BMW M3 CS 2023 review

It doesn’t take as long as reaching the first corner. You don’t even have to wait until the first opportunity to relish in the straight-six engine’s heady appetite for revs, or its accompanying blend of power and torque that any mixologist would be proud of. No, the M3 CS takes no more than the first dozen rotations of its sticky Pirellis to tell you it is another brilliant execution of BMW M’s CS formula – a formula that has resulted in the last two recipients of such treatment being crowned evo Cars of the Year. No pressure, M3 CS.

Those two previous CS models, the M2 and M5, demonstrated the far-reaching possibilities of recent M cars when the shackles are loosened and the freedom to think about what’s possible is actively encouraged by M’s head of engineering, Dirk Hacker. In the M2 CS we got a sharper, more precise sports saloon. A small gem that delivered blinding excellence in everything it did. A car that could pick apart a road and convey the surface detail and texture back to the driver in a manner on a par with a performance car costing twice the money and wearing a badge that carries far bigger expectations. The M5 CS? Possibly one of the greatest cars we’ve driven. Not only the greatest supersaloon ever made, it’s also a driver’s car that scores top marks in every discipline we value. 

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The M3 CS, according to Hacker, is the M5 CS recipe refined for the M3, and as with the finest meals, your first taste of the G80-series M3 CS has you salivating for more. Its carbon bucket seat, which has been tailored specifically for the model, sits you on the floor; the Alcantara-wrapped wheel can be pulled into your chest to exactly where you want it. It’s chunky because this is a BMW M car, but not as ludicrously so as its forebears. The M3 CS is not as loud as its predecessors either, despite the fitment of a lighter (by 4kg) titanium exhaust, because particulate filters are sound thieves. But this doesn’t really matter once you’re on the move, because this latest CS has you feasting on its capability the moment you’re sitting down. 

It starts with the ride, as is the case with so many of the best cars. Even with the adaptive dampers in their Comfort setting there remains a tautness to how the chassis reacts, yet it also smothers the surface and maintains cabin calmness without a single hint of aloofness. It makes an M3 Competition feel like it needs an edge or two smoothed away or, indeed, the CS’s hard- and software. Within a few miles you’ve nudged the dampers into Sport, which in years past would have required you to either be on a circuit or have a complicated and borderline sadistic relationship with your spine. Not so here.

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Behind all this are revised axle kinematics front and rear, tuned to work with new camber settings and new active damper units. The auxiliary springs and anti-roll bars are also new, developed specifically for the CS and optimised to improve steering precision and better manage the lateral forces that are a consequence of the spring and damper changes. The result is a turbocharged M3 like no other that’s gone before: sharper in everything it does, more immediate in its responses, an M3 that feels significantly more dialled-in in every respect.

Fitted with Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres (a Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S is also available), grip feels unbreakable on turn-in as the front axle locks onto the line you’ve chosen, the CS pivoting around your hips with an unexpected alacrity for a car of its size (and bulk – the four-wheel-drive CS weighs 1765kg, 15kg less than an M3 Competition xDrive). Yet it feels organic and adjustable, and rear-wheel driven even when the loads across the rear axle continue to increase and torque is shuffled forward.

With such reassurance from the front end you’re soon leaning harder on it, opening the throttle earlier and feeling M’s active differential hook up the rear, causing it to follow in a symbiotic motion with the car’s nose. It feels like every component is machined from a single piece of complex material, eliminating every millimetre of slack and compromise. Less a sports car developed from a volume saloon, more a finely honed sports car full stop.

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While the steering ratio remains the same as the M3 xDrive’s, it does feel more tuned in to the car’s responses, although there are times when more clarity to what’s happening would be welcome. There isn’t the initial sense of connection the best steering systems offer and it doesn’t possess the linear action you want in slow-to-medium turns, especially when the surface is variable. It means you can find yourself taking a second bite at a corner’s entry, feeling for that limpet-like grip to build. But when the road is flowing and the speed keeps coming, the CS changes direction and flows with the kind of accuracy and consistency you’d associate with a car residing in the supercar section of evo’s Knowledge. 

Revisions to the rear differential, which are joined by a new oil-cooling set-up for the multi-plate clutch pack that distributes torque fore and aft, provide the M3 CS with a cornering balance that generates so much confidence, whether you’re driving within the limit or starting to explore beyond it. There are simply no surprises, just a reassuring sense of poise and purity that floods over you. It’s like few others in its sector in this regard. Yes, the regular M3 Competition is good, the xDrive model equally so, but the CS is such a step on that it feels like a bespoke car.

Opening the throttle as early as you dare is still not early enough to unsettle the M3 CS, the xDrive and active diff barely breaking sweat as the rear bias drives you out of the corner with grip to spare from the Corsa rubber. Soon you’ll be pushing harder, squeezing the throttle sooner and for longer as you begin to feel movement through the car and your instincts react accordingly. The window you have to work in when it comes to balancing the CS is slightly mind-blowing because it’s such a wide area of operation. Breaching the car’s limits – or rather the Pirelli’s limits – in the dry is not for the faint-hearted unless you have room to manoeuvre, yet it’s as you venture towards its higher limits that the CS really comes alive. The sensation when you nail the perfect apex and feel the weight transfer over the rear as the torque squeezes those tyres into the surface, the inside-front beginning to crest, feels majestic.

