Is new BMW M4 a better buy than its predecessor?

BMW’s fiery siblings, the M3 Sedan and M4 Coupe in Competition spec, were let loose on the general public a few months ago and we came away from our subsequent road test of the M3 Sedan mostly impressed.

Now it is the turn of this G82 M4 Coupe to see how far it has come when stacked up against the previous F82 M4 Coupe. I am not going to waste your time getting into all the boring details, lets rather just cut to the high-performance stuff, because that’s what driving or owning a R1 957 388 BMW M4 Coupe is all about after all.

ALSO READ: BMW M3 Competition lives up to the hype

The basic architecture 3.0-litre six-cylinder in-line direct injection engine, running with bigger turbos on the newer G82 M4, remains the powerplant of choice. Pushing out a proper 375 kW of power now, up from 331 kW, and 650 Nm up from 550 Nm, there is an obvious power and torque difference in favour of the young gun.

The new car runs a more traditional torque converter eight-speed gearbox versus the faster shifting double clutch seven-speed unit of the past and weighs in at a full 1 685 kg versus 1 500 kg. Can 44 kW and 100 Nm be enough for the G82 M4 to overcome these substantial hurdles of what most will see as a heavier and slower shifting car and get past the F82 M4?

When you first drive the G82 M4, it even feels a little slower than the F82 M4. But making proper use of the clever launch control system and allowing the engine to run up the rpm and get some boost on the boil, this perception is emphatically turned around. The result is that the G82 M4 bolts towards the horizon unlike any M4 has before.

The big trick here versus the old car is that the G82 now makes you hold the car on the brake while it dials in about one bar of boost. Only then does the ‘Preparing Launch Control’ notice change to ‘Launch Control Active’, and you are good to go destroy the competition!

Hitting around 1.7-bar boost a moment or so after letting the brake go you would think that smoking the rear tyres would be the only thing happening here. But the clever G82 M4 engages second gear and there is no wheel spin from this rear-wheel-drive car as it hits 100km/h in a class defining time of just 3.72 seconds, and 200 km/h in a mere 11.51 seconds.

The previous generation car had less turbo lag and felt way more alive low down the rpm range. This combination of high torque low down and launching in first gear might have been more fun, but this fun came at the expense of traction and sprint times.

The best 0 to 100 km/h here was 4.35 seconds, and 200 km/h a full 2.6 seconds slower at 14.10 seconds. A massive difference on the road in the real world and on paper.

Since these times achieved are better than claimed, I was asked if I thought the new xDrive M4 Coupe would run even better than its rear-wheel drive sibling and get somewhere near the 3.2-second mark with its all-wheel drive traction benefit.

My short answer was no, but I am told that the all-wheel drive model launches in first gear, and this is going to make a difference with the added grip. Perhaps I will be proved to be wrong. Time will tell.

The refinement and drive of the new G82 BMW M4 Coupe are way ahead of its predecessor. But it has lost that dangerous playfulness that was there just off idle. So, while I might think the new M4 has gone backwards in one or two places, the results are clear. It is a substantially faster and easier car to drive than before.

For more information on the BMW M4 Coupe Competition, click here.