2025 BMW M4 CS Quick Review

Welcome to Extra Throttle House, I'm Tom. And I'm James. And this is the BMW M4 CS. Right, what is that? Because we've done the CSL. Yes. And we've done the competition. Yeah, I don't know why they started with like the really juicy one and then they dialed back the juiciness a little bit. You mean the CSL before this? Yeah, yeah. Because the CSL is the top. It's the ultimate, it's the crazy rear-wheel drive, ultra lightweight, competition sport lightweight one. And it was a lunatic. It was, it's that car, it was absolutely off its meds. So it was an axe murderer. But if you want a more sedate one, you get the normal competition. Yes, but then if you want a more sedate one that's a little bit less more sedate, you get this one. Okay, so this has the same three litre inline six, but it's got boost pressure and engine management that makes it the CSL power, right? Yeah, well it's just got whatever was in the CSL, it's the same thing. So 543 horsepower, turbocharged inline six. But all-wheel drive. All-wheel drive. With rear seats. Yes, and other differences in terms of like light weighting going on all over the place. But there's some CSL parts in this, like this hood. Oh, there's carbon fibre stuff everywhere. There's carbon fibre wing mirrors, there's a carbon fibre roof. The centre tunnel is carbon fibre reinforced plastic. It's exactly the same as the CSL, that whole bit there. Right. So the storage is worse than a normal competition, like the CSL was. I see. But so, you know, with that comes expense, no? This is $150,000 Canadian starting. This one I expect with the Frozen Island Man green paint and the carbon ceramic brakes is $165,000. So you're looking at about $125,000-ish US. That is a tremendous amount of money. It's a big premium over the normal M4 competition xDrive. How much was the M5 CS? It was more, but like... Yeah, but it was not far. That wasn't far off. But that's old now. That's the previous gen. The M5 CS looks good. And okay, well, okay, just wait. Everyone calm down. BMW, calm down. It's easy to start a fight when no one else is around, isn't it? Oh, just the camera. I talk a big game, but if all the BMW designers are sitting over there, I'd be like, this is a great looking car. You can call him. 647-703-8... So this actually looks great in a Frozen colour. And it looks greater in the M3 body, because in the M3, you get that, like, cut and then rear haunch over here. These wheels are mad. The wheels are really good. Love them. But this line right here, and the way that the finishing ends on this line right here is always what's looked really, really crappy on the gloss colours. But in the matte, it's actually okay. Right. And then the front end is... Anyway, so... I think you're just being a hater, man. No, I'm not being a hater. I'm just... So these are the CSL specific taillights. They're really cool. I think all the M4s get them now for this year. That would be a bummer because they're really neat. Yeah, so now they're no longer exclusive to the CSL, which is a shame. Can I say that that's really good badging? Like, that's really... I really like the red around the outside, the little CS. Well, AMG's doing that now. Huge quad exhausts. Love those. That's really fun. And this one has been optioned with the track tyre, which is a Cup 2. The CSL was on a Cup 2R. Okay. I have done a lap time. Right. I've done a lap time. Yeah, we'll show you that in a bit after we drive it, but it's interesting. I think that that price merits a good car. And if it's good, it's good. Right? Inspiring stuff. Top notch journalism from James Anglesmith. All right, I'm going to drive. You're going to drive? Okay. Just careful leaving any parking lot. Look how much this splitter sticks out. That is so... It makes it light. Add the splitter, it makes it light. You add more splitter, it makes the whole car lighter. Yeah. So, as I said, I have driven this, obviously, because I did the hot laps in it this morning. And it is still quite... Actually, you know what it is? It's more of a... What's the Christian Bale murderer guy? Patrick Bateman? It's more Patrick Bateman than it is like, you know, a chainsaw murderer, right? Like it's sly and biting. Yeah, exactly. And then all of a sudden you're caught up in a bin somewhere. Yeah, exactly. It's more like that. Or maybe, to be fair to it, it's a bit more like John Wick then. It's incredibly capable, but, you know, maybe a bit friendlier. It's not so scary compared to the CSL, because the CSL was just stupid. This thing is just about grip and speed and performance. The steering's still too light in these bloody BMWs. No, I know. It is. It is. And this doesn't have the Cup 2Rs, so there isn't as much, like, heavy weight, like you got in the CSL with the extra grip. The chassis feels so stiff, though. It's so controlled. Yeah, so the CS got a lot, gets a lot more stiffening than the regular competition. Right. Right? So is it compromised as a daily then? So Karsten has been living with this, and he has said yes. It actually made his wife sick. They