In the world of mid-range, compact powerhouses, the 1M and M2 reside somewhere near the top of the ladder. Both cars are track toys that, while not inexpensive, provide the thrills, performance, and quality usually reserved to a more expensive category. Most importantly, they’re incredibly fun and great value.

That old-school, pintglass-over-the-head, barroom brawler kind of car seemed to have been phased out by the nanny state a decade or so ago. Yet these two pitbulls, which seem to take influence from the iconic E30 M3, seem to have not gotten the memo.

The massive air dams leave nobody guessing these cars’ intentions.

t’s a simple formula, really: take a short-wheelbased car, add a potent, turbocharged engine, make sure the rear differential locks, and put it on a diet. The result is a wild, hairy car that doesn’t pull many punches, although the 1M and the M2 do have slightly different characters.

The engines are quite similar, they both weigh the same, and they both drive their power to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. The styling is, to the untrained eye, alike: both wear wider fenders, employ broader air dams, and they’ve all got the quad-tip exhausts which turn even the least-initiated heads.

Continuing on the performance theme are the motors. In the 1M, 335 horsepower and 332 lb-ft of torque – with momentary bursts of 369 lb-ft – help propel the 3,300-pound bruiser, and the M2’s power figures are even better, with its own 365 ponies and 343 lb-ft and a similar overboost function. Most impressively, the M2’s torque arrives at an astonishing 1,800 rpm, which makes it feel almost electric! That sort of boost response and outright power can make for nervous FR car, which is one way to describe the 1M.

The 1M could also be called agile, snappy, and stiffly-sprung. The differential from the E92 M3 is less sophisticated, and so it lets go with a rush, and moves around at the rear a little more, but it feels up on its toes and is definitely the more exciting car. While this sort of behavior has helped usher it into the grant halls of the M Car, it’s not always the best thing to have for those who would likely buy it and drive it around on the street.

The M2’s mix of refined brutality is hard to find around the $50K price mark. Image credit: ForceGT

For that crowd, there’s the slightly softer M2. It’s heavier by two-hundred pounds, but its rear suspension has been better optimized for the everyday driver. Crucially, it receives the LSD from the F80 M3, and so it’s more supple, and it has better body control, so it lets go when it releases its grip on the asphalt it lets go slowly and predictably. For a car that does some of its best work with the rear wheels lit up, that’s not a bad quality to have.

But as one of the world’s most talented automotive journalists will admit, the M2 is a car that allows for a little more manipulation. Steve Sutcliffe looks remarkably more relaxed in the M2, since you can “into a little bit of oversteer, but not time-wasting oversteer.” That extra degree of control adds up to an additional two tenths per lap, but more importantly, makes it an easier and more enjoyable car to exploit when driven sideways, which is a large part of what makes an M car an M car, isn’t it?