Yahoo Autos The BMW 3.0 CSL is a 553 hp, 1-of-50 Tribute To BMW's Racing History
The 50th anniversary of BMW M has been packed with tributes. There are returning paint colors, there is a new high watermark for the current BMW M4, there is even a new top-level sports car racer set to take on Daytona and Le Mans. It all peaks with this: a new 3.0 CSL, a 1-of-50 tribute to the brand's first great performance car.
The new 3.0 CSL finally realizes what the company began with the 3.0 CSL Hommage concept in 2015, a modern interpretation of the ultimate form of the E9 coupe. The original CSL was a grand tourer turned into a homologation special, a prototype for the modern M designation that eventually grew two wings on the road to better support the race car that won Sebring overall in 1975.
Race-ready CSLs were finnicky and overwhelmingly powerful things driven to glory by Hans Stuck. The road-going homologation specials were grand tourers, even after the team that became BMW M stripped out the sound deadening and other luxuries that are hallmarks of the category. Variants without the paired "Batmobile" wings are elegant, rather than aggressive. The modern CSL's design skews more toward the racing car, with pronounced fenders and those famous stacked wings working together on the roof and decklid.
