Nicely right here it’s. Just like the four-door M3 CS earlier than it, we knew the M4 CS would arrive. Because the Brits say, this CS does precisely what’s on the tin. Which means sandwiching between the top-line CSL and the Competitors badge only a rung under.
Our hero coupe rings up at $124,675. It is spendier than the Competitors trim, after all. It’s additionally barely extra highly effective, lighter, and quicker general. The inverse can also be true; The CS undercuts CSL on value, however can’t match the hard-edged focus of BMW’s limited-production halo automobile.
To nail its Goldilocks mix, the CS borrows from every of its brothers. It takes CSL odds and ends to lower weight and improve visible punch. Take for instance the attractive carbon-fiber heart console, a carbon-composite hood, and titanium exhaust resonator. All are used to chop kilos and blend some CSL taste into the CS (plus amortize the prices of these swanky CSL parts). All mentioned, the CS weighs 77 kilos lower than the xDrive Competitors.
Twin-Turbo 3.0-Liter Six-Cylinder
Output 543 Horsepower / 479 Pound-Toes Weight 3,850 Kilos 0-60 MPH 3.4 Seconds Base Value $124,675
From the M4 xDrive Competitors, the CS borrows its rear-biased all-wheel drive system (known as xDrive), setting the CS aside from the rear-drive CSL. We’ve lengthy thought of the xDrive Competitors the usual bearer of the M3/M4 lineup. It stays the very best worth, as far as nipping the heels of supercars is worried; A Nissan GT-R by means of Bavaria.
In fact, BMW’s ubiquitous 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six lives beneath the hood. You’ll know the engine by sound alone—each M4 sounds such as you’ve stuffed tube socks up its tailpipes. This one’s no totally different.
The CS’s ‘six lays down 543 horses at 6,250 rpm and 479 pound-feet from 2,750 to five,950 rpm. That’s up 20 horsepower from the Competitors whereas sustaining the S58 engine’s trademark torque curve—flat and lengthy as a salt mattress.
From one perspective, the CS is a price range CSL. From one other, it’s merely a more-capable M4 Competitors. Each are appropriate, however I’d give the sting to “CSL-lite.”
For all its additional lightweighting, visible fizz, and trim-specific touches, the CSL laps a race monitor solely marginally faster, making the M4 CS the second-fastest manufacturing Bimmer to ever snake by way of Hatzenbach, blitzing its approach to a 7:21.99 ‘Ring time. That’s lower than 4 seconds off the CSL.
Over a lap that lengthy (greater than 12 miles), that four-second disparity may very well be right down to atmospheric circumstances, spring fee, tire strain, or one thing so marginal we wouldn’t assume to contemplate it. From the angle of a pit-wall stopwatch, these vehicles are an identical.
That performs out of their dealing with too. Whether or not RWD or AWD, the M4 lays down energy equally nicely. From a dig, the xDrive M4 holds a traction and acceleration benefit over the CSL, however I don’t assume there’s a lot between the 2 drivetrain layouts in any other case, from both efficiency or experiential views.
Execs: Observe Efficiency, Large Energy, Larger Grip
Most likely as a result of these coupes each trip on Michelin’s uber-gummy Cup 2Rs (although they’re optionally available on the CS), sized 275/35 up entrance and 285/30 out again. The CS wrap its French rubber round a set of multi-spoke wheels in matte gold or black, complimenting the 4 out there paint colours: Riviera Blue (assume Smurfs), Frozen Isle of Man Inexperienced (assume dusty cloverleaf), Brooklyn Gray Metallic (assume anodized metal), and Sapphire Black Metallic (self-explanatory). All 4 paint colours had been available for comparability, and after ample consideration, we’ll take ours in blinged-out Vader spec: black on gold.
BMW gathered its multicolored fold of CS testers at Austria’s Salzburgring, which lives on the aptly named Jochen Rindt Strasse, simply over the German border. After a possibility to dash the coupes down some derestricted autobahn, we headed to the monitor to poke at this BMW’s track-day bona fides.
In fact the CS takes to trace work like wildfire.
The eight-speed automated works flawlessly, cracking off fast, exact upshifts down Salzburgring’s again straight, beneath full engine energy. Then the transmission hits equally swift, settled downshifts when braking deep into Salzburgring’s tough and high-speed flip 11.
At this monitor and another, nonetheless, you’ll need to choose your individual gears through the paddle shifters. The ECU will get behind the ball whenever you want energy essentially the most, usually a gear (and even two) too excessive when digging out of the Salzbugring’s low-speed chicanes.
