‘Munich can – and should – do better than this’
CO: M cars are at their best when they look and feel (and cost) a lot like regular BMWs, just a bit perkier. This seems a long way removed from that.
BM: I hear you, but at the same time I also wish this went further. This CSL uses the same playbook as 2016’s M4 GTS, created under Frank van Meel in his first stint as M boss, but there are no new ideas here. The GTS at least had water-injection, a neat system that lowered intake manifold temps, allowing for more boost and power.
CO: Never mind how much weight has been saved: it’s still very heavy. And it’s fallen into all the traps I associate with AMG; add more engineering to increase performance, then add more engineering to improve the brakes and chassis accordingly, then take out the rear seats when you realise it’s all got a bit much…
BM: The old GTS was a mixed bag to drive. Hugely torquey and a real event to try to hustle, the set-up on the UK press car was loose in the extreme. Traction was extraordinarily dicult to come by, even in perfect conditions. The GTS has also proved a so-so investment. It cost £121k new (£133k adjusted for inflation) and they go for around £90k now. Given most have covered (a lot) less than 10,000 miles, that’s a lot of cash per mile down the gurgler.
CO: There’s something really vulgar about the way this looks. Puerile bulges and go-faster stripes that might raise a smile on a cheekily overpowered Suzuki concept are out of place in BMW’s elegant lineage. Munich can – and should – do better than this.
BM: The M3 is both the better looking car and the more iconic nameplate, so I’d have CSL’d that, not the M4. But there’s potential here. The M5 CS was a masterpiece, and the donor M4 (G82) on which the CSL is based is a superior car to the machine that underpinned the GTS (F82).
While the E46 M3 was the last car to wear the legendary CSL nameplate, M’s last hardcore, track-ready M coupe was 2016’s M4 GTS. The recipe is the same this time around: a power boost, strip out the dead weight, whack on an angry bodykit. But, after driving the GTS, CAR’s Gavin Green said: ‘It feels like a work in progress…’ Once more with feeling please, BMW.
twin-turbo straight-six has had a thorough going over. Power is up 39bhp to 542bhp, and it’s fired directly to the rear wheels – no xDrive here, no doubt because it carries a weight penalty the CSL doesn’t like the look of.
Zero to 62mph takes 3.7 seconds, and the CSL’s good for 190mph. The S58 six’s two mono-scroll turbos (serving cylinders 1-3 and 4-6 individually) have had their maximum charge pressure lifted to 2.1bar (a 0.4bar increase). This M4 is still an auto-only machine, though the eight-speed transmission gets revised software and shorter gearing for more urge.
So, it’s lighter and more powerful. On the chassis side there are new strut braces and lighter, stiffer engine mounts. The CSL also sits 8mm lower than an M4 Competition, with suspension that features auxiliary springs and bespoke anti-roll bars. There’s also more camber on the front wheels.
Electronically, you’ve three chassis settings, with BMW claiming Sport has been fine-tuned during development laps around the Nürburgring. It recommends Sport Plus is good only for ‘perfectly surfaced’ racetracks. M’s techs also haven’t forgotten about those with a penchant for ruining tyres in a matter of minutes; the traction control system, which already allows 10º of separation between the rear wheels and the road, has been fettled, with settings 6-10 benefitting from specific programming that allow for a degree of slip; they’re ideal for nibbling away at your personal-best lap times. Talking of which, the M4 CSL is now the fastest-ever production BMW around the Nürburgring. Jörg Weidinger, racing driver and BMW project manager for driving dynamics, has clocked a time of 7m 15.677s – 15 seconds quicker than an M4 Competition (but some 20 seconds slower than the similarly priced and less powerful Porsche 911 GT3).
While narrating the new record and power-sliding over the finish
line, Weidinger says: ‘I think we can be really happy with the time, and we’re now leading the so-called class of mid-size cars.’
So, is this a proper CSL? On paper, at least, it looks that way. The hottest M4 yet has more power, weighs less than other M4s and promises to be far sharper driven in extremis. The regular M4 Competition is an outrageously talented road car that starts to struggle on a racetrack. The M4 CSL should fix that, while its limited production run will be music to the ears of M enthusiasts looking to blow six figures on the CSL.
But BMW’s been here before, delivering sometimes less than stellar results in the process. And, while the M4 GT3 has helped shape the new CSL, this special edition isn’t a homologation special born out of an actual requirement to go racing, unlike the original 3.0 CSL of the ’70s. Still, that didn’t stop the E46 M3 CSL becoming a bona fide modern classic. Only time will tell if the M4 CSL can do the same.