Finally, BMW M brings back its famous CSL badge for the fastest production BMW ever
- Weight right there
- Internal affairs
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The weight is down, the power is up and the new 2022 BMW M4 CSL is going global, including to the USA for the first time, as the fastest road-going BMW ever built.
Only 1000 BMW M4 CSL coupes will be built after it launches in July this year, and that will guarantee that a good slice of the world’s M4 CSL population will see out their days in air-conditioned, humidity-controlled comfort as collectors’ items.
The rest will hopefully be driven as BMW M intends them to be – hard.
From nothing to the biggest market, the US will snare a quarter of the G82 BMW M4 CSL’s total production run of 1000 cars. The US will be followed by Germany (150 cars) and the UK (100 cars), and Australia (up to 30 cars) will be among the top 10 target markets.
At least 20 BMW M4 CSLs are earmarked for Australian customers and should arrive in the third quarter of this year at a markup of around 80 per cent over the rear-wheel drive M4 Competition coupe ($165,500 plus ORCs), so expect a circa-$300K price tag.
With a 30kW power hike to 405kW from the twin-turbo S58 3.0-litre straight-six, the rear-drive BMW M4 CSL will hit 100km/h in 3.7 seconds and 200km/h in a supercar-like 10.7sec. And it’s Nurburgring lap time is a rapid 7:20.2.
The BMW M4 CSL will hit its speed limiter at 307km/h to take the title of fastest BMW-badged car from (and stand by, because this is weird) the outgoing 760i limousine with the M Package, which ran to 305km/h.
The M4 CSL effectively runs the same engine as the M4 GT3, though with the racing car’s dry sump replaced by a wet sump beneath the 3.0-litre engine. The key to the power hike is partly due to the new exhaust but mostly due to M moving the maximum turbo boost pressure from 1.7 bar (or 1.3 bar in the manual) to 2.1 bar.
The successor to the previous-generation M4 CS (a new hard-core M4 GTS is yet to come) will drive through an eight-speed automatic transmission, which can cope comfortably with the 650Nm over 2750-5950rpm, while the power peaks at 6250rpm.
There’s no water-injection, as seen on the previous-generation hard-core M4 GTS Coupe, which produced a consistent 372kW/600Nm after extensive testing in the MotoGP pace car.
“Water injection was necessary to get more power with that engine,” said
“This engine is completely new and we always thought about a GT3 and CSL version when we designed it, so we do not need water injection anymore.”
That means water injection was a short-term idea that has run its course at BMW, then.
There have been massive suspension tweaks, including lowering the ride height via new springs, to cope with the extra grip from the all-new Michelin Cup2R tyres, which run to 275/35 ZR19 up front and 285/30 ZR20 at the rear.
The M4 CSL will tick the visual boxes with yellow daytime running lights (that are legal, officer, and only come with the laser-light option), a hugely scooped bonnet and a rear ducktail spoiler rather than a sticky-outy rear wing.
There will only be three paint colours – this Frozen Brooklyn Grey metallic paint, plus Black Sapphire and Alpine White – and the brake calipers are red instead of gold.
Weight right there
Weight reduction is the main game of BMW’s famed CSL (Coupe Sport Lightweight) badge, which hasn’t been seen since the limited-edition E46 M3 CSL, just 1383 examples (including only 542 right-hand drive cars) of which were built over 2002-2004.
While the last BMW CSL was 110kg lighter than its donor car at just 1385kg, in this case a raft of carbon-fibre pieces – including the bonnet, roof and the shaped bootlid – help pull 100kg out of the M4 Competition to weigh in at 1625kg.
“We were searching for 100 grams in the interior at the end, though. I know 100kg sounds like a convenient marketing number, but nothing more was possible,” sid Robert Pilsi, BMW M’s project manager for the M3 and M4.
He admitted that a bit more – maybe 20kg – could be found if the M4 CSL didn’t have to meet the more restrictive crash regulations in the US.
BMW M enlisted some measures that were obvious (like a carbon-fibre boot) and some that were not (like switching from a dual-zone climate-control system to a single-zone set-up) to pluck grams where it could.
The loudest change is a titanium exhaust that saves 3.4kg over the M4 Competition – and is also louder – while the forged alloy wheels save 21kg (when combined with carbon-ceramic brakes and new Michelin rubber) and the most extreme of the carbon-fibre front seats save 24kg.
If you want to know what an M4 rear seat weighed, well, that’s another 21kg, because M removes it for the M4 CSL.
BMW has also stripped the M4 CSL of 15kg of sound insulation, so expect the car to be louder inside at all speeds, on all surfaces.
Another 11kg comes from switching to carbon-fibre for the boot and the bonnet, while a carbon-fibre centre console cuts out another 3kg.
Removing the head-up display and reversing camera found the last pieces of weight, but BMW is willing – for a price – to put back in some of the stuff it has taken out.
Even the regular M4’s electric/heated front seats can be put back in, replacing the full carbon-fibre units. With contrast red and silver stitching, the extreme front seats are fixed and adjust only fore and aft. Well, they can be adjusted for rake angle, but it takes a workshop, using a three-stage screw linkage.
They have detachable head restraints to allow a six-point harness to be fitted for track work and there is a ‘normal’ carbon-fibre seat that does without the two-colour stitching.
Internal affairs
While the 2022 BMW M4 CSL has been developed with the track in mind, there is no option for a roll cage, which makes it fully road-legal.
“It’s more in the direction of motorsport, like the M4 GT4, and less from the flash of the Competition model,” Pilsi said.
Its track-day credentials include modifications to the driver-assistance systems and a 10-step adjuster to change the drift angle – and that can even be done mid-corner for the brave or the foolish.
The first five stages of the M Traction Control (aka drift mode) are for executing controlled drifts, while the final five are copies of modes developed for touring car racing, to find maximum speed depending on tyre temperature and wear and surface conditions.
The M4 CSL rides 8mm lower at both ends, and that’s mostly achieved via new springs that also dictated new mapping for the active dampers at each corner.
One of the keys to the added (predicted) track pace is an enormous die-cast engine bay strut, to add rigidity to the front-end’s ability to bite.
The hollow strut bolts down in 11 places – so it’s a serious piece of kit – and it even weighs 1.5kg less than the M4 Competition’s engine-bay strut.
The aggressive front splitter is also in carbon-fibre, with two exposed grooves, and the carbon bonnet also hosts the new, 50th anniversary BMW M heritage logo, which can be ordered for any BMW M car built this year.
The optional laser lighting – and those throwback yellow running lights – adds little weight, but the laser tail-lights, with their exclusive graphic – add 2kg. Without the laser lights, the DRLs are white.
Standard equipment includes the M Drive Professional system that brings a drift analyser, lap timer and a mode button to switch between Road, Sport and Track settings.
There’s Live Cockpit Professional with a 12.3-inch digital multimedia screen and a 10.25-inch instrument cluster. It integrates navigation, wireless charging, smartphone integration and a wifi interface.
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Keyword: BMW M4 CSL revealed with 405kW