As a devotee to the Church of Cars, there are some universal doctrines you must adhere to. One of those is to acknowledge the virtue of any six-cylinder engine built by BMW. Along with the intrinsic qualities inherent to any straight-six, the Bavarian bishops have been building them for over a hundred years, and they’ve always been among the best engines available. You’re also supposed to appreciate two-door sports cars even if they don’t suit you, and obviously praise the precious few manual transmissions left in production, lest ye be deemed a heretic. Or worse: a punk-ass.
Somehow, we found ourselves in the middle of a once-in-an-era celestial alignment. We were blessed with a bountiful trio of the very cars that most exquisitely extol the teachings of our church, all at once: the 2025 BMW Z4 M40i, the 2025 BMW M2, and the 2025 Toyota GR Supra. These three apostles of vehicular joy have two doors, two driven wheels, three litres of displacement, three pedals, six forward gears, and six cylinders arranged in a straight line, all heavily influenced if not designed and built by the high priests of Bavaria.
Was it sinful of us to gather these three sports-car saviours together? Absolutely. The following account is a confession of our zealous embrace of the temptations brought about by these machines, and the sins committed in conquest of evaluating their shared chorus and curious incongruities.
2025 Toyota GR Supra: Pride & Envy
We begin the illicit intonations with the 2025 Toyota GR Supra. It’s the most traditional of the bunch with its slinkiest silhouette, carrying forward the pride of Toyota sports cars past and present. It’s simultaneously a continuation of the vaunted fourth-gen Supra of the 1990s, and takes strong influence from the legendary 2000GT of the 1960 with its unique greenhouse. Despite honouring its precursors at face value, the new Supra does so via what many have decried an unholy union with BMW, by sharing a platform and powertrain with the BMW Z4.
The Supra is powered by the unequivocally excellent 3.0-litre turbocharged inline-six engine known as the B58, a BMW-bred beating heart no doubt bettered by Toyota’s collaboration by subjecting it to their rigorous “inch-by-inch” durability testing before staking their reputation for reliability on it. Making 382 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, it’s more than enough to motivate the 3,343-pound Supra with alacrity. We’re talking a zero-to-100 km/h sprint in 4.4 seconds here.
All cars here share the same six-speed manual gearbox made by ZF, but the shift linkage actuating it in the Supra feels meaningfully different from the other two. The two BMW shifters feel like, well, every other BMW since the dawn of time, characterized by a relatively long-ish throw and a light, notchy, slightly rubbery feel. But by using a shorter lever and stiffer bushings with spherical joints, the Supra feels like every nicely upgraded BMW I’ve ever sampled or built. It’s tight, tactile, direct, and makes you wonder why they can’t all be like this—though the Z4 comes close.
Toyota’s fettering with what BMW’s built goes well beyond just the shifter. The whole experience feels meaningfully different from its direct platform-mate. Toyota tweaked the Supra’s suspension tuning and steering calibration to better exemplify their interpretation of the Sports Car Testament. It feels as though there’s a little bit less caster angle in the Supra’s front end geometry, feeling ever-so-slightly more relaxed on-center and less rigidly inclined to return to centre. The Supra feels a little more loose, but in a way that’s more natural, not lazy.
Similarly, the Supra’s suspension is set up a little more loose, too. Toyota allows the Supra’s body to move around and shift its weight a lot more than either of the Bimmers. It’s quite neutral in its balance, feeling the most lively of the group by involving you via weight transfer, and by the agility afforded to it by being the lightest at of the trio. It ducks and bobs under acceleration and braking; it shifts side-to-side eagerly, encouraging you to be smoother in your movements to keep the body settled. The throttle calibration is dulled a bit, too. I thought I’d loathe this, but in practice, the Supra is easier to drive more smoothly. This may be placebo, but the clutch felt the most natural to use, too.
Of the three, the 2025 Toyota GR Supra is definitely the closest to a traditional sports car both in execution and shape. This is where the envy sets in: the Supra has compromised visibility, limited passenger room and cargo space, not much in the way of luxury, and tech that’s two generations short of modernity. The Z4 is effectively identical, yet it’s shocking how much more space BMW squeezed out of the same footprint, having more than double the cargo space and a far more spacious cabin despite having a folding top.
