The Performance Car of the Year is a special event organized on a yearly basis by the US automotive magazine Road & Track. For choosing the 2020 winner of the contest, 11 sports cars were lined up. The BMW M2 Competition was one of them and, in the end, it managed to come as a surprising runner up in the final standings, given its opponents.
The 2020 PCOTY title, as it is abbreviated, was awarded after some serious scrutiny of all 11 vehicles. The cars were put to test on the Northern California’s Thunderhill Raceway Park and, afterwards, covered the whole distance up to Lake Tahoe, on the demanding roads of Sierra Nevada.
The eleven contenders battling the 2020 PCOTY title awarded by Road & Track were as follows: the Toyota Supra (A90 series) underpinned by the BMW Z4 G29 platform, the BMW M2 Competition, the new Porsche 911 Carrera S, the Lamborghini Huracan Evo, the new McLaren 600 LT Spider, the Lexus RC F Track Edition, the Hyundai Veloster N, the new Chevrolet Corvett Stingray, the Nissan GT-R Nismo, the Lotus Evora GT and the classy Mazda MX-5 Miata RF Club.
The most powerful car of those listed above is the Lambo Huracan Evo, with its massive 5.2-liter V10 engine rated at 630 hp. The 0-100 km/h distance is fierecely covered by the Italian in a staggering 2.5 seconds. However, this was not enough to guarantee the top spot in the 2020 PCOTY rankings.
In the lap times challenge, the BMW M2 Competition clocked an official 1:26.91 minutes, rendering it in middle of the chart and ahead of the Lexus RC F Track Edition or the Toyota Supra (A90), which completed the lap in 1:28.93 minutes. The fastest car on the track was, as expected, the most powerful in the competition. The Italian Huracan Evo scored an impressive lap time of 1:20.00 minutes, ahead of the McLaren 600LT, which posted a mere 1:20.42 minutes.
Returning to the BMW M2 Competition, the editor points out the lack of a more pronounced feel from the steering, the unexpected understeer given the rear-driven chassis and the fact that the car does not leave too much to imagine. It is just a correctly developed car, maybe a little bit overrated, in which going nuts and extracting the craziest sensations is not entirely possible.
It is worth to say that the magazine also notes that the M2 Competition gives a sort of confidence that is unique in this ultimate test. It feels like it ain’t gonna let you do anything wrong, which alleviates some of the pure driving passion. It is nonetheless a very good sports car, with carefully-dosed dynamism. The manual transmission which ensures smooth changes and the perfectly positioned pedals were highly praised by Road & Track.
However, the lack of a more concentrate dose of pleasure prevented the M2 Competition from a better result in the 2020 PCOTY contest. Yet, given its powerful contenders, the 405-hp Bimmer managed to come out 2nd in the overall rankings, behind the winner Chevy Corvette Stingray and well ahead of McLaren on 5th, the Supra on 9th or the grumpy Lambo on 10th.
The 911, otherwise a widely recognized sports symbol, emerged the last in the final rankings. In regards to the M2, the editors point out that “the Bavarians don’t make a better car”. Quite uplifting, ain’t it?
