{"id":236672,"date":"2023-08-30T17:51:57","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T17:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/?p=236672"},"modified":"2023-08-30T17:51:57","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T17:51:57","slug":"bmw-m2-overhauls-rs3-for-nordschleife-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automotobuzz.com\/news-features\/bmw-m2-overhauls-rs3-for-nordschleife-record\/","title":{"rendered":"BMW M2 overhauls RS3 for Nordschleife record"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nurburgring's 'compact' category is fairly broad – and hotly contested<\/h2>\n

By PH Staff \/ Wednesday, 30 August 2023 \/ Loading comments<\/p>\n

It says something about BMW M\u2019s confidence that Four Cars, One Day is even a thing. But in its continuing mission to steamroller its way over the opposition, that\u2019s the title given to a day \u2018earlier this year\u2019 when the firm booked the Nordschleife exclusively to see how many records it could break in one (presumably quite long) session. Those in attendance? All the BMW M bigwigs obviously. And a notary. And an M2, an M3 CS and an M4 CSL. Oh and a not-yet-revealed \u2018M Prototype\u2019. The heavy crew, in other words. <\/p>\n

Now, some of these times we already knew about (although it\u2019s notable that the M4 CSL apparently improved upon its 7 min 20.207 second effort with a 7 min 18.137) but the one BMW is championing for now is the M2 time achieved in a Steptronic model on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup2 rubber. And that\u2019s because its 7 min 38.706 time is sufficiently brisk for it to overhaul the current Audi RS3 in the Compact Cars category – a fact that is now recorded on the official Nurburgring site. <\/p>\n

This, you imagine, was the highlight of the day (although we\u2019ll admit to being intrigued by the blurred-out time attributed to the prototype in the video below). BMW will have been delighted – in ideal conditions, obviously – to get one over its arch-rival, not least because the M2 is reputedly the final pure combustion model that we\u2019ll ever see emerge from the factory gates. We won\u2019t open the can of worms which is the Nurburgring\u2019s decision not to sub-categorise by driven axles (pity the FL5 Civic Type R now languishing in the third place) and simply say well done to BMW and development peddler, J\u00f6rg Weidinger. Expect to hear about that final lap time in the not-too-distant future…<\/p>\n\n