Don't make M like they used to... M2 CS vs M3 CSL and M5 CS

The newbie would be considerably the easiest of the three to come by. E46 CSLs typically only come onto the market in twos and threes; F90 CSs appear even more seldomly, which actually reflects their rarity.

UK registration data has it that there are fewer than 300 E46 CSLs left, after a supply peak of a little over 350 UK-registered examples a couple of years after the completion of the car's 2003 production run. Not many, then. But there have never been more than 50 extra-special M5 CSs on the DVLA's books. If you want hen's-teeth-collectable, the bigger car is actually the more obvious place to seek it out.

What we're surveying before us here is M division's first experiment of the modern era into crash-diet engineering, alongside its very latest and what is perhaps its most deliciously ornate.

In that respect, I think the M5 gives the E46 a run for its money. The CSL's lightweight composite front bumper looks like an experiment. There's an almost basic, motorsport-level sense of lashed-up visual purpose about its naked carbonfibre front splitter vanes and that improvised-looking extra circular ram air intake.

The car has an aluminium bonnet, probably because carbonfibre composite tooling wasn't up to making a panel like that in 2003; it has glassfibre composite bucket seats and it has steel brakes.

It was, though, the first BMW with a carbonfibre roof, which, together with the forged alloy wheels and lightweight glazing, meant it weighed 110kg less than a regular E46 M3 coupé: 1385kg in total.

The M5 CS's weight-saving didn't achieve as much. It was 70kg lighter than a regular M5 Competition, although it still weighed in at a whacking great 1940kg in full running order. But the crash-diet efforts are wonderful to admire here.

This car's 'gold-bronze' forged wheels are utterly gorgeous, and the sculpted, naked carbonfibre underside of its vented bonnet is ready to take your breath away every time you lift it up.

The M2 CS has a carbonfibre roof too, not to mention that rather adorable CFRP ducktail bootlid, which so clearly apes the CSL's rounder lightweight steel equivalent.

Gold-bronze forged wheels, together with the weight-saving in the cabin, bring it in some 30kg lighter than a regular M2 auto, at 1700kg on the button.

The CSL is a car from a different dimension built entirely for the wild, unfiltered rawness of its atmospheric six-cylinder engine, the sledgehammer savagery of its automated manual gearbox and the connected feel of its drum-tight ride.

The M5 CS, meanwhile, does feel studiously modern, yet it has damping and wheel control that seems almost supernatural for something of its size and weight. Thanks to that free-revving 626bhp V8 and fully switchable four-wheel drive, it also has a character that can swing from assured 'bahn-storming sophisticate to tyre-bonfiring, hot-rod hooligan at the press of a button.

Its dynamic range is genuinely staggering, and its capacity to inspire confidence is absolutely unmatched by any super-saloon in this tester's experience.

No modern M car snarls and thrashes quite like an E46 CSL. It had BMW's much-loved 'S54' 3.2-litre straight six in its very rarest, fiercest road-legal form.

When you unleash it, there isn't Herculean poke, but the CSL just sounds — and indeed acts — so damn fast. Beyond 6000rpm it's loosening your dental fillings and fizzing through your elbows. The M2's stiffened engine mounts give it a suggestion of the CSL's outright rawness, but it really is only a hint. It's enough to lift it, though, to take it out of the realm of the ordinary and make you feel better connected to it.

The tautness of the M2 CS's ride is comparable to the CSL's. Ultimately, the E46 feels firmer, shorter and leaner over a challenging road, but the CS carries its additional bulk and weight rather well. There's an unexpected sleepiness of off-centre steering response to the CSL compared to today's darty and agile performance cars, but that doesn't mean there isn't wonderful precision and balance.

It guides you towards the apex, giving you supreme confidence to attack as hard as you dare. Get brave and the CSL responds with amazing progressiveness and delicacy. The harder you drive it, the more polished it feels.

In contrast to the CSL, the M5 CS feels hilariously over-endowed. Stick it in rear-drive, DSC-off mode and it will smear its Pirelli Corsas into a gloriously benign slide. Leave it in four-wheel-drive mode and you can just enjoy the tactility, accuracy and positivity of the steering instead.

And the M2 CS? It's got enough of the M5's outright grunt and rampant handling adjustability to make it feel fast and vivacious, and it comes in a package closer to the CSL's for compactness and wieldiness. Genuinely, it's at least close to a best-of-both-worlds situation.

Verdict

1st: BMW M3 CSL The CSL remains the high-water mark in its exalted performance car lineage for spine-tingling rawness, drama and excitement. Vivid and wild yet brilliantly polished on the limit.

2nd: BMW M5 CS Perhaps the best M5 there has ever been; quite possibly the best super-saloon of all. Does it all, from extravagant rear-drive hooliganism to tactile feel.

3rd: BMW M2 CS Falls slightly short of the big guns for combustive presence and dynamic star quality, but for a brand-new baby M car at a five-figure price, it's very impressive indeed.

Memories of the CSL:

Stunt driver and friend of Autocar Mauro Calo, who drove on our test, was one of the first people to drive an E46 CSL on UK roads: it was he who got the job of driving a left-hand-drive press car over to Autocar's London offices, 22 years ago, for our very first report.