Hello. I guess this is the place for this albeit not really a build because there's nothing much to change or improve now! More of an excuse to post some of the beautiful pictures Jordan Butters took of it!
Vehicle Spec:
2003 M3 CSL
145,000 Miles
AP Racing Brakes
Manual Transmission
4.1 Differential
I bought this car in May 2014, so I'm soon going to have owned it for 7 years. It spent the first 5 years of its life as an SMG which I was pretty happy with, but thought my more road-biased use case would better suit a manual transmission. It was something I looked into before I even bought the car and it took me those 5 years to pluck up the courage to "mess with" a "classic". In the end, I decided there were two choices, sell the car and find something better or convert it. The next car, in my opinion, would be a 997 GT3 and unfortunately it's about twice the price. So I got in touch with my friend who runs a BMW specialist and we decided to get stuck in.
It wasn't the first CSL to be converted, I think it was maybe the fourth, but with my friend's business being new I thought I'd try to make a big deal of it. I'd spent a few weeks getting all the parts together so that we could get it done over a weekend together, and weirdly the build date coincided with a video Autocar released about which was the best M3. Their conclusion was that the CSL was their favourite, apart from the SMG box. I tweeted the journalist, Matt Prior, to let him know that I'm building exactly the car he wanted, and that he was welcome to come have a go when it was finished. At the time I'd also had some conversations with Henry Catchpole (someone who really loves manual gearboxes) and once the Autocar video was launched, we set a date to do the Carfection film. For the Carfection film, my friend wanted to show off some of his other offerings so fitted his favourite modification, a 4.1 final drive differential. I know to some of you this sounds low but believe me, on British roads where there's a lot less space, a lot more corners and ways to get across the country without touching a highway it makes huge sense and makes the car so much more eager and hooligan-like on the road. Granted it's not the best for tracks but my car spends 99% of its time on the road, so that's where my priorities lie.
Both of these videos were big hits and my friend's business has now converted around 10 CSLs from around the world. I realise of course there's very little difference in converting a CSL over and above a standard car, more of a psychological barrier than anything else! But the videos we did and subsequent press he got on his own have meant he's the first name people go to.
In the mean time a magazine that is unfortunately now out of business, Modern Classic Magazine, got in touch to say they'd like to feature my car as part of a big M3 group test I was doing. This is where my beautiful photos have come from. He's said that I can post them on social media and print them for myself, but obviously he still owns the license to them so please don't go printing T-Shirts or selling posters
Before the manual conversion the car lived a great big adventure with me, it's been to Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. Then the pandemic hit and it's sat in my garage for nearly a year, being used for the odd commute when my wife needed our family wagon. Currently the battery is dead and there's some corrosion that needs fixing (something I guess you US guys don't have such of a problem with!). I'm hoping to go on a few more adventures but I'm also wondering about selling it and moving on. I had a baby last May and life has changed completely along with my priorities, so who knows!
Any questions I'm happy to answer them!
Onto the pictures:
Vehicle Spec:
2003 M3 CSL
145,000 Miles
AP Racing Brakes
Manual Transmission
4.1 Differential
I bought this car in May 2014, so I'm soon going to have owned it for 7 years. It spent the first 5 years of its life as an SMG which I was pretty happy with, but thought my more road-biased use case would better suit a manual transmission. It was something I looked into before I even bought the car and it took me those 5 years to pluck up the courage to "mess with" a "classic". In the end, I decided there were two choices, sell the car and find something better or convert it. The next car, in my opinion, would be a 997 GT3 and unfortunately it's about twice the price. So I got in touch with my friend who runs a BMW specialist and we decided to get stuck in.
It wasn't the first CSL to be converted, I think it was maybe the fourth, but with my friend's business being new I thought I'd try to make a big deal of it. I'd spent a few weeks getting all the parts together so that we could get it done over a weekend together, and weirdly the build date coincided with a video Autocar released about which was the best M3. Their conclusion was that the CSL was their favourite, apart from the SMG box. I tweeted the journalist, Matt Prior, to let him know that I'm building exactly the car he wanted, and that he was welcome to come have a go when it was finished. At the time I'd also had some conversations with Henry Catchpole (someone who really loves manual gearboxes) and once the Autocar video was launched, we set a date to do the Carfection film. For the Carfection film, my friend wanted to show off some of his other offerings so fitted his favourite modification, a 4.1 final drive differential. I know to some of you this sounds low but believe me, on British roads where there's a lot less space, a lot more corners and ways to get across the country without touching a highway it makes huge sense and makes the car so much more eager and hooligan-like on the road. Granted it's not the best for tracks but my car spends 99% of its time on the road, so that's where my priorities lie.
Both of these videos were big hits and my friend's business has now converted around 10 CSLs from around the world. I realise of course there's very little difference in converting a CSL over and above a standard car, more of a psychological barrier than anything else! But the videos we did and subsequent press he got on his own have meant he's the first name people go to.
In the mean time a magazine that is unfortunately now out of business, Modern Classic Magazine, got in touch to say they'd like to feature my car as part of a big M3 group test I was doing. This is where my beautiful photos have come from. He's said that I can post them on social media and print them for myself, but obviously he still owns the license to them so please don't go printing T-Shirts or selling posters
Before the manual conversion the car lived a great big adventure with me, it's been to Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. Then the pandemic hit and it's sat in my garage for nearly a year, being used for the odd commute when my wife needed our family wagon. Currently the battery is dead and there's some corrosion that needs fixing (something I guess you US guys don't have such of a problem with!). I'm hoping to go on a few more adventures but I'm also wondering about selling it and moving on. I had a baby last May and life has changed completely along with my priorities, so who knows!
Any questions I'm happy to answer them!
Onto the pictures:
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