BMW has undoubtedly put out a real fire cracker in the new M2 CS. It's packed 450 horsepower into its smallest coupe to give it a 0-62 time as low as four seconds flat and an electronically limited top speed as high as 174 mph. But those straight-line figures only tell part of the story. Auto Bild is telling the rest.

According to BMWBlog, the German publication has already managed to get a new M2 CS out on the Sachsenring, and posted a pretty impressive lap time of 1:34.98. That's almost 0.7 seconds quicker than the existing M2 Competition, and nearly 2.7 seconds ahead of the "standard" M2.

Perhaps more to the point is how it compares to other machinery on the same circuit, and the short of it is pretty darn well. The Porsche 718 Cayman GTS (second only to the Cayman GT4) was clocked over a third of second slower at 1:35.35. And though more hardcore examples of each have lapped quicker, the new Bimmer beat versions of the Audi R8, Porsche 911, and Mercedes-AMG GT, to name just a few. In fact the M2 CS's lap time was only a bit behind those clocked by some serious supercars, including much more powerful Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and McLarens.

Just how could that be possible, you wonder? Well, there's no doubt that with the new M2 CS, BMW has engineered one heck of a driving machine. But it's worth noting that while sports cars have raced (and continue to race) there, the Sachsenring is principally a motorcycle circuit. Though it has a couple of long straights and some sweeping turns, the infield section is as tight and twisting as they come. And a smaller car like the M2 CS is particularly suited towards that kind of layout. We'd be particularly interested to see how "the little Bimmer that could" might measure up on a different kind of track – like Hockenheim, Oschersleben, Lausitz, or...say, the Nurburgring.