BMW has revealed a new performance flagship within its line-up of M cars, in the process reigniting a much loved nameplate from its past.Limited to just 1000 builds, the M4 CSL appears set to be just as collectible as it is potent on a race track.
The hotted up model has already been confirmed for the Australian market, with pricing set from $303,900 not including on-road costs. It’s set to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2022.
CSL stands for ‘Competition, Sport, Lightweight’, and is a moniker that BMW only dusts off for very special occasions. The name is best known for being attached to BMW’s 3.0 CSL in the 1970s, a suave homologation special.
CSL returned in the early noughties for the E46 M3 CSL, a cult icon in BMW’s M-badge lineage. The CSL badge was last brought up in 2015, when BMW unveiled its wild 3.0 CSL Hommage concept.
The new M4 CSL looks almost like a GT4-spec racer. In the pursuit of weight savings, it has no rear seats and numerous carbon fibre parts. These include the bonnet, roof, boot lid, and the top of the transmission tunnel inside.
BMW has managed to carve weight from all over the M4. This includes shaving 3.6kg from the controversial front grille area, air conditioning unit, and tail lights. The standard BMW M carbon bucket seats trim another 24kg from the M4 CSL’s weight, and another 15kg comes from swapping out the standard noise cancellation material for a lighter solution.
Under the bonnet, BMW has given the twin-turbo 3.0-litre inline six a 30kW power bump, with output now rated at 411kW and 649Nm. It boasts that the CSL can reach 100km/h in 3.6 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 307km/h.
The added power comes via changes to the M4’s boost system, with its pressure upped from 24.7 psi to 30.5 psi. Sadly for some BMW anoraks, this is the first CSL to not come with a manual transmission. It will instead be sold solely with an eight-speed automatic.
The jump in power and comprehensive diet are complemented by the work BMW has done to the CSL’s chassis. It gets its own damping and chassis tuning, with BMW adding zero-play ball joints, rigid connections between the body and rear subframe, and bespoke anti-roll bars.
Six-piston front stoppers, an advanced traction control programme that make drifting easy, and staggered Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R rubber are among the long list of other changes designed to make the already rapid M4 even faster.
How fast? Well, BMW has already taken the M4 CSL around the Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany, recording a 7min 20.2sec lap-time. This is the quickest time recorded at the ‘Green Hell’ by a series-production BMW.
Although pricing is still to be confirmed, The M4 CSL is likely to be much more expensive than the standard M4. In the US, it will retail for US$139,900, or almost twice the price of a standard M4 Competition Coupe.
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