I’m not sure what it is about car collecting videos, where new owners get to collect their newly purchased sports car, but I love them. I think it’s because they let me live vicariously through the owners who have the ability to buy these brilliant sports cars. In a recent video from Seen Through Glass, we take a look at the new owner of one of the best BMWs ever made – the BMW E46 M3 CSL.
The E46 M3 CSL is widely regarded as one of the best Bimmers of all time. It gets off to a good start being based on the E46 M3, which was a sensational car and possibly the best M3 ever built. However, for CSL duty, it gets lighter, more powerful, sharper, louder and angrier. Basically, it’s the pure, triple-distilled essence of the E46 M3 and it’s absolutely sublime to drive. Not many were made and even less went to the UK, which makes this new owner, called Wolfie(?), a very lucky BMW owner.
When they first pick it up, it looks positively old-school compared to the Jaguar F-Type they drove to it in. However, that doesn’t make it the worse car and, if anything, it’s going to be the better driver’s car of the two. F-Types are awesome, don’t get me wrong, and they make sensational noises but they’re big, fat and too rowdy to be in the same league as the M3 CSL in terms of driving dynamics.
The first thing you notice about the E46 M3 CSL is the noise. It’s so pure and loud and angry. It’s the sort of old-school, hardcore inline-six noise we miss from BMW. We’ve all seen plenty of E46 M3 CSL videos and reviews from Top Gear and the like, but those are always heavily edited for television and what not, which doesn’t allow us to properly hear the bark of the CSL. However, this video is pretty raw, without any fancy made-for-TV trickery, so we get to really hear it and it sounds fantastic.
It also goes pretty quickly for a 13 year old car. The E46 M3 CSL is powered by a 3.2 liter I6 engine that makes 360 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque. So it’s no slouch in the power department. In fact, that’s about as much power as a Jaguar F-Type V6 S. But the E46 M3 CSL is also very light. With carbon fiber body and interior bits, alcantara everywhere, a stripped out trunk liner, a carbon fiber roof and some fancy aerodynamics, the CSL only weights a touch over 3,000 lbs. All of that combines to allow the CSL to get from 0-60 mph in 4.8 seconds. So it’s faster than most sports cars of today.
It looks and sounds like it’s a blast to drive and this owner should feel very fortunate that he gets to own one. It’s not just the money, although CSLs are crazy expensive nowadays, but it’s the rarity. There are so few of them out there and it’s not like every CSL owner wants to sell. In fact, because of their desirability, CSLs are appreciating in value quite a bit lately, meaning owners are going to hold onto them as investments. So if you can find one for sale, it’s going to cost a lot more than it did back when it was new.
So this new CSL owner is one lucky fellah and should feel incredibly pleased that he gets to drive around in one of the best, most iconic BMWs of all time.