2025 BMW Z4: Greed & Lust
The 2025 BMW Z4 M40i with its six-speed manual is a product of lust and greed. It exists because we, as a collective whole, wanted this experience. It’s a bit of a greedy thing, having so much more on board seemingly without compromise—more supple leather, brighter trim and glitzy accent lighting, more robust infotainment with a slicker interface and a Harman Kardon sound system to go along with it, more space for your stuff, and folding canvas roof to top all that off. It’s a lot more car than the Supra, and indeed you’ll pay quite a lot more for it. Whereas the Supra rings in at $70,745 as-tested, this Z4 is the most expensive in the trio at $96,000 as-tested. For that cost difference, you could buy a whole ‘nother car to cover the practical bases the Supra misses.
But two cars would be even more greedy, wouldn’t it? It bears mentioning that much of our Z4’s startling sticker price is due to its Frozen Green satin paint. It’s unique to be sure, but not something for which I’d be willing to shell out $6,000. I’m much too pious for that. However, I’m not too chaste to enjoy the opulence of the top-down experience the Z4 offers; for some, that alone is enough to seal the deal. It really does transform the experience, without giving up a single ounce of practicality, athleticism, and road manners.
With the top up, the Z4 only marginally louder than the Supra. Drop the top and it’s more livable than the Supra with the windows down. The Z4 only takes a 150-pound weight penalty for the privilege of top-down glamour—and I cannot stress enough how much more spacious the Z4 is. There’s more elbow room, you can fit smaller items between the seats and bulkead, and although trunk capacity is about the same on paper, the Z4’s deeper cargo floor is more practical. You could easily be greedy and drive this lusty roadster every day and not suffer one minute for it. As this platform was designed to be topless from the get-go, the Z4 incredibly rigid and suffers none of the cowl shake or shimmies that affect almost all convertibles. It truly gives up nothing.
I don’t know what dark arts BMW tapped into to pull this off, but despite being so comfortable, the Z4 is also considerably more composed at its extremes than the Supra. Everything feels very linear and well judged, save for slightly-too-touch brakes—an affliction all three cars here share—and it’s exceptionally well-balanced and poised, doing far more favors for you than the Supra. It’s not quite as eager in its movements, but in doing so, the Z4 is easier to guide through a corner quickly and to takes on more longitudinal and lateral acceleration without getting unsettled. In turn, this encourages you to trust the Z4 more and give in to your desire and push it harder.
Where the Supra starts to break up beyond eight-tenths, and the M2 doesn’t feel right until it can start revealing its wrath at that point and beyond, the Z4 takes it all in stride. It’s fun, well-balanced, it can hold your hand if you’re timid, and it’ll reward you with pleasure if you’re well-versed in the finer points of bad behaviour.
On that note, all three of these cars are properly fast and sound fantastic. This and the Supra share the exact same engine, the exact same specs, and even the exact zero-to-100 sprint time, at least on paper. The M2 gets an angrier version of the same engine that’s been to hell and back, but the Z4’s distinct absence of a fixed roof makes the sweet siren of this sinuous straight-six all the more satisfying.
2025 BMW M2: Gluttony & Wrath
Where the Supra and Z4 are twins separated at birth, the M2 is a different animal altogether despite adhering to the same deitous formula of being a rear-drive, manual-gearbox coupe with the truest engine layout on board. It’s based on the same, albeit shortened architecture of the larger 3 and 4 Series, and as such it’s it’s most vehicle. It has back seats, a decent-sized trunk, the biggest screen with the slickest tech by a mile, and a fixed roof you don’t have to worry about cracking your skull on every single time you get in and out of it. Looking at you, Supra.
For all this gluttony, it’s the heaviest in the group by a substantial margin, tipping in at 3,748 pounds. Despite the extra poundage, it’s also the fastest in a straight line by virtue of its engine being fed a diet of fire and brimstone by the alchemists at BMW Motorsport. OK, maybe not really, but while it shares the same basic bones as the B58 powering the other two, this S58 is a very different beast built for real track use.
Everything internal is forged for extra strength, and crafted from exotic materials to reduce weight for higher revs and sharper responses. The bore and stroke have been increased and decreased, respectively, to further facilitate better high-rpm performance. The compression ratio has been reduced significantly (9.3 vs. 11.0) which does sacrifice some mechanical efficiency, but greatly increases its ability to tolerate extreme boost levels—through two turbochargers, whereas the others have just one. Having said all this, the “lesser” B58 is no slouch; it too is made mostly of forged materials, and widely rumoured in the tuning sect of the church that it can easily tolerate more absurd levels of power production.
