BMW M4 CS 2025 review – another smash hit CS?

BMW M’s CS package has proven to be the sweet-spot specification to get the very best from the latest crop of M cars. Back-to-back evo Car of the Year victories in 2020 and 2021 for the BMW M2 CS and M5 CS respectively, and a strong showing from the M3 CS in 2023’s eCoty and 2024’s Track Car of the Year set high expectations for the next instalment: the M4 CS. It gets the same attention to detail and forensic tuning of key components as its forebears, but does that make it another smash hit CS? 

When the M4 first appeared in 2021 in rear-drive Competition trim (evo 284), we wondered whether its hefty 1725kg kerb weight was compatible with its dynamic ambitions. Yet after half an hour on decent roads it was apparent that the willingness and capability of its chassis and the abundance of its performance rendered that kerb weight almost irrelevant. And on the West Circuit at Bedford, with DSC disabled and ‘Drift Analyser’ engaged, it proved spectacularly playful and poised, its 503bhp, twin-turbo straight-six offering seemingly endless urge.

How do you improve on that? The limited-edition, 1000-off, rear-wheel-drive CSL should have raised the bar, being 100kg lighter, partly by deleting the rear seats. It also swapped lots of compressible suspension bushes for uniball joints, retuned the suspension with uprated springs, and boosted the straight-six to a more aggressive 542bhp. It looked like being the ultimate in terms of dynamic clarity, yet while we found it compelling, the CSL was somewhat unresolved, a car that was less than the sum of its parts. The CS, however, could be the sweet-spot – four-wheel drive and not as aggressively tuned as the CSL, but still honed and sharpened compared to a Competition. 

Engine, gearbox and technical highlights

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The CS gets the same uprated 542bhp power output as the CSL, and a chunk of its lightweighting – including its road wheels (saving 1kg per corner) and numerous carbonfibre parts, among them the bonnet and splitter, plus the dashboard facia and centre console. In all, it takes 15kg off the weight of the Competition. Honestly, that saving on a 1775kg car is neither here nor there, the same as driving with a half tank rather than a full tank of fuel, but the look is very CSL, apart from the boot, which has a carbon gurney rather than the CSL’s unique, moulded, ducktail bootlid.

In terms of mechanical changes compared to the Competition, the M4 CS’s spring rates are stiffer by three per cent at the front and five per cent at the rear (the CSL was 4.5 and 10 per cent stiffer), with the dampers retuned to suit, while the anti-roll-bar drop-links are uniball-jointed, giving crisper roll response. The setup has been designed to make best use of the CS’s sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. Completing the upgrades, a cast aluminium brace spans the engine bay and there’s a titanium back-box and quad tailpipes.

Like the Competition, the CS’s xDrive system is essentially rear-drive, but engages the front axle for extra traction when needed. The key piece of hardware is an electromechanically controlled clutch-pack that can be progressively locked to deliver variable amounts of drive to the front axle, up to a maximum of 50 per cent of the engine’s torque. At the rear there’s an e-diff managing cross-axle torque, modulating the amount of locking on the overrun as well as under power, which makes it much more versatile than a conventional, mechanical limited-slip diff with its fixed settings, offering many more tuning options, and in real time. 

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Drive to the front is ‘on demand’ to a degree, the M4’s drive modes setting the level – the sportier the setting, the more rear-biased the torque distribution. The optimum setting for circuit driving, for making progress, is MDM – M Dynamic Mode – which allows the rear axle more of the torque, aiding agility, but balances this with drive to the front to optimise traction and draw the car out of a turn for maximum acceleration and lap speed.

Just how much the front axle is helping out can be revealed by selecting pure rear drive. With stability off, power oversteer is as much as you can handle, the M4 offering variable traction control – a sliding scale from fully on to fully off, allowing you to tune the rear slip to the conditions or your level of confidence. 

Track test 

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Hit the starter and the straight-six growls into life with an edge, a slight rasp to the tailpipe noise, but hooked up to the eight-speed DCT gearbox it’s as docile as you like. Apart from the script under the lacquer on the facia, the CS is pretty much unchanged from the driver’s seat, which is the familiar carbon-shelled, leather-trimmed bucket with the odd ‘carbon codpiece’ between your thighs. The fat-rimmed and quite large steering wheel teems with detail, has decent feel and is calm on centre but bright and quick when you steer away. It also gains useful weight when you select Sport.

 Ramp up the engine mode and the previously subtle, quietly menacing note suddenly fills the cabin with loping, angry bass, like turning on a sub-woofer. It also adds a rolling, popping rumble on the overrun. Demand full power and the CS is a weapon, piling on speed in very short order, the car nonchalant, comfortable with the pace.

