50 units worldwide for super-light M4-based one-off coupe from BMW M – and theoretically a multi-million dollar pricetag

---

Munich, Germany
BMW M has built many limited-edition cars with the words ‘CS’ in the name (M2 CS, M3 CS, M4 CSL, M5 CS), but other than the progenitor of the model designation, this is the most CS that BMW M has ever CS-ed in the history of CS-ing: It’s the remade BMW 3.0 CSL.

It’s a one-off special model limited to just 50 examples worldwide. BMW M takes an M4 and ‘superlights’ it, reducing weight, increasing performance, and a whole lot of other things too. It’s based on an M4, but pretty much totally handbuilt, which accounts for its estimated European price of 750,000 Euros.

To put that into context, a Ferrari 296 GTS costs 296,000 Euros and goes for S$1.3 million in Singapore, so we can expect the price of the 3.0 CSL to be around S$3.0-million and a bit. But the chances are you’ll never see one here : Despite Singapore often netting one or two examples of such cars in general, there will be no 3.0 CSL’s bound for a buyer in the Lion City.

It’s BMW M’s birthday present to itself with 50 examples it’ll make EUR37.5m gross, or S$54m, unlike me whose only gift to myself is debt. As the name suggests, it’s a homage to the first 3.0 CSL of 1973, most famously known as The Batmobile, and a big touring car success story for BMW M. ‘CSL’ stands for “Coupé, Sport, Leichtbau” (Coupe, Sport, Lightweight).

The new 3.0 CSL is road-going, though, and it has a feature-list can be used as a Pavlovian Saliva Test for car enthusiasts: It’s a rear-wheel drive BMW with a six-speed manual gearshifter, a 3.0-litre inline six engine, and it’s undergone an extensive weight-loss regime.

BMW M says ‘virtually all’ the bodywork is made of carbonfibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), but there’s also a titanium silencer (saves 4.3kg). The car rings in at 1,624kg – disappointingly it’s only a few kilos off a M4 CSL. It has the same engine but a tad more power (560hp vs 550hp) and 550Nm of torque. This power bump makes it ‘the most powerful straight six-cylinder engine ever used in a road legal BMW M’ car.

But we expect the performance to be very similar (0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds, top speed of 307km/h) though perhaps a tad slower due to the manual gearbox. The extra power is generated by turbo tuning and increasing max revs to 7,200rpm.

What will draw collectors to this edition is the famous name, the limited run, the old-school appeal, and the paintwork. There’s only one colour choice : Alpine white with BMW racing colours. According to BMW, it takes six days to paint the car, comprising of 134 paint processes (sanding, masking etc).