The BMW M4 CS Edition VR46 Is Valentino Rossi’s Birthday Present

What’s the best birthday present you’ve ever had? For me, it’s between getting NFS Carbon for my 11th birthday and a Tamiya Suzuki Jimny for my, err… 23rd. Whatever yours is though, it’s probably not as good as what Valentino Rossi’s just been given.

The two-wheeled maestro-turned-GT racing driver has been gifted his very own BMW M4 CS to celebrate his 46th birthday. We don’t just mean any old run-of-the-mill one, either. No, this is the M4 CS Edition VR46, built especially to celebrate the seven-time MotoGP world champion. Better still, BMW is going to put a few of them on sale, too.

It hasn’t just been a case of BMW wrapping an M4 in some new colours for a surprise and hoping he likes it. ‘The Doctor’ has been involved in the design of the Edition VR46 from the outset, which will be available in two variations.

There’s the Sport, which has been painted in Marina Bay Blue, and the Style, finished in Frozen Tanazanti Blue. From there, both cars have pretty much everything else in common – both have a giant 46 on the side, as well as bright yellow accents within the grille and on one of the spokes of the forged wheels. Go for a Sport, and you get a bit extra on the door frame.

Both cars have an identical interior. Carbon bucket seats are finished in black and blue leather, with more yellow accenting and stitching. Illuminated ‘VR46’ logos replace M badges within the headrest and door sills, too. 46 versions of both the Sport and Style will be made. We’ll let you guess why.

There are no mechanical changes over the regular M4 CS. That’s to say it still has a 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged inline-six pushing out 542bhp to all four wheels, allowing it to crack 0-62mph in 3.4 seconds.

No word on how much a VR46 Edition will cost you, but expect a significant increase over the £117,100 asking price of the base car. Partly as buying one gets you an opportunity to meet Rossi himself at the VR46 Motor Ranch in Italy.