ANOTHER HOME RUN FOR BMW’S M GROUP
Sports sedan deserves a race track, but it’s comfortable enough for day-to-day driving
Get old enough and it’s almost impossible not to have at least a few regrets. The college sweetheart you should have married. The blood-red Laverda RGS1000 you shouldn’t have sold. And, of course, the fact that 40 years ago, when 65 looked like an eon away, you thought RRSPs were for old people. Youth, as they say, is truly wasted on the young.
Not that being aged brings immunity from regrets. To wit: For three weeks, I managed to get a test of BMW’s new CS version of its M3 and, for the life of me I don’t know why I didn’t book a race track to put the 3.0-litre little beast through its paces.
For the CS is definitely designed for the track. Besides the upgraded motor — more on that in a minute — there are numerous improvements to the already more-than-competent M3 chassis. The suspension links and wheel carriers are all machined from forged aluminum for a more direct connection between steering wheel and tarmac. Ditto for the suspension subframes’ connection to the main chassis — all have been made completely rigid. All for a more direct connection between man and machine.
Indeed, it is this directness of interface I wish I could have tested more thoroughly at a race track. Oh, I did the off-ramp boogie more than few times so I can attest to at least some knowledge of the CS’s excellent feedback through the steering wheel, linear turn-in when said ramps turns out to be tighter than I expected, and minimal body roll even though I was contravening at least three statutes at the time of testing. There is also — because those more rigid connections between suspension components and frame have to come at some price — a little more tramming over ruts and a bit too much of that feedback I mentioned through the steering wheel when you hit large bumps.
One thing ’s for sure: You won’t lack for traction.
Michelin’s race-spec Pilot Sport Cup 2s are the standard fitment — 265/35 R 19 at the front and 285/30 R 20 at the rear — though longer-life, and still supremely sticky, Pilot Super Sports are a no-cost option.
Surprisingly, however, these penalties were minor infractions and not of the major misconduct variety. You may buy the CS for its racetrack nous, but you’ll be surprised how little penalty its ability exacts in everyday use.
One thing worth noting, however, is that the CS, like all 3 Series now, features electricallyboosted steering. That’s not a problem in and of itself, but the calibration of the top-flight Sport Plus mode is a little unnecessarily heavy, especially since it doesn’t really add any feedback.
The best compromise is to customize your own setting, with Sport Plus used for everything but the steering effort.
Though I couldn’t really push the chassis much, I did, however, manage to, er, massage the throttle with some enthusiasm.
Said motor is even healthier than the standard M3’s, with an increase in turbo boost good for a maximum of 453 horses (28 more than the standard 3.0-litre turbocharged in-line six) and 443 pound-feet of torque (an even bigger gain of 37). On top of that, the CS is 50 kilograms lighter than the standard M3, thanks to a carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) roof and rear diffuser, not to mention other lightweight parts, which include lighter axles and springs; forged, race-spec aluminum wheels; and — for 9,500 bucks — carbon-ceramic brakes.
Between the extra power and the reduced avoirdupois, that’s good enough to get the CS into the three-second bracket (though, at 3.9s, just barely) of 100-kilometre-an-hour acceleration times and to a top speed of 280 km/h. I can vouch for the first, but without a race track and with three points already on my licence, I was in no mood to tempt the latter.
Nonetheless, the motor is a nutter compared with the surprisingly complacent stock version.
Think of your distant cousin from the wrong side of the tracks arriving for Easter dinner on his straight-piped Harley. There’s a bark to the CS that is unfortunately missing in the standard M3, especially just before the 7,600 rpm rev limiter kicks in.
I knew BMW was onto something when neighbours started complaining of the racket I made when I started the beast up first thing in the morning. Maybe
I will have to get a straight-piped Harley, if only to show that M-badged Bimmers are hardly obnoxious by comparison.
The CS is another BMW M Division home run. Intoxicatingly boisterous ( but still smooth as silk), powerful as a (lesser) supercar but still manageable, and through it all, still as silkily sweet as the N55 engine that powers a regular 340. I just wish I could have heard it for a concentrated 30-minute burst around Mosport rather than the short three-second blasts — my eyes always peeled for the local constabulary — I managed in more public surroundings. This is one car that deserved better.