2025 BMW M2 CS breaks Nordschleife record for compact sports cars

If Baguio City is considered the de facto gauge of performance for passenger cars in the country, for high performance sports cars it’s the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

It’s the barometer that gauges the level that manufacturers have reached in pushing the boundaries of performance. This time, it’s BMW’s time to flex their achievement with the all-new M2 CS.

Driven by BMW M development engineer Jörg Weidinger, the M2 CS completed the 20.823-kilometre Nürburgring-Nordschleife circuit in 7:25.5 minutes, setting a new lap record for compact cars and beating the previous best time set by the Audi RS3 by eight seconds.

Furthermore, the M2 CS lapped 13 seconds faster than the standard G87 M2 driven by the same development engineer. BMW upped the M2’s 3.0-liter, inline-six twin turbo power output to 530 PS and 650 Nm of torque for the CS version, up by 50 PS and 50 Nm over the standard M2.

But more than anything, the greater use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, and standard forged M light alloy wheels made the CS 30 kg lighter than the standard version. This helped a lot in sustaining higher corner speeds, as well as the more track-optimized engine mapping, suspension, steering, brakes, and traction control setup for the M2 CS.

This further raises the bar of performance for compact sports cars, and should raise the value of the BMW M2 CS further once it reaches global dealers in limited numbers come August.