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      12-26-2024, 02:05 PM   #23
XutvJet
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Update

After putting about 2K miles on the M2 since getting it 6 weeks ago, including about 40 miles of some pretty hard B road driving a couple weekends ago, I've learned a lot about its and positives and negatives. I absolutely love the M2 and it addresses the issues I had with the M235, mostly regarding the suspension dynamics. Power and suspension wise, the M2 remains completely stock.

DCT Launching, Turbo Lag, and Shift Firmness

No real shocker here, but the DCT by far makes for a quicker car. You can have mild to excessively wild shifting when under moderate to heavy throttle and mode you're in. With the extra and deeper gearing of the DCT and lightning shifts, the only turbo lag you might feel is when laying into the throttle in a taller gear when in manual mode. Under full throttle shifts, there's absolutely no boost loss. It's not fair to the 6MT owners.

In Sport, Sport+, Traction, and DSC Off, the DCT will often spin the tires on a 1-2 shift and bark them on the 2-3. I routinely see the traction light flicker on full throttle runs from 60-100mph. I don't feel wheel spin, but the traction control system is picking up something.

Launching the car is weird. Since it doesn't have a torque converter, you can't press the brake and throttle to brake boost. You have three launch options with the DCT.

1) Flooring it in 1st results in the car jumping out slowly off idle with about a 1 second laggy roll start, and then it takes off at around 2500rpms. It's best to be in manual mode to manage wheelspin in 1st or else it will blow through 1st too quickly and too early. Even though a bit slow initially, this is probably the best street launch option. 1st is very short compared to a 6MT 1st gear so you need to be real quick with the upshift paddle.

2) Launch mode is done in DSC Off and manual mode selected. Foot hard on brake, foot hard on gas to the floor and past the kick-down switch, and the rpms will immediately jump to 3500rpms. You then use the cruise mph setting wheel to lower the launch rpms inclemently down to 2400rpms if you want. You can't raise them past 3500rpms. I launched the car once at 2500rpms and the car launched surprisingly hard with well managed wheel spin. I suppose this is how the mags launch the car to low 4 second 0-60s.

3) DSC Off. This seems like burnout mode rather than launch mode. If you go full throttle, the clutches release and the rpms jump to 3500rpms and then it obliterates the tires and you best be ready for the tail to jump sideways with minimal forward progress. I haven't tried going sub 50% throttle to see if it's better. Many people say it is the best way to launch the car.

Shifting at full throttle and max rpms in Sport+ and DSC Off is really aggressive and almost extreme, especially in manual mode. Traction and Sport mode feel the best, IMO. Comfort is pretty good too.

In Comfort mode, the DCT seeks the high gears pretty quickly and feels very much like a planetary automatic in terms of smoothness except when leaving the line (see below). It is quite nice when you just want to cruise or have passengers. Traction mode is pretty good too and nice bridge between Comfort and Sport in terms of shifting speed and firmness.


Leaving the line in 1st with the DCT

Without a torque converter, the DCT feels a bit interesting when leaving the line in 1st. It is generally smooth, but there is some slight jerkiness/bounciness as the clutches modulate off idle to around 5mph. It's not terrible at all and most riding in the car won't notice it much, but you will if you're really in tune with your car.


Brakes

The OEM brakes are strong and "feel" stronger than those in the M235. The M2 has some sort of progressive braking program that seems to come alive in all modes except Comfort. It feels fine under moderate and harder driving, but around town, it can become annoying at speeds under 40mph. Basically you'll be applying steady braking and then all of sudden, it's like you've started pressing a little harder but you haven't and the car slows quicker and more aggressively than you want. It's not a brake pad thing. You can actually feel this happening in the brake pedal.

Modulating the brakes at speeds below 5mph is very difficult with the stock pads. They grab hard and fast and makes really slow speed driving annoying. Many others have the same complaints. After some research, I swapped out the stock pads for Akebono ceramic pads. Man, what a difference. Very linear, but still really strong and have excellent feel. Most importantly, they aren't grabby at all and gone is the annoying bite below 5mph. The pads can't handle track driving at all, but for daily driving and B road driving, they're great.


Throttle Sensitivity

In the M235, there are two throttle sensitivity options, Comfort and Sport. In the M2, there are three: Comfort, Sport, and Sport+. Comfort and Sport+ in the M2 feel like the Comfort and Sport throttle settings in the M235 but with a little more sensitivity (maybe 10-15%). The Sport throttle in the M2 is a bridge between Comfort and Sport+ and is my favorite.


Handling and Ride

The ride can be lively over pavement heaves/cuts and road/bridge transitions. On a good road, the ride is taut and great. Big undulations can result in a good amount of chassis wiggle, bounce, etc. as the suspension interacts with bump stops.

I took my 78 y/o mother to the airport yesterday and she said the M2 rode good. I found that interesting considering we hit some pretty rough road patches. LOL.