The final result of all this sorcery is 473 horsepower—almost a hundred more than the other two—and 406 pound-feet of torque. The M2 is only marginally quicker off the line, with a 4.2-second 0-100 sprint, but in-gear acceleration is markedly more rapacious. The difference becomes quite dramatic at higher speeds; once it’s taken a half-beat to gather its breath and spin the turbos up, the M2 hits a dramatic wallop of mid-range muscle that never gives up. Its wrath is relentless.
This Purple Monster naturally feels most at home at high speeds, too. This is where the BMW M division’s tweaks to the chassis really shine and mask its weight penalty. The M2 the sharpest of the bunch by a considerable margin; the Supra is perhaps just a hair more eager on initial turn-in, but the M2 runs away with its bewildering surplus of mechanical grip. It has bigger, better brakes and more positive pedal feel; its extra power and electronic locking rear differential make it remarkably easy to perform heroic acts of buffoonery and exact vengeance on the poor tires.
The 2025 BMW M2 is by far the most capable of this trio, with the most power, the most grip, the most brakes, and astonishing dynamic capability at astonishing speeds. It’s a weapon on a shelf of toys, and it looks the part with bulging fender flares and predatory fascia housing a salaciously exposed array of radiators to quell its fury. Amazingly, the M2 isn’t even the priciest of the group, ringing in at $91,750 as-tested. Like the other Bimmer, it too carries a substantial paint surcharge of $5,000 for its spectacular Twilight Purple paint … which might actually be worth it.
Despite not being the most costly, it doesn’t mean the M2’s extra battle garb and cabin accommodation comes without a cost. First, the engine: being optimized for battle means it doesn’t have the same road manners as the other two. There’s less bottom-end torque, more noise, and considerably more thirst—I had to baby it to return an average 12.4 L/100 km in our initial review, whereas the others will stay below that even if being driven enthusiastically on the regular.
Second, while it is patently the best everyday warrior of the bunch, it feels the least happy doing it. We instantly adored piloting the other two cars, while the M2 needed time to grow on us. Indeed it is the most capable at the most speed, but it only really feels at home at said scandalous speed. Otherwise, the clutch take-up is a little awkward next to the other two, the grabbiness of the diff can be awkward if you’re not fully committed to flaying it, and its more numb steering and extra mass are noticeable while being driven a little enthusiastically but not approaching its limits. Furthermore, the M2 is so sharp precise that it can be unbecoming, coming off as being overly twitchy at times.
There’s also the minute detail that the M2 is assembled at BMW’s San Louis Potosi plant in Mexico, whereas the Z4 and Supra are built close to home in Austria by Magna Steyr. No doubt some of the M2’s cost savings comes from that, at the expense of maybe a touch of pedigree to the snobs in the pews. You’d never know there was a difference in the flesh, as the fit and finish of all three are superb.
In summation: Sloth
There is no wrong answer among this holy trio, but we all agreed there’s definitely an empirically right answer: the 2025 BMW M2. Not only is it the most effective car and the most effective performance machine all at once, it doesn’t carry a steep price penalty for that privilege. In a way, it’s the most reflective of the classic BMW experience, offering a practical package that just so happens to be demonic if you dare. It’s a phenomenal car that takes time to love; it feels like it’s a little much, but that’s what makes it so likeable.
Despite being so similar at face value, the 2025 Toyota GR Supra is completely different. To be frank, it’s not a car we expected to enjoy nearly as much as we did, parked next to the native BMW making use of the same skeleton. The Supra may be mechanically more or less the same, but Toyota’s carefully chosen calibrations result in a car that feels quite different. More to the point, the Supra is quite a bit more puritanical in its pursuit of the sports car experience. It’s a charming testament to Gazoo Racing’s talents, and all the more impressive given that it asks so much less than the BMWs without at all being a lesser driving experience.
Our clergy was split on the favourite of the group, but we all universally adored the 2025 BMW Z4 M40i for its ability to blend all the things we love the most about cars—and specifically cars like this, that are designed to elicit pleasure. It’s lovely inside and out, it’s far more practical than you might think, it handles beautifully, it’s fast and sounds delicious, and combines all of those blessings with the ability to remove the roof and be closer to God.
