The Greatest BMW M Ever

[Straightsix]

Brace yourselves you will be surprised and you might not like the #1 ;-)

http://classicandvintagebmw.tumblr.com/fromcsltocsl

[Sailorbaz]

Good find mate, ;-)

[LeinsCSL]

Great find! Presume it's from Top Gear mag as they mention the TG track

Very surprised at number 13

[Roland]

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

[83SY]

Would love that mag' to put away with the others I have sourced!
The only mag' that doesn't jump up and down about the CSL is EVO who say the standard E46 M3 is quicker! :hahaha:

[shimmy]

Would love that mag' to put away with the others I have sourced!
The only mag' that doesn't jump up and down about the CSL is EVO who say the standard E46 M3 is quicker! :hahaha:

Thats them off the Munich trip list!

[Yanto_csl]

Would love that mag' to put away with the others I have sourced!
The only mag' that doesn't jump up and down about the CSL is EVO who say the standard E46 M3 is quicker! :hahaha:

That was early on mate, but they changed their tune in the last couple of years...particularly when compared to GTS.

[Yanto_csl]

Article a good find - never seen it before :thumbs:

[Straightsix]

Article a good find - never seen it before :thumbs:

I found it on Facebook of all places.

I liked Classic and Vintage BMW and looked on their website and found it

Also check out Evo magazine but most of you will probably have seen it before



One done by Evo Magazine in 2007

http://www.m3post.com/goodiesforyou/evo.pdf

Also interesting where the M3 CSL and newly launched E92 M3 stack up

[Straightsix]

Would love that mag' to put away with the others I have sourced!
The only mag' that doesn't jump up and down about the CSL is EVO who say the standard E46 M3 is quicker! :hahaha:

See the Evo magazine link

Evo magazine do rate the M3 CSL and the M3 CS :-)

[LeinsCSL]

Little bit of light CSL reading for Sunday afternoon now that the Moto GP is over (what was Nicky Hayden doing?)

As Shimmy said, the CSL got some bad press in the early days, but I always blamed the likes of Andrew Frankel at Autocar for this, trotting out the old line of "it's too extreme for the road, get a std M3 instead". Auto Express were at it too: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-reviews/15583/bmw-m3-csl

Even Munich Legends: http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/de...start-slipping


Here's an early EVO review, and John Barker has always been a bit of a fan of the CSL, Dickie Meaden less so: http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/carg...ti_spec_c.html

Then we get to more recent times where journos have started raving about it, like Car's Ben Barry here asking a question he never answers:

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/Search-Results/First-drives/BMW-M3-GTS-M3-CSL-and-M3-Sport-Evo--which-is-the-greatest-ever-BMW-M3/

But for me it's always been Chris Harris who's been the biggest fan of the car, right from his initial prototype drive for Autocar. As far as I remember, he was also the first one to say that the GTS might be put in the shade by the CSL

[Straightsix]

Little bit of light CSL reading for Sunday afternoon now that the Moto GP is over (what was Nicky Hayden doing?)

As Shimmy said, the CSL got some bad press in the early days, but I always blamed the likes of Andrew Frankel at Autocar for this, trotting out the old line of "it's too extreme for the road, get a std M3 instead". Auto Express were at it too: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-reviews/15583/bmw-m3-csl

Even Munich Legends: http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/de...start-slipping


Here's an early EVO review, and John Barker has always been a bit of a fan of the CSL, Dickie Meaden less so: http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/carg...ti_spec_c.html

Then we get to more recent times where journos have started raving about it, like Car's Ben Barry here asking a question he never answers:

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/Search-Results/First-drives/BMW-M3-GTS-M3-CSL-and-M3-Sport-Evo--which-is-the-greatest-ever-BMW-M3/

But for me it's always been Chris Harris who's been the biggest fan of the car, right from his initial prototype drive for Autocar. As far as I remember, he was also the first one to say that the GTS might be put in the shade by the CSL

Thanks for those links will have a read of them later :-)

When u look at the M3 CSL there are so much engineering details to improve over the already impressive E46 M3 Coupe

I think some people baulked at the £60k price .... Well CFRP ain't cheap .... If I could have afforded one then I would have chosen a new M3 CSL over a 996 Carrera 2 with Porsche Manual Gearbox

In a straight line there is not too much in it between M3 CSL and M3. But from what I understand the CSL really shines in the corners and over a long track like Nurburgring all the little improvements in acceleration, braking, cornering accumulate to make big time improvement.

Funny at the time BMW had lots of takers when they unveiled the prototype but then struggled to sell them all. Therefore, you see some 04, 54 and even maybe 05 Plate M3 CSLs.

I am sure someone must have an 05 Plate M3 CSL :-) ?

[NZ_M3]

Not sure how you guys can even read that first link ... Here's a better version:

[shimmy]

Thanks Tom, my eyes are not as good as they used to be before I retired


So if Soper did a 1m20.9 for a lap of the TG track how does that make the 1m 29 look that th Stig put in whilst wet.,

[NZ_M3]

So if Soper did a 1m20.9 for a lap of the TG track how does that make the 1m 29 look that th Stig put in whilst wet.,

You are welcome Andy :thumbs:

I didn't realise that the times were for the Top Gear track ... that's interesting, and would make the CSL equally as fast as the Mercedes McLaren SLR - also at 1:20.9 - and a shit load faster than a lot of other very fast cars, notably:
997 GT3, 996 GT3 RS MKII, Lexus LFA, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, C63 Black series, 360 Challenge Stradale, Ferrari F430

Suffice to say that Soper is probably a better peddler than the Stig.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Top_Gear_test_track_Power_Lap_Times