![]() Flawed because among all of the careful curation of lightweight materials – it weighed 110kg less than the contemporary M3 thanks to carbon composite use, thinner glass, an aluminium bonnet and other tweaks – the automated manual SMG gearbox only really worked at the very top of the rev range, and was jerky everywhere else. A more polarising choice than you might think, given that BMW’s M history is a deep well of talent, with more spectacular cars on the roster, and that the E46 CSL is a flawed gem. Currently many argue over the validity of a manual conversionĪfter 432 emails, 12 calls to IT, a WhatsApp group that descended into caps lock and one near punch-up, the best BMW M car ever, as voted for by a ragtag assortment of TG journalists, is the M3 CSL. ![]() Interestingly, it’s also one of the rarest of the M-breed specials – only 160 were made in its three year production, meaning that they command solid prices these days as enthusiasts broaden the ‘retro’ ideal.Ī true ‘special’ with comprehensive upgrades and lighter weight. There’s a six-speed manual, limited slip differential, and a host of other M-specific tweaks, from suspension to aerodynamics, and every CSi got bigger Brembo brakes. That’ll be around 385bhp and 406lb ft all told – modest numbers by today’s standards, but in the late Nineties, this was a monster. ![]() Powered by a 5.6-litre, M70 naturally aspirated V12 engine, it had a decent chunk of go-faster M engineering thrown at it: racier camshafts, lighter pistons and a forged crank to complement a motor both bored and stroked. Forget the lesser, non-M fettled V8 or 850i, the 850CSi was an M8 in all but name, one of the last true bahnstormers. If you want imposing, a long-bonneted V12 2+2 scores high on the scale. The 850CSi never officially got an M badge, even though it really is one Had a 5.6-litre V12 bored, stroked, cammed and forged to make it an early Nineties manual monster BAD But there’s one thing that Top Gear remembers not so fondly about this generation of M4 – if you were incautious in the wet and decided to leave the traction control in a more, shall we say, ‘relaxed’ mode, the M4 became a bit spiky and difficult. That makes this generation of M4 a car that can surf between ratios like it’s not even trying, and lends it a sense of real-world speed and dismissive overtaking prowess that’s hard to beat. Stuffed full of S55 twin-turbo straight-six, the F82 M4 developed 424bhp, up 11bhp over the previous V8, but the bigger news was that torque heaved skywards from 295lb ft high in the V8’s rev range to 406lb ft from under 2,000rpm. The car before BMW's grilles changed, and probably one of the best looking modern BMWs because of that – even if it’s just in comparison. The M4 feels firmer on a commute than the slightly friendlier M3 of the same generation, so one for the young people with flexible spines Still with the same effortless turbo midrange as the Coupe BAD Essentially just the 2dr version of the M3, except it’s lost a set of doors and 23kg in the process.
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