BMW M3 CS

The CS badge has rapidly become the mark of the very best cars that BMW makes. Now the G80 M3 is available with those expectationbuilding letters and it's another M division masterpiece

- STUART GALLAGHER

IT DOESN'T TAKE AS LONG AS REACHING the first corner. You don't even have to wait until the first opportunity to relish in the straight-six engine's heady appetite for revs, or its accompanying blend of power and torque that any mixologist would be proud of. No, the M3 CS takes no more than the first dozen rotations of its sticky Pirellis to tell you it is another brilliant execution of BMW M's CS formula - a formula that has resulted in the last two recipients of such treatment being crowned evo Cars of the Year. No pressure, M3 CS.

Those two previous CS models, the M2 and M5, demonstrated the far-reaching possibilities of recent M cars when the shackles are loosened and the freedom to think about what's possible is actively encouraged by M's head of engineering, Dirk Hacker. In the M2 CS we got a sharper, more precise sports saloon. A small gem that delivered blinding excellence in everything it did. A car that could pick apart a road and convey the surface detail and texture back to the driver in a manner on a par with a performance car costing twice the money and wearing a badge that carries far bigger expectations. The M5 CS? Possibly one of the greatest cars we've driven. Not only the greatest super-saloon ever made. it's also a driver's car that scores top marks in every discipline we value.