A track is the only place to explore this fully, of course – and the M4’s Drift Analyser. When the M4 Comp was launched, the discovery of the Drift Analyser led some to think it might lead to on-road drifting. In fact, the commitment and space required to score even two stars were well beyond the scope of most road driving. Among evo staff and contributors, the stats of our only five-star drift were crazy: it lasted for 9.5sec and covered 347 yards. It also included two transitions and an upshift to fourth...

In the CS, the grippy Cup 2 Rs make it more difficult to initiate and maintain a slide than regular rubber. These Michelins have a slick-tyre compound with light tread, and when warm the levels of lateral grip and traction increase notably. Also, although the peak power of the CS is up to 542bhp, mainly through raising boost pressure, torque is unchanged from the Competition at 479lb ft (all the way from 2750 to 5950rpm), perhaps to protect the transmission.

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In full attack mode the M4’s nose slices confidently in, you can get on the throttle really early and then keep it pinned, traction total, seemingly without DSC being awakened. It’s easy to clip the apex just so, all the while gathering speed hand-over-fist until you’ve unwound the steering and run right to the edge on the exit and onto the next straight. When it’s time to stop, the optional carbon-ceramic brakes give you confidence with their hard bite. 

The xDrive system offers a wide range of adjustment to change the car’s behaviour, and you do need your wits about you if you go for the hooligan 2WD mode. With so much torque on tap and the nature of the turbocharged delivery (though it’s a huge improvement over the first turbocharged straight-six F80/82 generation’s everything-in-the-middle torque traits). The multi-stage traction control is helpful, however: using the rotary iDrive controller, you can quite literally dial in how much of a safety net you’d like. Then, in 4WD mode, there’s an extra cushion of assistance from the front axle to get you out of trouble. 

But the CS is at its best in the 4WD Sport mode, with the stability control switched off completely. It’s a resolutely rear-biased car but if you do start to get past the point of no return, the front wheels are there like rotund wingmen to help drag you out. In some circumstances – such as a moment on a cambered mountain road during 2024’s evo Car of the Year test, for example – that can be a little disconcerting, as you feel the front wheels pulling at both road surface and steering while the car is heavily loaded up, but for the most part the bandwidth between pure rear-drive and differing degrees of both axles is a key part of the M4 CS’s appeal.

We can safely say that with optional carbon-ceramic brakes and Cup 2 Rs, the M4 CS is devastatingly quick yet easy to handle and exploit, with well-weighted, responsive steering and terrific balance. If you were looking for a car for the occasional, 911-bothering jaunt around the Nordschleife, it would be a great choice. Is it The One, the Goldilocks model of all the M3/M4 derivatives? Further testing on the road at evo Car of the Year 2024 gave us the answer.

evo Car of the Year 2024 verdict

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On the right road, in the right conditions, the BMW M4 CS was scintillating. Performance from its twin-turbo yet almost classic-sounding straight-six was epic, and on warm, flowing asphalt it was a taut, thrilling coupe. However, our week also included cold, damp mornings and a day of rain, and then the CS felt a bit edgy on its Michelin Cup 2 Rs. 

‘I had a brilliant first drive on warm tarmac on an amazing road,’ said James Taylor. ‘Loved the front grip, the way you can dial the 4WD system and traction control up and down intuitively. If we’d stopped the scoring then I’d have placed it pretty high up my list…’

I thought it felt like a Ring special: superb on fast, dry asphalt but not a relaxing place to be when the rain is coming down. Richard Meaden echoed that: ‘Hugely effective in certain circumstances, but the sweet spot is too small. And there are too many bloody modes!’

Catchpole said he liked the feel of the Cup 2 Rs gradually gaining temperature and the way the grip changed but added: ‘It’s always telling when you start hunting through the modes looking for the particular combination that will unlock the magic.’ Stuart Gallagher was a bigger fan than most but concluded that it wasn’t memorable enough.

 Price and rivals

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The M4 CS is priced from £122,685, and its keenest rival might come from within, in the form of the BMW M4 Competition xDrive at £90k. Its output has been lifted to 523bhp in its latest facelifted guise, so there’s now only 19bhp between the two. Given the narrow windows of opportunity through which you can access the CS’s extra aggression, the Competition feels like the more rounded car – its thrills are more accessible, more of the time.

There are no alternatives from BMW M’s oldest competitors – Audi Sport and Mercedes-AMG – so other rivals come in the form of pure sports cars. Porsche’s £115k 911 Carrera T is less wild and exciting but more finely honed than the BMW, and comes with the option of a manual gearbox. Then there’s the likes of the Alpine A110 R Turini, which has the track focus of the CS but swaps horsepower for weight loss, costing £92,170. 

Looking at the used market opens up a world of options, from full-blown supercars like the Maserati MC20 to hardened track tools like the 991-generation Porsche 911 GT3. You can also bag perhaps the best M car of the modern era – the M5 CS. 

BMW M4 CS specs