The 542bhp BMW M3 CS Touring Is Here

The CS version of the latest BMW M3 is probably the best this generation of the fast four-door’s been so far, but good luck getting hold of one – it’s thought that only around 100 of these lighter, more powerful versions of the saloon came to Britain. Luckily, it’s back, and now it’s even better, because estate car. Meet the BMW M3 CS Touring.

There aren’t a whole lot of surprises with this car – BMW’s taken the rather excellent M3 Touring and thrown the same upgrades at it that the also rather excellent M3 CS saloon had. That means power from its 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six is boosted from 523 to 542bhp, while torque remains at 479lb ft.

That’s all still sent through an eight-speed auto and a rear-biased xDrive four-wheel drive system, complete with the fancy Active M Differential at the back. And don’t worry – if the mood takes you, you can still send 100 per cent of that power out to the back wheels.

The resulting numbers are 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 186mph. That shaves a tenth of a second off the regular Touring’s acceleration, and the top speed is up by 6mph over a standard car equipped with the optional M Driver’s pack.

The chassis setup has been tweaked slightly over the saloon to account for the Touring’s different weight distribution, while the adaptive damping, steering and brakes have all been set up specifically too. New strut braces up front contribute to extra body stiffness.

The rest of the CS-ification involves throwing lots of carbon fibre at the car. The bonnet, front splitter, mirror caps, front intakes and diffuser are all made of the stuff on the outside; while inside, there are carbon bucket seats and a centre console made from the material. The effect of all this isn’t as great as you might think – it shaves 15kg off the regular car’s mass, and the CS still has a DIN weight of 1925kg. Good thing it’s got all that extra power.

Best of all, though, because it's a Touring, it'll do all this while carrying around 500 litres of stuff – or 1510 with the back seats folded flat. We wouldn't advise doing a big skid with, say, a grandfather clock in the boot, though.

BMW hasn’t said how many CS Tourings it’ll build, rather, it’ll be built “in a limited run.” If you want one – and let’s face it, you probably do – you’ll need to find at least £120,600. And hope the UK allocation hasn’t already been snapped up.