Some cars become famous for what they lack. The 3.0 CSL lacked weight — and from 1973, it lacked the rear wing. More precisely: it lay in the boot. It was not fitted at the factory, as it was not road-legal on German roads. Fitting it was left to the customer after purchase — or not.
L for lightweight
The 3.0 CSL was created as a homologation model for the Touring Car European Championship. The L stood for lightweight construction: doors, bonnet and boot lid made of aluminium, side windows of Perspex, thinner sheet metal, deleted insulation and trim. 1,265 units were built, of which 500 were right-hand-drive for the UK — though most of those came with the “City package”, which restored some of the comfort.
From the 3.0 to the Batmobile
- 1971: Launched as the 3.0 CSL with a carburettor engine.
- 1972: 3,003 cm³ with fuel injection — bored out slightly so that the racing version would exceed the three-litre class.
- 1973: 3,153 cm³ with 206 PS at 5,600/min — and the aero package: a deep front spoiler, fins on the front wings, a roof spoiler, a large rear wing. The press dubbed it the “Batmobile”.
- 1973 and 1975–1979: CSL drivers win the drivers’ title of the Touring Car European Championship six times.
The aerodynamics were no mere show package but homologation stock: whatever the racing version was to carry had to exist on the road car. That the wing only had to be supplied, not fitted, for this purpose is the finest footnote in German type-approval history.
The benchmark thereafter
Six drivers’ titles in the Touring Car European Championship between 1973 and 1979 made the CSL the most successful touring car of its era — a title that would only be challenged by another homologation model from Munich: the M3, built following exactly the same logic. Just how closely related the idea is becomes clear when looking at the basis: the large coupé of the model line E9.
Sources: Wikipedia (EN): BMW 3.0 CSL; BMW Group Classic (model archive E9). Photo: Clemens Vasters (CC BY 2.0), Wikimedia Commons — CSL at the Autoworld Museum, Brussels.
Bildnachweise
- Lizenziert · Clemens Vasters from Viersen, Germany, Germany · CC BY 2.0