The BMW M4 CS Is A 542bhp, £117,000 M Express

If you like the look of the BMW M3 CS but want something a little more stylish and a little less practical, we have just the thing to show you. It’s the M4 CS, first confirmed by BMW last September, and it plays out much as you’d expect.

First up, there’s the engine. There’s a whole heap of potential in that ‘S58’ inline-six, so it hasn’t needed any internal tweaks – instead, BMW has simply raised the boost pressure of the two turbochargers to 2.1 bar and fiddled with the engine management software, facilitating a rise from 503bhp to 542bhp.

BMW M4 CS – front

The 0-62mph time has dropped to 3.4 seconds compared to 3.5 seconds in a standard M4 Competition xDrive. Yep, like the M3 CS, the M4 CS is all-wheel drive (rear-drive M4s are no longer a thing in the UK, by the way), meaning it uses a near-1,800kg car as its starting point. That makes the 20kg weight loss seem a little token, but we’ll not moan, as it’s been brought about by fancy standard-fit M Carbon bucket seats and a lovely titanium exhaust silencer.

To go with the extra power, the M4 CS gets a whole heap of chassis upgrades. There are new camber settings, tweaked dampers, new auxiliary springs and refreshed anti-roll bars that “serve to optimise steering precision, transmission of lateral control forces when cornering, spring and damping response and wheel location,” BMW says. The electronic driver aids also get a bespoke tune for the car.

BMW M4 CS – rear

Also on the chassis front are M Compound brakes with a choice of red or black paint for the callipers, but obviously, you want red, don’t you? Meanwhile, carbon ceramics are available as an option, with either a red or matte gold finish for the callipers. The stoppers sit under forged 19-inch front, 20-inch rear wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres, or the even stickier Cup 2 R as an option. An unspecified less racy tyre is also available as a no-cost option.

Ensuring the CS isn’t mistaken for any common or garden M4, it gets an exposed carbon fibre finish for the roof, splitter, front intakes, rear spoiler and bonnet ‘indents’. The giant kidney grilles meanwhile receive red ‘contour lines’, or as we’d rather refer to it, lipstick. The finishing touches are yellow elements to the front light clusters, in a callback to BMW racers of the past.

BMW M4 CS – interior

The M4 CS can be specced in one of two new colours from BMW Individual – Riviera Blue or Frozen Isle of Man Green, or a couple of colours from the general BMW palette – M Brooklyn Grey or Sapphire Black.

We’d been expecting a chunky price tag, given that BMW charges £115,900 for the M3 CS. Sure enough, the M4 CS has been confirmed to cost £117,100. I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘oof’. Then again, the M3 CS is pretty spectacular to drive, so that kind of money for its two-door sibling might well be justified.

Production starts in July, with the first UK deliveries kicking off this Autumn.