The brakes carried out flawlessly too. Carbon-ceramics can be found, as are a set of ordinary “M Compound” brakes with calipers in both pink or black; The ceramics can be found with red- or gold-finish calipers. Both are well-suited to trace work.
xDrive gives buckets of grip on nook exit, however by no means penalizes with torque steer or push, no matter how clumsily or closely you decide up the throttle. Whether or not or not you care about lap instances, xDrive is the right alternative for the M4. It makes final lap instances that a lot simpler to succeed in, bestowing final confidence on the meatbag behind the steering wheel.
If the CS has one flaw, it’s the M Carbon bucket seats. They’re suburb-looking issues with a cool cloth insert working up the seatback. The thrones are absolutely energy adjustable. They’re heated. They’re attractive. They’re simply not very snug. And for a lot of peoples’ frames, they received’t present sufficient assist in quick corners they usually’ll ache your bottom on lengthy street journeys.
Each member of the BMW M4 household goes fast sufficient to emphasize your inhaling high-speed corners. Hardcore trackday bros will yearn for a deeper, single-piece bucket like Porsche presents in its RS merchandise. With out an choice that excessive, they’ll go for one thing with Recaro or Sparco embroidered excessive on the mounted seatback.
We drove one other BMW M automobile prototype alongside the CS. Identical monitor, again to again. The prototype’s adjustable-bolster seats provided exceeding assist to your torso and much, way more consolation through plush leather-based and a deep nicely of under-seat padding. Observe speeds had been related between the 2 vehicles, however I felt far safer driving the prototype on monitor.
Your physique sort and expertise will range. Simply give the CS an excellent lengthy take a look at drive earlier than you determine for your self.
From one perspective, the CS is a price range CSL. From one other, it’s merely a more-capable M4 Competitors.
General, it was a fabulous little stint on the Salzburgring.
The CS’s Michelin Cup 2Rs are masterful issues when the climate permits. There’s a sliver of comfortable Narnia, proper within the tires’ helpful working window, a magic spot between unwieldy ice-cold marbles and ineffective gooey campfire mallows.
With ambient temperatures simply cresting 70 levels Fahrenheit in Salzburg, the M4 labored its 2Rs into that comfortable zone inside perhaps three-quarters of a lap. There they lived for the rest of our brief lapping classes, which isn’t at all times a given; Consider these tires as those you’d throw on for a qualifying session. They’re not right here for a very long time; they’re right here to nail a quick one.
The 2Rs chew proper after the primary greasy smidge of slip, a sensation you are feeling by way of the CS’s steering wheel as a type of grainy buzzing rumble. The feeling provides approach solely whenever you’ve requested an excessive amount of from the M4’s entrance finish. It’s not the most-feelsome steering within the CS (and I don’t think about the 2R’s as most-feelsome issues both), however the CS presents sufficient of the proper suggestions by way of your arms and haunches to get you in control on a brand new monitor inside mere corners. That’s the mark of a assured sports activities sedan.
There are not any surprises past its grip, both. The M4 is surefooted and stupid-quick in any guise. The CS simply presents a bit extra.
Cons: Laborious Seats, Costly Rubber, Excessive MSRP
That’s what you get with this CSL-lite. A bit extra spring. A bit extra damper. A bit extra roll bar. Extra-direct and responsive steering and possibly the best-looking exterior within the fold. It’s not a lot, however it’s not nothing.
I’ve had perhaps 100 racetrack laps throughout each trim stage within the M4 portfolio, and the CS’s entrance finish does really feel a smidge extra keen to show in than any of the lesser M4 variants. It telegraphs a bit extra street really feel and transmits a bit extra noise to the driving force. And so far as a distinction in on-track character to the CSL, there’s mere inches between the 2 vehicles. Not miles.
The M4 CS’s inside feels appropriately spruced for the value. There’s a brand new steering wheel with a flat backside and a slash of pink cloth at 12 o’clock, a pair of carbon shift paddles sat simply behind the wheel’s rim. It feels particular in there, way more particular than a equally priced Porsche 911 and funkier than the equal Mercedes or Audi, with loads of “///M” fanfare to fulfill the kind of purchaser who’d spring nicely past six figures for a Bavarian monitor particular.
Does the CS justify the value delta between its siblings? For me, it doesn’t. The M4 Competitors xDrive presents 90 p.c of the CS’s efficiency, however I’d quit time on the monitor to avoid wasting thirty-six grand ($88,300 MSRP).
Within the context of the CSL, nonetheless, you’d must say the CS does justify its asking value. The pair are equally quick on a racetrack and look an identical from 10 toes away. For my cash, the CSL doesn’t really feel any extra particular than the CS.
If you need to have the bestest, baddest M4 on the lot, that is your huckleberry, because the limited-run CSL is all gone. If worth enters the equation, then the competent, supercar-quick M4 xDrive Competitors beckons.