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For the last couple of years there’s been absolute BMW M fever, both in and outside Munich. We celebrated 50 years of the storied road and racing marque in 2022 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. But as is always the case, what is a leviathan of a brand today, started all those decades ago with a single, quite exceptional, racing car. The E9 BMW 3.0 CSL.
Video: Fire‑spitting BMW 3.0 CSL perfection
What is surprising is that so many of BMW M’s totem traits were defined by that earliest of M cars. A singing six-cylinder in a three-box two-door saloon baring a Hoffmeister kink and proper kidney grilles could just as well describe the latest M2 as it could the original CSL.
So today’s motoring meditation it will come as no surprise, is on the 3.0 CSL and its sonorously-soundtracked proficiency on track. One thing that certainly doesn’t live on in current M cars, at least unfettled ones from dealers, is the tendency to belch out enough flames to power a smelting plant. And not just one of them.
In what is a compilation video of CSL sexiness, every last one of them is dumping a lion’s share of fuel into the exhaust on the overrun for some truly spectacular braking zone pyrotechnics.
From the Spa Classic to Hockenheim, to the Nürburgring, the 3.0 CSL is still beloved and thoroughly well-used today as a historic racer, reminding us all where BMW M greatness first sprouted.
Welcome to Goodwood Elevenses, a helping of motoring-related amusement to help break up your day. Watch the last video: Wheelstand drag‑racing needs to become a global sport
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