While more and more European car companies are embracing a fully electric future, BMW still knows the fun that can come from a straight-six engine with a couple hundred horses under the hood. Introducing the M4 CS—the brand new M4 for 2025. It is lighter than the standard M4, with more horsepower, and has more than little bit of connection with the very limited edition M4 CSL of which there were only 1000 units made. You may not have been able to get a CSL, but a BMW M4 CS is a definite possibility. Car and Driver got to take a closer look.
Carbon Fiber Everywhere: The Quest to Lighten the M4
To take a great car and make it fantastic, BMW used every opportunity to shave off weight wherever they could in the M4 CS. The CS stands for “Competition Sport,” and a truly sporty car needs carbon fiber (or at least racing stripes—which the CS that Car and Driver got to check out also has). Luckily for us, the CS has plenty of carbon fiber, in this case (CFRP) carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic, which BMW has used for the roof, hood, intakes, and spoilers (among other things) on the outside of the car. The CFRP was also used to reduce weight inside as well, with carbon fiber gracing the flappy paddles, console, seats, and other trim. This liberal use of carbon fiber has reduced the weight from the M4 CS’s more standard M4 counterpart by 77 whole pounds, and honestly makes it look so much faster.
More Horses Under the Hood: It Ties With The M4 CSL
Sure, you can’t actually get your hands on a M4 CSL, but you can get a CS with the same engine. Both the M4 CSL and M4 CS share the same engine, a beefy 3.0 liter twin-turbo straight-six which has 543 beautiful horses under that carbon-fiber hood. Though it also shares a similar engine with the more standard M4 Competition xDrive, the maximum boost pressure has been raised on the CS and CSL to 30.5 psi, and other engine parameters have been tweaked in the engine software to give these two 20 more horsepower than their less sporty counterpart. The torque, however, remains the same at a more than adequate 479 lb-ft.
The real question is, how fast does the M4 CS actually go? According to BMW, it will get you to 62 mph in 3.4 second and 124 in just 11.1. (The CSL boasts 0-60 time of 3.3 seconds and 0-100 as 6.9, which seems pretty darn similar to us.) BMW claims to have gotten it round the Nürburgring in 7:21.99, while the CSL’s best lap is 7:17.08, which are once again are remarkably similar times.
The Bottom Line: How Do You Know If the M4 CS For You?
First of all, if you saw the release info for the very limited M4 CSL and liked what you were seeing, the M4 CS may just be for you. It has the same engine, a lot of the same things to like about it, including the carbon fiber styling and a dedication to track days. And best of all, the CS clocks in at $124,675, which works out as about $16,000 less than the CSL. Interested? Car and Driver has all of the info.
