These days, it looks like in war, love, and drag racing, everything is allowed. You can pit a luxo-barge like the BMW 7 Series against the humble Dacia Logan MCV and you can orchestrate straight-line duels between an out-and-out muscle car and a supercar.

What’s more, it’s quite common these days to see such drag races between cars that are related to each other under the umbrella of the same carmaker. Take the BMW M2 and the M8, for example. Sure, they’re both M cars but serve different purposes and are built on different foundations. More significantly, they’re aimed at different customers, too.

Can the BMW M2 really beat the BMW M8 in a drag race?

Those of you who know a thing or two about boxing are surely acquainted with the term pound for pound. It essentially tries to establish which one of two fighters is best relative to their weight and as you’d expect, the method holds a lot of subjectivity, but it’s the only way to compare a heavyweight to a bantamweight, for example.

Of course, pound for pound doesn’t quite apply to sports cars. Let alone to sports cars produced by the same manufacturer. Luckily, we can take a good look at each vehicle’s spec sheet and put things into perspective.

It is also pairable with either a six-speed manual or a seven-speed M DCT double-clutch transmission. 0-60 mph takes four seconds flat with the DCT or 4.2 seconds with the manual. Top speed is limited to 155 mph, but without the electronic nannies, the M2 can push its way to 174 mph.

Right, on to the heavy hitter then.You can only have it with the eight-speed Steptronic automatic, which will send you from naught to sixty in three seconds flat - a full second quicker than the automatic M2 - and on to a top speed of 156 mph (190 mph sans the limiter).

However, it’s worth noting that the automatic version of the BMW M2 Competition tips the scales at 3,655 pounds, while the M8 weighs a hefty 4,295 pounds. The M2 is rear-wheel-driven, though, while the M8 is powered by a smart version of BMW’s xDrive that can disconnect the front axle for a pure RWD experience.

That said, it’s time to pick a favorite before heading to Carwow’s video below.