Driving the BMW M3 CSL 22 Years On

The BMW M3 CSL memory that never faded

The evening before I at last got to drive the most revered and fussed-over M3 ever made, I returned to the instant that first made me obsessed with it. That ‘instant’ lasts 10 minutes and 34 seconds, and some benevolent pirate has uploaded it to YouTube. It is a review, broadcast on 2 November 2003, of a 110kg-lighter ‘superfast’ BMW M3 by the BBC motoring programme Top Gear.

I was 12 at the time, meaning Jeremy’s digs at superfluous traction control and the road legality of semi-slick tyres went straight past me. Yet two details stayed with me. One was the setting. The film was made on the Isle of Man, where Clarkson compared its Blair-defying, speed-limit-rejecting disdain for bureaucracy with the hardcore CSL’s two-fingered gesture towards the nanny state.

The other was the sound: a sharp, metallic induction howl, as though the entire sequence was being viewed from inside the carbon-fibre airbox of the 3.2-litre straight-six.

Photography: Olgun Kordal

Finally driving the BMW M3 CSL

I have been waiting 22 years for this day. A CSL is scarcely ever spotted on the road; just 1,383 were built, and their values now make them seem too precious for either public roads or the track days they were created to enjoy. I had never sat in one, nor even steamed up a window while looking inside and imagining what it might be like to settle into that bucket seat, grasp that thick suede steering wheel, or perhaps even drive it.

This is not the Isle of Man. Even so, Exmoor is giving a persuasive imitation of a lump of rock in the Irish Sea today: wind is whipping, rain is lashing down, and cloud cover is 100 per cent at a lofty three feet. The CSL turns up on a transporter, delayed because the lorry driver assumed an administrative mistake had been made. “He wants the one with no tyre tread? The really rare one? In this? Are you sure?”

When it rolls off the lorry, the notable thing is that the CSL... is not especially striking. Back in 2003, this low-slung, carbon-roofed coupé was the toughest-looking BMW around. Set against today’s beaver-toothed M3, and the unspeakable ugliness of the iX and XM, the E46’s elegant outline now looks wonderfully restrained, its CSL additions visible only to genuine M devotees: the asymmetrical bumper opening, that ducktail and those Y-spoke wheels.

Old-school character and modern expectations

I am procrastinating because the day could still end in disappointment. Its 355bhp is now hot-hatch output. Nor has the early-2000s fascination with semi-automated paddle gearboxes aged gracefully: they were the uncanny valley between conventional transmissions and the lightning-fast shifts that dual-clutch systems later delivered. Indeed, there is now a healthy market for replacing BMW’s cumbersome SMG transmission with a proper manual gearbox.

It feels narrow, and responsive in a way a modern M car, even with all that tech, can’t fake

I would not do that. In part, it is because the gearbox is so fundamental to the CSL experience: every upshift requires a little thought and a lift of the throttle. It is also because the CSL connects BMW’s past glory years to the beginning of today’s configurable M cars, with their choices, modes and settings. This was the first M car with selectable shift speeds. Turn the setting all the way up, then lift off as the needle climbs through the warm orange lights towards the shrieking 7,900rpm red line. Yes: it is every bit as exuberantly raw, imperfect and rewarding as I hoped.

What passed for a rock-hard road racer in 2003 now leans through bends. Yet it feels slim and alert in a manner no modern M car can imitate, however much technology it has. It wears the current successor to the notorious near-slick Michelin Pilot Sport Cups supplied when new, so driving along the B3223 still carries a constant threat of aquaplaning. But I have seen, heard and felt enough to be certain that it remains one of the all-time great road cars.

With prices now lodged firmly in absurd ‘POA’ territory, this rain-soaked day is likely to be my only opportunity to connect with a CSL. Then again, there are always headphones and YouTube...