‘Woah! Four exhausts,’ I heard the young boy say. ‘That’s the fastest car I’ve ever seen!’ Quite right too – in the mind of a seven-year-old child, more pipes really do equate to more power. Just ask Andrew Frankel about the time he walked around the back of a Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer as a lad to see it had six of the things. He was so stunned he had to sit down right there on the dealer forecourt.
So the BMW M2 I’ve been running for a couple of months has at least one admirer. But not everybody is so fond of it, not least the wag on Instagram who asked if I cover the car when it’s parked at home to spare my neighbours the horror of looking at it. I don’t tend to write a great deal about the way cars look because I’m more interested in how they drive, but when you’re living with an M2, it’s basically impossible to avoid the matter. Everybody has a view one way or another, and if it’s not the styling, it’ll be the Zandvoort Blue paint job or some of the more unusual design elements within the cabin.
My view on the exterior is that it’s a missed opportunity. I can’t help but wonder what might have been. Here’s a car with a classic cab-backward profile, obviously rear-wheel drive with its long bonnet and plenty of distance between the front axle and the leading edge of the doors, plus swollen wheel arches and four stumpy exhausts tips poking out the back. It could look absolutely superb. And yet… I think it’s the very blocky, heavy-handed treatment of the bumpers front and rear that is to blame. A little more finesse here and the M2 could be a handsome brute.
