Video: BMW M sets one Nurburgring record, chases another

BMW’s ‘entry-level’ M2 sports car has set a new class lap record at the famed Nürburging Nordschleife circuit, while the German car-maker has teased it could release another model to take on a different class soon.

In a video uploaded to YouTube, BMW shared the record-breaking lap which put the new M2 into the top spot as the fastest ‘compact’ production car around the 20.8-kilometre circuit – setting a time of seven minutes and 38.706 seconds.

The lap – set by BMW test driver Jörg Weidinger in April 2023 – is two seconds faster than the previous class record of seven minutes and 40.748 seconds, held by the all-wheel-drive Audi RS3 sedan since mid-2021.

The new BMW M2 also bested the previous-generation M2 Competition by about 11 seconds, with German publication Sport Auto claiming Weidinger set an official lap time of seven minutes and 50 seconds in 2018.

However, it is not the quickest BMW M car currently on sale, as the M3 CS and M4 CSL set lap times 10 and 20 seconds faster than the M2 respectively around the same track on the same day.

There could be yet another twist though, as BMW was lapping the Nürburgring with a fourth car on the same day, officially calling it an ‘M Prototype’.

BMW Blog reports the as-yet-unveiled model is the M4 CS, due next year and rumoured to include an all-wheel-drive system, rather than the hardcore rear-wheel-drive CSL.

In another video uploaded to YouTube, BMW teased the M Prototype’s lap time as being faster than the M4 CSL – an achievement which would make it the fastest ‘mid-range’ car at the Nürburgring.  

The BMW M4 CS is reportedly due to be unveiled later this year, at which point the German car-maker will likely release its lap time at the circuit.