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The way it takes a stance with all four wheels under equal load, pushing and pulling out of a corner, requires you to remind yourself this car will seat five adults (sorry, no M5 CS-style rear buckets here). And then there is the flamboyance, which when given the opportunity to reveal itself shows the CS to be even more polished and rewarding and satisfying than its Competition cousin.  

Put simply, the M3 CS stands out because it feels special in everything it does, regardless of the road or circumstances. From how it steers and rides, via its multidimensional body control that’s rarely fazed or caught out, to how it plugs the driver into the process, the CS becomes harder to fault with every mile covered. 

Work carried out to the S58 straight‑six isn’t as comprehensive as the chassis’ workover, the upgrades limited to an increase in turbocharger pressure from 1.7 to 2.1 bar and the ECU remapped accordingly. With an additional 39bhp, peak power increases to 542bhp, while torque remains at 479lb ft. In the lower gears (fourth and below) it’s rapid, throttle response as instant as the front end is reactive, and the speed seems never-ending as it builds. But while it feels relentless, it’s not frantic, rather it’s controlled and measured, in sync with the rest of the car’s behaviour. Higher gears – the auto ’box has eight in total – can generate some lag, not because the engine is tardy, but because its responses are not quite as sharp as those you experience in the lower ratios, yet it’s still willing and more than able to get you in trouble. 

The meticulous work that’s gone into the CS makes itself known even before you’ve programmed the M1 button on the steering wheel, the gearbox holding on to gears mid-corner in auto mode and allowing the revs to build on exit before shifting up. Leave it to downshift too and its changes are a match for pulling on the left-hand paddle yourself. 

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Take a look behind the frameless grille and under the carbon bonnet (the roof, front splitter and rear diffuser are made from the same lightweight material) and you are presented with a sizeable piece of evidence as to the CS’s sharp dynamics in the form of an intricate but purposeful aluminium cross-brace placed over the S58. If you’re inclined to poke around some more you’ll also find the engine mount that’s been redesigned with a higher spring rate to improve rigidity between the engine and the car’s core structure. It’s a car dripping with attention to detail in every area that counts. 

Including the interior. There are those carbon-shelled seats of course, which are standard equipment, plus that Alcantara rim and the new dual-screen set-up that was introduced with the mid-life update for the current 3-series. There’s also carbonfibre trim for many of the interior components, and like the M5 CS there’s no centre armrest or storage bin between the front seats, and much to the chagrin of photographer Aston Parrott, no cup holders as a result.

After the M2 and M5 CS, last year’s M4 CSL promised ultimate greatness but failed to live up to the sum of its parts, its changes injecting compromise rather than engagement and thrills. The M3 CS is the polar opposite, with an approach that, like those other recent CS transformations, results in one of the most resolved and exciting cars of its type. The M3 Competition is hard to knock. It sits among the very best in its class, and many will be thinking the £32,000 premium the CS commands is hard to comprehend (which we get). But if you can and have gone for an M3 CS you’ve picked one of the all-time greats. Roll on eCoty?

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Price and rivals 

There aren’t many rivals to put splitter to splitter with the £115,900 BMW M3 CS (certainly not in the new car world), so you’ll need to look at used rivals such as Alfa Romeo’s Giulia GTAm and Jaguar’s Project 8. Neither of which are in plentiful supply. 

The Alfa is the newer of the pair, a brilliant piece of engineering and intoxicating to drive. But you’ll need an eagle eye to find one in the classifieds and £150,000+ to buy one. Worth it? The Alfa is hard to ignore if you want one of the best and most charismatic supersaloons of our time. 

And the same can be said for Jaguar’s Project 8. It’s one of the most extreme Jaguar road cars of all time and a great driver’s car, too, with two-seat, roll cage equipped examples costing anywhere from an M3 CS matching £115,000 to over £150,000. However, in May 2022 a rare Touring model (no rear wing or cage, but rear seats) sold on Collecting Cars for £96,000 which is, frankly, a bargain.

Why it made eCoty 2023

2022 was a year to forget for the BMW M4 CSL. Following consecutive eCoty titles for the M2 CS and M5 CS in 2020 and 2021, the harder, lighter, punchier CSL fell some way short of giving BMW M a hat trick of wins (yes, something only Porsche has achieved). Torn apart by our test route, the CSL came up short in pretty much every area, its blushes only saved by the Mercedes-AMG SL55 4Matic+ collecting the wooden spoon.

Twelve months on and BMW has reverted to the tried and tested CS formula, this time applied to the M3 saloon. And it’s a cracker once again. Sharp, distinctive, involving, engaging and riotously exciting when the opportunity arises, the pressure the M3 CS carries into eCoty doesn’t feel as though it will unduly overburden the car. Every time we have fallen into its carbon bucket seats it hasn’t disappointed. Like previous CS models its damping allows it to turn in a performance in body control and synchronicity expected of more bespoke, detailed and expensive machinery. It oozes character, piles on the feedback and leaves you craving one more drive. All in a four-door BMW saloon car.

Does it have the magic gloss that fired its predecessors to the top of the voting? It wouldn’t have made eCoty 2023 if we didn’t think so. There is so much the M3 CS does right it’s hard to see where it might lose votes. But it faces some exceptionally strong competition, with some of this year’s contenders making the CS’s approach to hardcore look quite tame. And, of course, it has quite the reputation to live up to: the M5 CS is not only one of the greatest supersaloons ever made, but one of the very best eCoty winners, too.

BMW M3 CS (G80) specs