Though some will tell you BMW M has lost its way, a few things remain sacred - the CSL badge is one of them. It’s been used twice in half a century, reserved only for the most special of two-door, six-cylinder, road racer BMWs. You won’t find an original 70s’ CSL for less than £100k, and there aren’t many M3 CSLs left below six figures, either - both, as you’re probably aware, are very special cars.
So there’s an awful lot riding on this M4 CSL, confirmed by BMW last week and previewed here ahead of a debut next week. BMW knows it, too; this video is presented by Jorg Weidinger, responsible for ‘Functional Integration Driving Dynamics’ in the new car. He’s reverential about the E46 CSL, which the new car pays homage to with its kicked up bootlid, describing it as a car “which brought great emotion to all of us.”
But this new CSL is going to be far more than an iconic badge and a snazzy new spoiler, which Jorg is only too happy to discuss. The M4 will be available with Michelin Cup 2 R tyres, typically the preserve of mid-engined exotics and a nice nod back to the M3, which was infamously launched with the original Cup tyres that didn’t much like inclement weather. No such issues this time around though, it seems, as the car is trundled around a road route on a grey day without drama. Maybe a British take on miserable weather might prove more testing.
Though road testing is inevitably a big part of the development programme - “in most cases the customers doesn’t have a race track on their doorstep” - the Nurburgring assessment is the really exciting bit. The M3 nipped in under eight minutes 20 years ago, and the standard M4 has already proven fearsomely quick around the 13 miles. We’ve seen the CSL testing there, the additional aero is plain to see and any reduction in mass will surely pay dividends on circuit. Jorg adds in the video that this car is “significantly faster on the racetrack than anything we’ve had before” and that “we will put the whole thing into practice in terms of a lap time”. Just in case this whole CSL project wasn’t exciting enough. How close to seven minutes might it get?
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