New BMW M3 CS Touring revealed: performance car gets 542bhp for £120k

On sale March | Price from £120,600

Think of the new BMW M3 CS Touring as being like a Big Tasty with Bacon from McDonalds. It has all the key ingredients which make the BMW M3 Touring such a tasty treat – it's our reigning Performance Car of the Year, remember – but adds an extra dollop of deliciousness.

Indeed, the new M3 CS Touring should be pretty tasty, with an output of 542bhp from its 3.0-litre engine – that’s slightly more than the current M3 Touring. This jump in power allows it to complete a 0-62mph sprint in an official 3.5sec, which is even speedier than the Porsche Panamera GTS, but the Audi RS6 Avant will get there marginally faster.

The M3 CS Touring comes in at 15kg lighter than the current M3 Competition Touring, which should make for some more agile handling.

Buyers can choose between three driving modes: Road, Sport and Track. As the names suggest, the modes range from a more comfortable setup to one optimised for track driving. In Sport mode, engine noise should be amplified to provide a ferocious soundtrack to your drive. The M3 CS Touring comes with an all-wheel-drive system, but driving modes are customisable with both four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive.

Inside, the M3 CS Touring gets a 12.3in driver’s display alongside a 14.9in infotainment touchscreen, which can show performance-based data. Electrically adjustable heated leather front seats come as standard, as well as a flat-bottomed steering wheel and head-up display. The range of front-seat adjustment in the current M3 is fantastic, so the M3 CS Touring should get the same treatment.

The centre console is home to buttons for access to driving modes, where you can fiddle with engine, braking and steering settings, and driver assistance functions, with which you can control the content you see on your driver’s and head-up displays. 

With an official fuel economy figure of just 26.9mpg, the M3 CS Touring won’t be particularly cheap to run – but you wouldn’t really expect it to be. On the plus side, it should come with plenty of standard kit, including two-zone automatic climate control, integrated sat-nav, wireless smartphone charging, smartphone mirroring and a wi-fi hotspot.

In terms of safety kit, the M3 CS Touring will get plenty of standard functions, including Park Distance Control and Parking Assist, Front Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning and Speed Limit Info.

The BMW M3 CS Touring will go on sale in March. Prices will start from £120,600, which makes it more expensive than the RS6 Avant, but undercuts the Panamera GTS.

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