German Tuner Gives BMW M2 an Aggressive CSL Body Kit and It Totally Works
Don’t care for the M2’s unconventional styling? Here’s a fix.
It's almost like BMW can't help but come up with controversial car designs—not always a bad thing, but certainly a bit polarizing at times. The BMW 2 Series is a charming coupe and it's one of the few BMWs on sale with a normal-looking grille. Naturally, though, for the M2, BMW had to change it up and make it funkier looking with different air intakes and abrupt fender flares. Since then, various tuners have tried to enhance the M2's somewhat odd design, with the latest being the German tuner Alpha-N Performance.
There are two different "M2 CSL" body kits Alpha-N Performance is offering. One is supposed to take after the new BMW M4 CSL, while the other actually takes inspiration from the E36 M3 GT. The M4 CSL car is called "Project Silver." The E36 M3 GT-style car is called "M2 GT." Both cars are pretty similar in that Alpha-N Performance threw loads of carbon fiber aero at them, lowered their suspensions, and gave them new wheels. However, the devil's in the details.
Project Silver is a bit simpler, with a new front spoiler, a rear ducktail spoiler, a new hood that features a wide scoop up front, and a different diffuser out back. Alpha-N also gave it new grille inserts, which just feature one horizontal grille slat in each kidney grille. It sits on Öhlins Road & Track coilovers and wears Proline 20-inch wheels. The wheels look similar to BMW's own Style 666M wheels from the old BMW M4 Competition Package.
Alpha-N's M2 GT is more aggressive. It has some of the aforementioned parts but also gets front fender vents, carbon fiber brake ducts, an adjustable front splitter, a massive fixed rear wing, and gurney flaps to accompany it. The M2 GT also uses Öhlins Road & Track coilovers but with adjustable dome bearings. Instead of Proline wheels, the M2 GT uses champagne-finished Edelweiss wheels in either a square 20-inch or a staggered 20/21-inch setup.
Of the two cars, I like the M2 GT better due to its combination of killer green paint, fixed rear wing, and champagne wheels. Whether either it can "improve" the BMW M2's stock design is entirely up to the buyer but, for whatever it's worth, I think the M2 GT is an upgrade over the stock car.
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