Why BMW Should Stop Laughing and Build the M2 Dakar

Every year, BMW M rolls out an April Fools’ gag and every year, the internet does the same thing: laughs for about three seconds, then spends the next week in the comments arguing about why BMW should actually build it. Last year was no different. The M2 Dakar dropped on April 1st, 2025 — a lifted, wide-body, off-road-ready M2 with roof rack, underbody protection, all-terrain tires, and rally lights sitting inside the kidney grilles like they were always supposed to be there.

And yeah, it’s fake. But after what happened with the M3 GT3 Touring, you’d be forgiven for not entirely believing that.

BMW already pulled this trick once

Cast your mind back to the M3 GT3 Touring — another April Fools’ post that landed too perfectly to dismiss. BMW dropped it, people lost their minds, and eventually… BMW built it. Showed up at the Nürburgring. Got driven. Was photographed by roughly every car spotter in a 50-mile radius. The reaction wasn’t “haha good one.” It was genuine, floor-level enthusiasm from people who actually know what a GT3-spec Touring wagon would mean.

That’s the precedent here. BMW M now has a formula, whether it intended to or not: float the unhinged idea as a joke, measure the pulse, and if the response is loud enough — actually do it.

The M2 Dakar response was loud enough.

Why this car specifically makes sense

The M2 is already a short-wheelbase, rear-drive weapon that rewards commitment and punishes hesitation. Those are exactly the traits you want from something you’re pointing at loose gravel or desert sand. Lift it, give it proper travel in the suspension, wrap it in aggressive rubber, and the basic recipe for something genuinely fun is already there. You’re not trying to turn a luxury SUV into an off-roader. You’re taking a car that already has playful chassis dynamics and just tilting its environment sideways.

The case for doing it

Start with the most obvious argument, the one nobody wants to say plainly: this would be free marketing. Not “marketing” in the sanitized sense of brand alignment and target demographics — actual, organic, people-talking-about-it-without-being-paid marketing. Build 50 of these, price them at $200,000, sell them in a week, and watch the coverage write itself. Every off-road event, every rally stage, every desert road trip in an M2 Dakar becomes a story. BMW doesn’t need to brief anyone. The car does the work.

And here’s the thing about the “nobody would actually use it off-road” argument — that’s not even a counterargument anymore. Porsche built the 911 Dakar and the overwhelming majority of them will never see a dirt road beyond someone’s gravel driveway. They’re not going to any rally. They’re not crossing the Sahara. They’re sitting in climate-controlled garages, appreciating in value, because people wanted the *idea* of a Porsche that could.

The 911 Dakar is one of the most sought-after 911 variants Porsche has produced in years, and Porsche sold every single one before most people finished reading the press release. Nobody bought it because they needed to go off-road. They bought it because it’s a brilliant, slightly unhinged object that makes no obvious sense, and that’s exactly why it works.

BMW could have that. The M2 Dakar could be that exact same proposition, just with a different badge and a different flavor of madness.

There’s also a longer argument about what BMW M has been lately. The cars are good — nobody is seriously arguing the M3 Touring or the M4 CSL are bad cars. But they’re also the exact kind of cars you’d expect BMW M to build. They make financial sense. They have clear market positioning. They hit their targets.

And that’s fine, except it’s also a little boring to talk about. The M2 Dakar is the opposite of a calculated move, and that’s precisely why it’s interesting. BMW M used to feel a bit dangerous (remember the M3 Pickup Trucks?) — like the people running it had opinions that weren’t entirely filtered through a product committee. This would be that energy back on full.

Beyond the halo effect, there’s a real use case even without production. A single, properly built M2 Dakar used as a ride experience vehicle at the Nürburgring or at BMW Welt gives BMW M something to show at events that isn’t just another track-spec M car. It’s different. It’s weird. People will line up for it.

The case against

There are real reasons this stays a joke, and they’re worth acknowledging.

The M2 is not built for this. Its suspension geometry, frame, and drivetrain are optimized for tarmac. Converting it properly for genuine off-road use — not “looks good in photos” use, but something that won’t embarrass BMW when a YouTuber takes it somewhere rocky — would take serious engineering time and money. Done badly, this would be an unreliable car that breaks on camera in front of 100,000 subscribers. That’s a harder hole to climb out of than just leaving the joke as a joke.

There’s also the question of whether BMW has the off-road credibility to pull this off. Porsche could do the 911 Dakar partly because Porsche’s off-road history goes back to actual Paris-Dakar wins. BMW’s rally heritage lives in the Group A E30 M3 and a handful of other moments that feel a long time ago right now. Coming in three years after the 911 Dakar with what looks like a similar concept risks reading as derivative rather than confident.

And the 50-car argument only works if those 50 buyers are genuinely satisfied. A car sold for $200,000 as a novelty had better be genuinely good. Half-measures do more damage than not building it at all. And BMW might not even be able to make it profitable at that price point.

What BMW M actually needs right now

Here’s the honest take: BMW M is technically excellent and increasingly predictable. Every new car gets the same twin-turbo six, the same xDrive debate, the same weight discussion, the same review structure. They’ve gotten very good at building fast BMWs that don’t surprise anyone anymore.

The M2 Dakar, even as a one-off, represents something BMW M hasn’t properly given us in a while — proof that there are still people inside that building who get excited about a stupid idea and can’t fully let it go. The M1 Procar was a silly idea. The Z8 was arguably at the time just a wild idea. The M3 GTR homologation special was also a wild idea that went racing anyway and became one of the most legendary M cars ever made. The common thread isn’t careful planning. It’s someone deciding the idea was too good to kill.

BMW doesn’t need to build a fleet of M2 Dakars. It needs to build one and mean it. Not as a calculated response to Porsche, not as a product line extension, not because it makes obvious financial sense. Just because the April Fools’ post went viral and someone at BMW M thought: why are we the ones laughing at this?

The M3 GT3 Touring happened because enough people said “actually, yes.” The M2 Dakar could be next. The joke was too good to waste. At this point, not building it would almost be the stranger decision.