Worried that M has lost its way? Don’t be. The M2 takes the very best of what made M great, adds a dash of ‘up yours, Jack’ and distils it into an intoxicating blend of powerful rear-drive juju that makes you laugh like a loon every time you turn it over.

It’s got the best steering of any BMW of the last five years, and its retro touches balance well with the punk-kid-on-steroids feel of the overblown exterior.

And it goes. Boy it goes. It’s at home on the circuit or carving through a mountain detour, and it sounds amazing in both instances. Hopefully the nanny-state self-blipping gear shift thing will disappear in the next facelift, because it’s so close to perfect it’s not even funny.

Solemnest Farewell of 2016: Ford Falcon and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

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The Falcon and MOTOR go way back – it’s impossible to know how many words and pics we’ve penned and snapped of the Falcon family, including Tickford and FPV – in our 56-year history together. The FPV F6 Typhoon even claimed a PCOTY gong in 2006.

The same goes for the Evo, which first featured in these pages as a Lancer GSR (an Evo III by any other name) in 1993, before bursting into our hearts as the Evo VI Tommi Makinen of 2001. Thanks, lads. We’ll miss you.