There’s an old saying that goes “Dynamite comes in small packages.”

Whoever said it was, I’m pretty sure, referring to the explosive, automotive bombshell that’s the 2026 BMW M2 CS. 

Here is a 523-horsepower rolling stick of TNT with a Semtex chaser. And a very short fuse. 

Based on the hugely-lovable M2 coupe – arguably my favorite fun BMW – the CS is what happens when the white-coated professors at BMW’s M Division are let loose in the performance parts store. 

Standing for Competition Sport, the CS is for hot shoes who like nothing better than to spend Saturdays at the race track sticking vinyl numbers to their doors and donning Nomex romper suits.  

To go fast, very fast, the M-people took the M2’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six and upped it from 473 horseys and 443 pound-feet of torque, to that whopping 523 hp and 479 torques.

That makes this CS the most-powerful rear-drive BMW on sale today. 

Now you might have thought that such a driver-focused missile would have had a stick-shift, at least on the options list. After all, the M2 does. 

Not the CS. It comes with an eight-speed automatic. That’s because as a track-focused rocketship, the automatic is quicker-shifting than any stick. And, as any Formula 1 driver will tell you, quicker shifts mean quicker lap times. 

They’ll also tell you that lighter weight will also make you go faster. That’s why the CS comes with a carbon fiber roof, trunk lid and rear spoiler. Rear diffuser and mirror caps too. Front seats? They’re carbon.

All this helps shave weight by just under 100 pounds, reducing the overall poundage to 3,770. I think Twiggy weighed more.

As you’d expect, both suspension and brakes got the attention of those M performance wizards. Want to really go for the checkered flag on the track? Opt for the full carbon ceramic brake set-up that’s yours for a mere $8,500 extra. 

See this new M2 CS on the road, or track, and no one is going to be calling it pretty. It’s a blunt instrument with one of the ugliest front ends you could imagine. It’s as if some back-street tuner got hold of the car as a project from Copart, and hasn’t gotten around to fitting the grilles.

Same goes for the big-shouldered wheel arches and swollen hood, while the engorged rear bumper and funky ducktail spoiler look like something from a Pep-Boys catalog. As I said, a blunt instrument.

But open the door – the CS only comes as a two-door coupe – and here is pure race-car cool. Those heavily-bolstered front pews grip you like a body hug from Shaq. The thick, suede-covered wheel is tactile nirvana, while the all-carbon-fiber center console is a piece of art. 

Now press the big red start button and light the blue touch paper.

Of course it’s quick. Rock out of a catapult quick. Click your iPhone stopwatch and 60 comes up from standstill in a mere 3.3 seconds. And the sound as the tach needle zigs round to the 7,200 rpm redline is like AC/DC’s Brian Johnson hitting the high notes in “Highway to Hell”. 

But slingshot acceleration isn’t what sets the CS apart. Heck, many a family EV is way quicker. No, it’s the astonishing way the car can change direction and scythe around curves like it’s running on invisible rails. 

And being an M-car, there’s no shortage of traction control settings – I counted 11 – to fine-tune the way the car attacks corners. 

Yet, in my week with the CS, all I could dream about were Northern California mountain roads, or snaking Texas Hill Country backroads. The on-ramp at Gandy and I-275 didn’t cut it. 

Which brings me to the M2 CS’s biggest problem: Price. 

A base M2 CS costs an eye-watering $99,775, or with a few must-have options, over $111,000. That’s over $30,000 more than a magical M2 at $69,550. 

Perhaps with a membership to the former The Motor Enclave – now Hard Rock Motor Speedway track – out in East Tampa, a CS  would make sense. 

But as a daily-driving, smiling-inducing, thrill ride, I’d take the M2. It’s still dynamite on wheels.