2026 BMW M2 CS Has More Power, More Wing And Less Weight

The 2026 BMW M2 CS is officially here with more horsepower, a retuned suspension, tweaked looks and lower weight. With these powers combined, you’re looking at the most powerful, high-strung baby M Car ever. Before you ask, no. It doesn’t have a manual transmission, but BMW hopes everything else about it will make up for that.

Powering the ’26 M2 CS is a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six behemoth of a motor that BMW calls the S58. It puts out 523 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque — a massive jump of 50 hp and 36 torques over the standard M2. It’s apparently a slightly different version of the engine you can find in the M3 Competition xDrive, but in this application, all of that power is routed to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. That makes the M2 CS the most powerful rear-drive BMW you can buy, which is sick as hell if you ask me. While it is a bummer to not have a manual in this car, the CS is all about laying down lap times, so it makes sense for BMW to go with the automatic here.

BMW

To go along with the increased power, BMW dropped with weight of the CS versus a regular M2. You now get a carbon fiber roof, trunk lid, rear diffuser and mirror caps. You also get new bronze forged M alloy wheels which are staggered (275/35ZR19 up front and 285/30ZR20 out back), carbon fiber bucket seats and a few other interior carbon fiber bits that bring the weight savings to nearly 100 pounds. It certainly looks more muscular than a regular car, but the biggest giveaway from the outside that this is no normal M2 is that massive ducktail spoiler on the trunk lid. It honestly looks a bit cartoonish to me but in the best way possible. It’s OK for cars to be a little bit goofy sometimes, and BMW says it’s actually functional.

BMW says the M2 CS, thanks to its increased power and lower weight, will be able to hit 60 mph from a dead stop in just 3.7 seconds, which is pretty damn impressive for a rear-wheel drive car. That’s 0.2 seconds quicker than a standard automatic M2. Top speed with the standard M Driver’s Package is electronically limited to 188 mph, which is more than enough for your daily commute. The engine should sound pretty good, too, thanks to the M-specific valved exhaust system.

BMW

The German automaker also re-tuned the M2 CS’s suspension, giving it a unique spring, damper and chassis control setup. Engineers also dropped the car’s ride height by 0.2 inches for good measure. The M2 CS’s standard Adaptive M suspension has also been revised along with the car’s steering, differential and integrated branking systems. The CS comes standard with M Compound brakes with red calipers, but if you feel you need a bit more stopping power, feel free to upgrade to the $8,500 M Carbon ceramic brakes.

You probably won’t be shocked to learn that all of this high-performance baby-M goodness doesn’t come cheap. The M2 CS is set to go on sale before the end of the year, and it’s going to start at $99,775 (including destination) — about $33,000 more than a standard M2. That’s right, the M2 is now a six-figure vehicle. It’s a brave new world. Some of that might be because the M2 CS is going to be built in BMW’s Plant San Luis Potosí in Mexico, so it’s going to be impacted by President Trump’s tariffs.

I know that it isn’t going to be cheap, but the standard M2 is already such a wonderful car, it’s hard to imagine that the M2 CS won’t be close to a $100,000 driving experience thanks to the tweaks BMW has made. Sure, it would be neat if it had a manual, but we can’t always be winners, can we?

BMW

BMW