Photo: CarPix
BMW’s Motorsport brand will celebrate a cool 50 years of existence in 2022, and fans of ‘the most powerful letter in the world’ are likely to be pleasantly surprised by a range of special edition models.
Apart from the second-generation M2, BMW is also cooking a limited edition of the M4, which will bring back the legendary CSL (Coupe Sport Lightweight) moniker.
The last time we were gifted with the famed CSL badge was in 2004, when the BMW M3 CSL pretty much became the magnum opus of the E46 M3 lineage.
The M4 CSL is expected to arrive with around 550 horsepower from a revised version of its 3.0-liter straight-six, and a huge decrease in weight thanks to the removal of the back seats and a lot of CFRP parts.
The next M2 and M4 CSL might not be the only models to celebrate half a century of BMW M existence though, because a strange M5 mule was recently spotted testing as well, and its sheer existence spawns more questions than answers.
As you can see from the spy photos, the mule has zero camouflage, but it features a much wider rear track, which has forced engineers to add some aftermarket-looking extensions to the rear fenders.
Not only is the track wider, but the rear tires are wider as well, some 2 cm more than the standard M5 and 1 cm more than the hardcore M5 CS. Even more peculiar is the choice of wheels, which seem to have been taken from AMG's inventory for special prototypes, not BMW M's.
Spy photographers speculated that the strange car might be a mule for the next-generation M5, using the body of the current model, but we think it might be too early for that.
Our own speculation revolves around next year’s BMW M anniversary, and since the M5 has already had a Competition and a CS version so far, the only badge missing would be the CSL.
For those dismissing the CSL theory on account of the car being a sedan, not a coupe (remember, the C in CSL stands for Coupe), we want to remind them that stranger things have happened in the past.
Back in 2009, BMW’s M division built a lightweight one-off version of the E60 M5 as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the legendary four-door.
Not officially called a CSL, for the aforementioned obvious reasons, the special M5 prototype was described by then M’s head of development, Albert Biermann, as ‘the M5 CSL we never built.’
The last time we were gifted with the famed CSL badge was in 2004, when the BMW M3 CSL pretty much became the magnum opus of the E46 M3 lineage.
The M4 CSL is expected to arrive with around 550 horsepower from a revised version of its 3.0-liter straight-six, and a huge decrease in weight thanks to the removal of the back seats and a lot of CFRP parts.
The next M2 and M4 CSL might not be the only models to celebrate half a century of BMW M existence though, because a strange M5 mule was recently spotted testing as well, and its sheer existence spawns more questions than answers.
As you can see from the spy photos, the mule has zero camouflage, but it features a much wider rear track, which has forced engineers to add some aftermarket-looking extensions to the rear fenders.
Not only is the track wider, but the rear tires are wider as well, some 2 cm more than the standard M5 and 1 cm more than the hardcore M5 CS. Even more peculiar is the choice of wheels, which seem to have been taken from AMG's inventory for special prototypes, not BMW M's.
Spy photographers speculated that the strange car might be a mule for the next-generation M5, using the body of the current model, but we think it might be too early for that.
Our own speculation revolves around next year’s BMW M anniversary, and since the M5 has already had a Competition and a CS version so far, the only badge missing would be the CSL.
For those dismissing the CSL theory on account of the car being a sedan, not a coupe (remember, the C in CSL stands for Coupe), we want to remind them that stranger things have happened in the past.
Back in 2009, BMW’s M division built a lightweight one-off version of the E60 M5 as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the legendary four-door.
Not officially called a CSL, for the aforementioned obvious reasons, the special M5 prototype was described by then M’s head of development, Albert Biermann, as ‘the M5 CSL we never built.’
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