Some people have been quick to criticize BMW for releasing the 3.0 CSL, claiming it’s nothing more than a re-bodied M4 CSL with a manual gearbox and an extra 10 horsepower. However, that is an oversimplification since the amount of work and time invested into the car is unlike any other model before it.
BMW needs three months to assemble just 50 cars, with each featuring 22 individual parts that have to be manually painted. There are a total of 134 paint processes and 6,700 manual work sequences in the paint shop. The reborn 3.0 CSL goes through eight assembly cycles at eight production stations to fit the coach-built body paying tribute to the original 3.0 CSL E9 “Batmobile.”
What you see here is one of the first customer cars, and like all the other 49, it’s finished in Alpine White with retro M accents. It has been delivered to its rightful owner. Better said, the person who paid the rumored €750,000 price tag picked it up from the BMW Welt in Munich. The entire production run has long been sold out, despite the exorbitant asking price. Given how rare these are going to be, their values are likely to stay high in the decades to come.
BMW is technically making 53 cars since the first two were prototypes wearing that cool camouflage and the third one is unit 00/50 that will remain with the company. The 3.0 CSL was released near the end of 2022 as the icing on the M division’s 50th-anniversary cake as it followed new products like the M4 CSL, M3 Touring, M2 G87, and of course, the controversial XM.
It’s not the mid-engined supercar enthusiasts had hoped it would be, nor is it a carbon copy of the sleek 3.0 CSL Hommage R from 2015. However, there’s still a lot to like about the car since it has BMW’s most powerful inline-six engine ever linked to a manual gearbox sending power to the rear wheels. Is it worth roughly four and a half times more than the M4 CSL upon which it’s based? At least 50 people didn’t have a problem paying that enormous premium.
Source: BMW Welt / Facebook