went out for dinner, and it's stiff enough that it jostled her into sickness. And that's never happened in any other car that he's tested before, right? So we've got the 8-speed. It's only automatic. Yes, but the shifts apparently have been tuned to be a little bit more spicy. Okay. And I did notice that... Not that fast to respond. No, there's still... Those downshifts, there's no drama. There's no drama whatsoever. There is one more of an aggressive shift mode, though, here. Now you're in the most aggressive shift mode, so try this. Okay. But, like, I'll show you the downshifts here, all right? There you go. That's a bit of a jerk now. Yeah, the upshifts are fun, but the downshifts... Yeah. All right, fine. Fine. It's not bad, right? Yeah, no, it's good. See, in the sharpest mode, it's pretty good. So much front-end grip. Just BMW grip, right? And these seats aren't as aggressive as the M4 CSL carbon-fibre, like, fixed-back bucket seats. Right. But they are still the really good carbon-fibre adjustable heated buckets. This thing is so at home on the track. Oh, isn't it? It's insane. It's just crazy. It's honestly just crazy. And that extra £11,000 for the carbon-fibre... for the carbon ceramics. I mean, it does. It does. You do notice it. The brakes are stupid. In tandem with the Cup 2s. You guys don't realize how much he just used every inch of the track there, seriously. But there's confidence here. There's not that much confidence in the steering, but the rest of the car is doing the work. Yeah, see, I think... It weights up fine, it just starts too light. I just got out of a Tesla Model 3 Performance. And the steering is better. That steering feels much better. Yeah, it does, for sure. I want a fuel reserve. It's not happy with me. Oh, really? Is it cutting power? It felt like it did there, yeah. Oh, interesting. All right, screw your cutting power. Let's go 2WD. 2WD mode. Okay, we'll just put it in M2 mode. Click the images. That's all set up for everything. Okay. There you go. So, ---- hardest, everything crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Still gripping nicely. It is, yeah. Okay. There you go. Now I feel like you get that... You get that light weight. This has a bit of a spicier diff as well. It's a bit more of an aggressive lock-up and there's extra cooling in the CS compared to the competition. Right, okay. Right? So, it is lighter. Yes. But not by much, I think. But not by much, yeah. It's not like it's even 100 pounds difference. No, but it's more to do with all the extra stiffening in the body that they've given it, right? The damping tuning is different. The sway bar tuning is different compared to the competition. So, the whole thing feels... Solid, solid donut machine. It's, oh my... Oh, drivetrain malfunction. Did I break the car? You broke the car! Close... One donut! All you have to do is close the message, see? Just cancel and then... Are we in limp mode? Yeah. We're in limp mode. So, while we've calmed down for a minute... Yeah, we're just gonna... We'll let the car... One... One little screw-up. This is top speed, James? This is 100% foot to the floor. This is the top speed of the car now? Okay. Otherwise, the top speed is over 300 kilometers an hour. Yeah, that's different compared to the competition. Highly impressive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's good, it's good, it's good. I got a plan. Well, let's restart the car. Yeah, we're just gonna restart it. Have you turned it off and on again? Oh, forget everything you know about being broken. First gear, and... Look at that! That's all it took. Whoa, whoa, whoa, dude! Anyway, yeah. So, the CS, where does it sit? Is it right below the CSL but above the competition? Here's why I don't understand. Why would you want the in-between? I know that the CSL was limited to a thousand units or whatever it was, and it's more special, but if you're not... That would be the one to get, unless... Yeah, I don't know. Okay, here's... Because the competition xDrive is already a serious performance machine. Here's why you get it. Let me show the hot lap, and... Let me show the hot lap, and I'll explain in that voiceover why I think this is the perfect one. Okay, time for the fastest lap of three in the M4 CS. As usual, I had the car in the most aggressive settings with the traction fully off and the four-wheel drive on. However, I did run a lap in rear-wheel drive only out of curiosity, and the times were almost identical, because even with the front wheels being powered, as with all BMWs, it's a very rear-biased system, so it's easy to turn the car on the throttle, and there's a ton of rear grip. The M4 CS, to me, just feels like an overall more dialed-in M4 comp, but without any unnecessary harshness. It's just so easy to put the front and rear axles exactly where you want them, and there's a ton of confidence under braking. Other than the usual numb steering, I don't think I'd change a thing about the way it drives. Let's watch the rest of the lap. All right, you ready for the lap time? I'm ready. So what was