[Auto-Moto] BMW takes its sporting icon into ultra-rarefied giant-killing territory

[-Sethu]

Fifteen months ago, BMW’s M division celebrated one of its performance car icons with a fast and aggressive-looking special edition: the 626bhp BMW M5 CS. We road tested it in July last year, and it became the only car in 2021 to be awarded a five-star score.

Now here we are at the end of 2022 with a sense of déjà vu, as Munich sets out to hit even greater heights with a BMW M4 whose jib is cut in similar – if not identical – style.

The BMW M4 CSL marks a celebration of a quite different magnitude: the 50th birthday of BMW M. It is only the third car yet to bear the ‘CSL’ identifier and the first in almost 20 years. So while there have been few BMW CSLs over the decades, this one meets with huge expectations. Not least, perhaps, because this car’s immediate predecessor, the ‘E46’ M3 CSL of 2004, is still regarded as the finest-handling car BMW has yet produced.

That the CSL isn’t just another roll-caged, track-intended limited-run special is what ought to make the following pages so fascinating. How has BMW defined what CSL needs to stand for today, as distinct from how it has defined a BMW M4 GTS more recently, for example? Is this just the fastest, lightest, grippiest and most powerful M4 that it can make in 2022? Or has BMW targeted other qualities to make its ultimate mid-sized M car truly stand out?
Range at a glance
The BMW M3 may once have been a homologation-special coupé, but it has since become an extensive range of models. Among them is a four-door saloon, two-door coupé and convertible, and also now an M3 Touring fast estate option as well as the new CSL special edition.

If you’re buying a regular M4, there are the M Carbon, M Pro and Technology packages, or there’s the £11k Ultimate package if you want every option in the brochure.

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