The vice-president for engineering at BMW M says that the M2 is likely the last vehicle the high-performance division will offer with a manual gearbox.
Dirk Hacker confirmed to Autocar that demand for manual transmissions on larger BMW M products was dwindling.
“I like manual very much, but the take-up rate from customers on cars other than the M2 is just going down. The fact is that a double-clutch gearbox delivers better performance and efficiency,” he told the British publication.
Hacker went on to confirm that the success of the rear-wheel-drive M2 had created an opportunity for the performance arm of the Munich-based automaker to build “more extreme” versions of the vehicle.
“The M2 is tracking at 40-50% above our expectation in terms of sales, with almost half of buyers specifying a manual,” Hacker told Autocar.
“Demand for cars like the M2, which is probably our purest M product today, has surprised us, and that opens opportunities for building more extreme cars, in the vein of GTS and CSL heritage models.
“Any car that has true heritage to motorsport is an opportunity for us. New markets are always opening for those cars and that will increase, so long as we keep building cars that are sufficiently special,” he explained.
The Autocar report speculated that the rumoured M2 CSL would employ a detuned version of the S55 turbocharged 3,0-litre straight-six unit from the M3 and M4 rather than an uprated version of the M2’s current N55 unit. And, of course, it’d remain rear-wheel drive with the option of either a six-speed manual or seven-speed DCT.