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- Martin
South Africans are a strange lot. They never quite caught on to the idea that an M3 CSL is a collectable and a classic keepsake of everything that epitomises BMW’s pinnacle of the straight-six sport coupé concept. Not all of the 40-odd units that were destined for our shores were even allocated and so rumour has it that only 29 examples made it into private hands. Interestingly, SA-spec cars came with full-on climate control, CD-stereo and park distance control. Not quite the essential options for a track day burner one would ask.
My M3 CSL test-drive was all too brief. This particular black car was one of 3 pristine examples on the floor at Lyndhurst BMW here in Johannesburg. After being snapped up fairly rapidly upon launch, a number of CSLs were just as quickly let go by their new owners for reasons that are unclear to me. The original going rate was R 940,000.00 and today a CSL can be had for between R 570,000.00 to R 650,000.00. Not the residuals you’d expect from a future classic. Did this situation result from the car being different to what prospective owners imagined? I can only guess. Fortunately for me, the M3 CSL is now a known quantity and I had a pretty good idea of what to expect thanks to friend of mine and you folks here at GCF.
So, with the fuel light lit and only 27 km of computed range to go, I fired the beast up, marvelled at the drama of the thing just at idle alone (would you believe), snicked the lever across into drive and selected first gear with the right steering mounted paddle. Moving off simply requires a gentle dab on the accelerator followed by the briefest of pauses before the clutch bites and the car gets away cleanly. Careful to wait for optimum engine temperature and mindful of my lack of experience (relative to my AWD experience) with a powerful rear-wheel car I took things easy for the first part of the drive. Gearbox set to slush mode and partial throttle loads didn’t detract from the sense that this is a most intimately involving experience. The car’s ride is seriously firm (as another friend of mine puts it; drive over a 50 cent coin and you can tell whether it’s heads or tails) and there’s a distinct lack of sound deadening. This culminates in what has to be one of motoring’s finer aural experiences. What you feel and what you hear must surely be the closest thing you can get to a production race car for the (GT3 and other prancing horse types excepted I’d imagine).
The M3 CSL is all about using that 7900 rpm rev-range – it’s not a car that’s going to thrust you back into your seat at freeway speeds in the top two gears. No, for that true CSL experience, pull back on the left paddle (maybe twice even) marvel at the simply grin-inducing throttle blip upon gearing down and press the loud pedal. All the way down. The sound that the M3 CSL makes is difficult to describe; the best I can do is to say that it’s somewhere between a roar and a howl. It’s nothing short of nape-of-the-neck tingling stuff… Roooaaarrrroooowwllll, KERPOW, Roooarrrrooowwlll, KERPOW! Yup, you guessed it: in hardcore mode the gearshift is a sudden, violent and audible kick in the back. I love it because it simply compounds on the drama of the whole experience. My passenger friend winced though – so this is definitely not one for the faint-of-heart or for demurely disposed spouses. This is a man’s car and a driver’s car – period. Sure, I know a couple of ladies that’ll take to it like ducks to water, but I also know that those ladies will pretty much out-drive most of the guys I know on any given Sunday.
Truth be told, I couldn’t possibly tell you what a CSL handles like at the limit, so vast is the depth of this car’s ability. Sure, we got to take some corners and yes, the overall impression was one of immense grip, adjustability and interactivity but I’m hardly going to be the one that passes on an exact impression of the M3 CSL’s most intimate handling nuances. Suffice to say that in my experience: thank God for DSC. This is one car that truly imparts an understanding of the meaning of power. Power is the rate at which torque is delivered and in the CSL there is an overwhelming sensation of this rate increasing – as if exponentially - as the revs rise. Floor it mid corner, in the right gear, and the CSL will burn rubber baby. Novices beware.
All in all, the pervading impression is of a car that intimately (there’s that word again) interfaces the road with the driver in a sensationally tactile and visceral manner. After my experience with it, I think I have a new slogan for Bavaria’s best…
BMW: What you Feel is Real
My M3 CSL test-drive was all too brief. This particular black car was one of 3 pristine examples on the floor at Lyndhurst BMW here in Johannesburg. After being snapped up fairly rapidly upon launch, a number of CSLs were just as quickly let go by their new owners for reasons that are unclear to me. The original going rate was R 940,000.00 and today a CSL can be had for between R 570,000.00 to R 650,000.00. Not the residuals you’d expect from a future classic. Did this situation result from the car being different to what prospective owners imagined? I can only guess. Fortunately for me, the M3 CSL is now a known quantity and I had a pretty good idea of what to expect thanks to friend of mine and you folks here at GCF.
So, with the fuel light lit and only 27 km of computed range to go, I fired the beast up, marvelled at the drama of the thing just at idle alone (would you believe), snicked the lever across into drive and selected first gear with the right steering mounted paddle. Moving off simply requires a gentle dab on the accelerator followed by the briefest of pauses before the clutch bites and the car gets away cleanly. Careful to wait for optimum engine temperature and mindful of my lack of experience (relative to my AWD experience) with a powerful rear-wheel car I took things easy for the first part of the drive. Gearbox set to slush mode and partial throttle loads didn’t detract from the sense that this is a most intimately involving experience. The car’s ride is seriously firm (as another friend of mine puts it; drive over a 50 cent coin and you can tell whether it’s heads or tails) and there’s a distinct lack of sound deadening. This culminates in what has to be one of motoring’s finer aural experiences. What you feel and what you hear must surely be the closest thing you can get to a production race car for the (GT3 and other prancing horse types excepted I’d imagine).
The M3 CSL is all about using that 7900 rpm rev-range – it’s not a car that’s going to thrust you back into your seat at freeway speeds in the top two gears. No, for that true CSL experience, pull back on the left paddle (maybe twice even) marvel at the simply grin-inducing throttle blip upon gearing down and press the loud pedal. All the way down. The sound that the M3 CSL makes is difficult to describe; the best I can do is to say that it’s somewhere between a roar and a howl. It’s nothing short of nape-of-the-neck tingling stuff… Roooaaarrrroooowwllll, KERPOW, Roooarrrrooowwlll, KERPOW! Yup, you guessed it: in hardcore mode the gearshift is a sudden, violent and audible kick in the back. I love it because it simply compounds on the drama of the whole experience. My passenger friend winced though – so this is definitely not one for the faint-of-heart or for demurely disposed spouses. This is a man’s car and a driver’s car – period. Sure, I know a couple of ladies that’ll take to it like ducks to water, but I also know that those ladies will pretty much out-drive most of the guys I know on any given Sunday.
Truth be told, I couldn’t possibly tell you what a CSL handles like at the limit, so vast is the depth of this car’s ability. Sure, we got to take some corners and yes, the overall impression was one of immense grip, adjustability and interactivity but I’m hardly going to be the one that passes on an exact impression of the M3 CSL’s most intimate handling nuances. Suffice to say that in my experience: thank God for DSC. This is one car that truly imparts an understanding of the meaning of power. Power is the rate at which torque is delivered and in the CSL there is an overwhelming sensation of this rate increasing – as if exponentially - as the revs rise. Floor it mid corner, in the right gear, and the CSL will burn rubber baby. Novices beware.
All in all, the pervading impression is of a car that intimately (there’s that word again) interfaces the road with the driver in a sensationally tactile and visceral manner. After my experience with it, I think I have a new slogan for Bavaria’s best…
BMW: What you Feel is Real
, well than I supose the 