the M4 CS L? So the M4 CS L, which was on the Cup 2 R, okay, was... It's one of our quickest, right? One of the quickest, yeah. Let me just look for a second. I did a 1.08.64, okay? And then down below that is the nearest BMWs, the M8 Comp, which did a 1.09.84. Okay, so I'm expecting this... What was the last one? The M8 Comp did 1.09.84, and the M4 CS L did 1.08.64. Right, so this doesn't have the tire advantage on that. It doesn't have the lighter weight advantage. That's what I'm talking about! So what I'm thinking is... That's fun from here. You've got the all-wheel drive advantage. Yeah, there's a lot of smoke, everybody, behind me. I don't know if you were able to see that. I wonder if it's a 1.09.5. You are way too good at this. We have been officially doing this for too long, James. I can just feel it in the car, I feel it in my legs. It did a 1.09.42, right? Very nice. So that means it's a little bit slower than the M4 CS L, which, isn't it nice the way the BMW differential hooks up in the rear? They're all beautiful. It just flops. This is a differential I would marry. Yeah, they're just the best. They're the best of them. Okay, so the M4 CS L 1.08.64 on the Cup 2Rs. It's a lighter car, otherwise the same. The all-wheel drive, you know, obviously gave it a huge advantage in terms of coming out of the corners. But you can just turn it off. But you can turn it off. You can just turn... This makes so much more sense to me. That's the bit where it beats the CS L. Yes. Because now it's an all-wheel drive, all-wheel drive machine. And out here, the damping is better, right? That's the other thing, right? And then so the M5 CS, it beat the M5 CS. I don't have an answer for you on that one. I think maybe it's just a little bit more agile. It is. That's it. It's more agile. The M5 CS is an unbelievable car. I think the M4 CS should be more spry. Even though it hasn't got the V8, it should be more spry. Yeah. Isn't it nice how they sit on the limiter? Yeah, lovely. They just sit on the limiter. It's beautiful. And this is a new steering wheel. Oh, that's right. Yeah, it's a new steering wheel. And obviously, we're talking about the CS center compartment here, some carbon fiber. And since there's no sunroof or anything, we got a ton of headroom for a helmet, which is good. No, no, no. I think this is the... Ignoring the price, because it's way too much money. We know the range is low. Can't... Shut up, BMW. Shut up. No, shut up. Stop talking. What was I saying? You were saying why this is perfect. Because it has some of the character... Oh, also exhaust sound. This sounds really good. It is loud. Yeah, it's definitely got more flair than the competition. It's got more flair. Hasn't got the bass booms of the M8, which I actually prefer in this. I didn't like... Those were too bassy. They were too bassy. Anyway, sorry. So this, I think, has some of the... This has some... And we turned the wipers on. I had to. Yeah, it's a little bit of drop rain came in halfway through. Chris Harris, right? Adjusting the wipers mid-drift. That's where he's at. So, yeah. I think that this, it perfectly does everything that I want a BMW to do. It still has the excitement and the kind of on-the-edge feel the CSL gave me. But with a little bit more livability and a little bit more comfort. Okay, so my question then is, you're in BMW land right now. Yeah. Jump out of that. Jump out of that, yes. It's 165 Canadian. Yes. You can get GT4s. You might even be able to get almost GT4 RSs, although I don't think so. Like, there are some serious cars. 911s. And what else outside of Porsche? Yeah, that's it, yeah. R8 rear-wheel drive. Okay, that's a pretty cool car. A lot of the previous... This does have a usable rear seat, though. True. Right? It has usable rear seat, a big trunk. It's a standard conventional front-engine car, right? So it's a little bit more... What did we say to BMW? We promised we won't kill the tires. Yeah, but I had fun. I had fun. Oh, that's... No bottom out there. Really nice. Beautiful suspension. That felt really good. BMW are becoming a master class in a lot of things. Yeah, well, they have been for a while, but now we're really starting to see them dial in this new G80, right? I need their design department to start drinking the same and eating the same things as the rest of the department. The chassis guys and the engine guys need to march over to the design department and say, make our incredible machine look cool. I will say that without a license plate on the front... It's definitely better. It's palatable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's palatable, yeah. Absolutely moves. It's really stupid quick. Oh, my God. Like that with the Cup 2s. Stopping forces are unbelievable. Unbelievable. The Gs that this is pulling. I mean, really, another car that this competes with, if you think about it, it's like quite directly, apart from this sort of stuff, is a Nissan GT-R. Because they still make them. They're still twin turbo six cylinders. This is way more fun than a wild turkey. This is way more fun.