was so far from finding that part. The fact that I was driving it on a notoriously difficult circuit, but it just kept itself settled, is enough to make any weekend warrior flock to this car.

While it lacks some of the emotion on the track you’d find in a real race car, it makes up for it tenfold as a car you can throw around a circuit and then drive home in maximum comfort.

Where the CS catches me out is its price increase over a standard M2. It’s one of those cases where you need to weigh out what the car means to you personally. There’s nothing on the car that will massively improve the fun you’ll have on a circuit over a standard M2, but those small adjustments likely transfer into a faster car.

It’s hard to improve on an already lively and fun car to drive, but I do genuinely think the CS has marginally improved on that. Is it a $44,800 improvement? I’m not entirely sure.

It certainly beats out a standard M3 manual, but you’re creeping into xDrive M3 Competition territory ($186,900 plus on-roads), and that makes the decision a whole lot harder.

But the bonus with buying a CS is you get to tell everyone you own a CS. Just a short drive around Bathurst's streets had people asking questions, so it’s quite visible that it’s a seriously special model.

I don't think you're going wrong spending the extra money, but maybe drive a standard M2 and even an M3 Competition and weigh up whether the changes are worth it to you.

Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.

Read more about Zane Dobie