The rear suspension, which seems to be about 0.75" lower than my M235's, can kick like a mule when it crashes into its bump stops. It reminds me exactly of my M235 when I had the Dinan springs with the 10mm lift puck in place in the rear (basically the same drop) and facing similar road conditions. Some M2 guys have cut 10mm off the upper part of the bump stop seat to allow for a little more travel before contacting the bump stop. This will result in even more kick when the stop is fully compressed, but does help in all other driving situations. I'm going to order some bump stops and cut the old ones and give it a shot. They're cheap and easy to install. Done it many times on the M235. It's like a 1 hour job, total.

Handling and chassis feel during normal driving is great. There's definitely more steering feel than the M235. In the Comfort and Sport steering settings, the steering weight is a bit more than the M235s, even when the M235 was running 245s in the front. Under hard driving, the chassis feels pretty dang good and composed, even when hitting rough roads. I thought the M235 also really came into it's own when you hustled it and felt really good compared to it's daily driving composure which seemed to give the sense of softness and roll. I'm still learning the M2 limits with respect to the front end grip and the rear axle tendencies under heavy throttle, off throttle, and braking. It felt really good during my B roads driving, but was still playing it pretty safe.


Exhaust sound and interior noise

The car is definitely louder on the inside than the M235. I think most of it is the result of the much stiffer/hardened suspension and subframe bushings and the wider tires rather than the select pieces of sound deadening removed from the M2.

My M235 has the M Performance exhaust and the HJS Euro catted DP. A downright amazing sounding exhaust with no drone and completely tame during normal driving. My M2 has the stock catback and downpipe. The stock catback sounds awesome. The car has a really angry cold start bark. The overall sound under load, while slightly different and a maybe 20% quieter than the setup I had on the M235, is great. I look forward to installing the HJS DP on the M2 in the spring.

The M2's fake exhaust sound in Sport/Sport+/DSC Off is dumb. It's gotta be 50% louder than the M235's fake sound. Also, the soundtrack induces a lot of fake drone (why!!?!?). That drone at light to moderate load will pulsate in your head and in my car, created one hell of a constant rattle in the passenger tweeter area that only occurred with the soundtrack. Given the excellent sound quality of the stock exhaust, I decided to buy an ASD Bypass harness and kill the fake sound. I could have coded the sound off too, but for some folks, coding also turned off the burbles and others have had trouble recoding the fake sound back in. I decided to forego that potential annoyance and do the $60 bypass. It is great. Now all I hear is real exhaust and engine noise and a bit of induction sound.
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Last edited by XutvJet; 12-27-2024 at 01:43 PM..
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      12-27-2024, 01:18 AM   #24
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Thanks for sharing your insights. Really helpful!

Post a link to the ASD bypass harness you used.
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      01-17-2025, 01:54 PM   #25
Turbomix83
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Wow impressive the detail of the insights, thanks mate!

Really considering upgrading from my 220i to an M2... but I am not 100% as the jump in hp and vehicle in general is massive, and I am not so sure I can use an M2 as my daily...
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      01-17-2025, 10:42 PM   #26
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Congrats -the M-lite cars are great all rounders. My M240i is still my daily, with the GT4 being the weekend toy. I do love the blistered fenders of the M2 - but I'm not complaining, all the the things I've done to my 240i - it is definitely up to staying with the M2 on the backroads. The GT4 is a whole other world, for sure.

Enjoy the M2.
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      01-18-2025, 12:53 PM   #27
XutvJet
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WolfGTI View Post
Congrats -the M-lite cars are great all rounders. My M240i is still my daily, with the GT4 being the weekend toy. I do love the blistered fenders of the M2 - but I'm not complaining, all the the things I've done to my 240i - it is definitely up to staying with the M2 on the backroads. The GT4 is a whole other world, for sure.

Enjoy the M2.
My Cayman really spoiled me with it's handling and made me crave more from my M235 plus I had grown tired of the 6MT and Cayman's gearbox puts the BMW ZF 6MT to shame which is shocking given that the Porsche cars use cable style shifters. Plus, those sexy fender on the M2 just did it for me, especially in the menacing Mineral Gray.

My M2 experienced a t-stat failure (jammed open) on Sunday and I spent countless hours researching the matter and how to do the job. The DCT fluid lines that run from the DCT to the front heat exchanger really complicate the t-stat install. Anyway, I got the job done and while I had the car in the air, it was eye-opening the differences between the M2 and M235/240 chassis. The chassis's look very different. The entire front subframe and suspension of the M2 is aluminum vs the steel subframe of the M235/240. The rear subframe, while still largely steel tubing like the M235/240, is heavily reinforced and almost the entire suspension is aluminum. I knew all of this, but I had no idea just how different the chassis's are.

With that said, do it right, like you, and you can make an M235/240 into one of the best 2+2 backroad drivers on the planet and for the money. And yeah, while my M2 was down for nearly a week, I was driving my Cayman in the winter cold and slush. I hadn't driven the car in about 5 weeks and had kinda forgotten just how good the car was, even in crap conditions.
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