A few days ago, Evolve showed off its newest, potentially most ambitious project yet—creating a BMW M3 Touring CSL. Obviously, such a thing doesn’t really exist, so Evolve had to take some liberties with the build and use aftermarket products in certain areas where there weren’t BMW parts to use. However, the end results looks a lot like what an M3 Touring CSL would. But the real question, does it feel like on? In this new video, Evolve’s Imran Arshad takes the BMW M3 Touring “CSL” for a spin to see what if they’ve succeeded.
OEM CSL Parts
First let’s start with the build itself. To make the M3 Touring look like a CSL, the team at Evolve actually bought a lot of CSL parts. So the grille, grille inserts, front splitter, and wheels are all CSL parts, which make the front end look legitimate. They also add yellow headlights, to match the real CSL, a carbon fiber rear diffuser, and a new quad exhaust. That last bit is interesting because the new exhaust is an aftermarket Remus system but it’s titanium like the CSL’s exhaust and it’s a cat-back system, so it retains the stock OPF filter, keeping it street legal.
It also has a new Eventuri air intake, to make it breath and sound better, while adding a bit of extra power. However, the car is still in its engine break-in period, so Imran wasn’t able to push the car hard enough to feel its performance.
New Suspension
Same goes for the suspension. Evolve gave the M3 Touring CSL new coilover suspension, lowering the ride and hopefully improving its handling. However, it’s hard to really test the suspension during a break-in period. Still, it looks much better than before and the lower ride height doesn’t seem to have ruined its ride quality.
Where this BMW M3 Touring CSL will differ most from the actual CSL is inside. The M3 Touring of course comes equipped with a normal M3 interior and it’s far nicer and more comfortable than the M4 CSL’s stripped out cabin. Also, Evolve chose the normal seats, rather than the carbon fiber buckets offered on the M3 and standard on the M4 CSL. So their project car’s cabin is a bit plusher than the CSL’s.
We’re very interested to see where this project goes and how it… evolves. We’ll stay tuned as more videos come out and you probably should, too.