[//M]

Ok impression time, now bear in mind I am a tough critic, the M2C is a great car but it's not a full sports car in my opinion. Not a cayman competitor but a great more refined vehicle, perfect daily.

I was wrong about Hockenheim silver it is light gray in indirect light and pearl white in the Sun. Nice color I like it, and I'm usually a dark blue black kind of guy.

Suspension is good, some people said it's really stiff I live in the northeast our roads suck, the suspension let's you feel the road really well but it has good dampening, I am younger but I do not think it is too stiff at all in fact I thought with the competition name it would be stiffer. The front axle of this thing is rediculious, front end grip is great. I took it to some mountain roads and honestly through decreasing radius corners you need to hang on tight even with the M3 seats I wish for more upper body support, it's pretty impressive.

Steering.... Road feel is aweful, for some reason I really thought with the new calibrations there would be some road feel through to the steering wheel... Nope completely numb, the weighting is really good with the three modes, rack is very precise, top notch, but it transmits zilch from the road. Suspension does give you a decent idea, but lack of road surface transmission does dissapoint me and is a big reason why I can't consider it a Cayman competitor. If you're car shopping for a sports car and you want something for the canyons and that kind of spirited driving only, then a used Cayman is the way better choice.

Manual trans: decent not Porsche level shifter feel, a bit notchy but decent. If you never driven manual before or haven't driven manual in a long time this is a great car to start with. It has an interesting launch assist which means you don't have to use the gas pedal at all to make a normal start. If you let the clutch out reasonably slowly the RPMs will jump up to just under a thousand and as you let the clutch out it'll keep the RPM's even without lugging the motor, perfect start each time but it's not the quickest start. If you do the normal 2-foot thing it doesn't intervene. Rev matching is perfect and actually very convenient. For sure the easiest manual car I've ever driven, the car also does something on upshifts as well to help smooth them out. if you're real purest it may bother you but I don't mind I like rowing my own Gears and it's nice not to have to be 100.00% precise and the car will clean it up. You can tell because I did turn DSC off and I could tell both the obviously missing rev matching but also on the upshifts. 6th gear is pretty short you can tell the final drive was picked for the DCT I'm doing very close to 3000 RPM at 80 miles an hour.

The engine is great very very smooth good low-end torque I haven't brought it over 3500 RPM yet. The exhaust is very good does NOT sound like an M3 or M4 ZCP, it sounds better, I think the cow udder actually does have a purpose. The over rev popcorn is also new as well and sounds fantastic when you're standing behind the car in person, the videos do not do it justice. Exhaust changes in all three modes, sport has some very light over run it's barely noticeable from inside. The exhaust volume changes in all three modes as well (not just ASD either). Popcorn doesn't work even on a warm start for the first 90 seconds probably due to an emissions "cat warming" mode. Even on a warm start you can hear the tone change after the first 60 to 90 seconds and then when you rev you get popcorn. The liquid intercooler stay silly cold, it was 73 degrees out last night and granted I was on the highway before I pulled off the exit but I had the car sitting heat soaking for probably about 5 minutes before I opened the hood and touched the liquid intercooler cooler to find it very cool almost cold, having never owns an S55 vehicle that was pretty impressive my B58 340i was always warm even in the winter. The s55 is really crammed in there there's no space for anything.

Interior is solid, no complaints the new Generation iDrive is very smooth thus far. Something that frustrated me at first was the efficient dynamics bar below the revs that stayed there even in sport plus. In Idrive underneath display settings you tick a box and it changes it to the steering and engine settings which is much preferable for a M car. Silly default that is hidden to change.

The M2 in the seats does light up when you lock and unlock the car it's a nice touch.

The brakes are awesome, very effective but not dramatic at all, they slow the car without pushing your head forward. Did have to get in them very hard one time on the mountain roads due to seeing a cop around the bend (lucky catch that would of been awkward) and it slowed the car extremely quickly and without drama or stress. The front calipers are enormous and barely clear the 19 inch wheels. They cover almost half of the brake disc, they didn't look that large in the photos.

I got the darker wheels and the tinted clear coat is nice but it's like a light window tint the front surface is still very much metal colored. The sides of the spokes are powder coated black.

Impressions of rear traction and the rear end in general will have to wait as the diff is the real thing that's being broken in the first 1200 miles and I want to be nice to it, until the fluid is changed.

I think that's about it for now if anyone has any other questions I'll be happy to answer. By the way there's a 0% chance of me getting this break in done in one weekend I was very optimistic with that. Haha I have 350 miles. Full disclosure I spent the afternoon the day before picking it up driving a 16 Boxster Spyder so I guess I may be a bit jaded but BMW definitely made a conscious decision with the steering to go from mass-market daily "sporty" driver there's no way they are that inept, the rest of the car is great.