What happened in MOTOR 18 years ago? The BMW M3 CSL took on the Porsche 911 GT3 and won

Circuit Breakers

We've got BMW's scary-fast M3 CSL. We've got Porsche's hardcore 911 GT3. We've got Eastern Creek Raceway. Well, what would you do?

Fast little ship, BMW’s CSL, no question. Light, quick, agile, built for road or track and one of the most impressive production pieces to come from the Bavaria Motor Works house. But equally sharp is Porsche’s 911 GT3 Clubsport, the latest in a fast, volatile bloodline of Stuttgart racers built specifically for speed.

This feature was first published in MOTOR magazine's February 2004 issue

Both focused, hardcore, stuff-comfort track stars, each over 200 big ones and rarer than sushi, the big question remains: surely a modest M3, albeit modified, couldn’t take it to one of Porsche’s meanest, most demanding rego-wearing track cars?

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Time to tell. There’s a CSL and GT3 parked on the dummy grid of Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway. Tester Jesse Taylor, a devout M3 maniac, slots himself into the menacing grey CSL like a kid on Santa’s knee. Dean Evans, always keen to argue a point, picks the Porsche as his weapon of desire in the firm belief it’ll be the chosen one.

Time to enter the Matrix.

Dean Evans: Sure the CSL is great, but the Porsche has it all over it in hardware. Check the specs, the 911 GT3 has a larger engine, tops the Beemer by 15kW and 5Nm, there’s more rubber on the road, a real man’s gearbox and it’s 5kg lighter! The GT3’s clearly a much more focused track car, explain how the CSL is better.

Jesse Taylor: You’d think an M3 is going to have to punch well above its weight to finish on the same day as a track-focused 911 GT3. But this M3 also wears an evocative suffix; perhaps even more evocative than GT3. CSL. Coupe. Sport. Lightweight.

There’s your line in the sand.

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As for hardware, you can buy a GT3 off the shelf, and 55 Aussie punters have already done just that. But if you’re one of the lucky 23 CSL owners (see, it’s even rarer than the 911), you have to produce a CAMS C3 circuit licence before the factory will raise the 250km/h electronic speed limiter to 280km/h. And if you order the super sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup semi-slicks, you get a stern talking to from the dealer. Short story: CSL is dangerous to know.

DE: Yeah, but what’s more dangerous than a Porsche? The thing’s got brakes on it the size of garbage bin lids with six-piston calipers, knows its pilot won’t need traction control, and it’s more serious inside; the monkey bars of the roll cage make rear seats redundant (so there aren’t any!) and keep the sunvisors permanently down, while turning the headlight switch is a lesson in wrist flexibility. There’s a 4kg fire extinguisher taking up pride of place in the passenger footwell and Porsche even fits a five-point harness, as well as the red lap sash belt, which it thoughtfully feeds through the shoulder hole in the flameproof Recaro racing bucket. Shame you can’t shut up the irritating seatbelt chime when you’re wearing the harness, though! And, just because it can, there’s also air-con, climate control, trip computer, four-speaker CD and a 320km/h speedo, plenty of console bins and even a twin cup holder for storing the glasses of victory bubbly!

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JT: Victory bubbly, pah. How hardcore is a cup holder? The CSL doesn’t even have one. Instead, it gets acres of carbon fibre; the door cards and centre console are cloaked in the magic weave. Seats are lightweight fibreglass-shelled hip huggers and the full electric adjustment’s been ditched in favour of manual adjustment, all in the name of weight saving.And the diet’s worked, too, shedding 110kg from the 1495kg base M3 to weigh in at just 1385 kegs.

Rear seat capacity’s gone from three to two. Not that it matters; the non-reclining front buckets barely tilt forward, giving minimal rear seat access anyway. Shag in the back? Not bloody likely.

The message is clear: this baby’s about the driver. Stereo and air-con have slipped to the no-cost option list, and even if you tick the boxes, the stereo is a back-to-basics single CD unit, not the gun Harmon Kardon system found in cooking model M3s. But the real music comes from the engine.

DE: Yeah, the CSL does sound great! But with its lightened internals, the Porsche engine revs like a motorbike. Coupled with a heavy clutch, it makes non-embarrassing stall-free getaways a minor challenge. The flat six has a real growling roughness, a raucous mechanical clatter to it at low speeds, but smooths out above four grand. At 6-2 it really hits, where the VarioCam hauls it to the 8200rpm rev limit, 200 higher than CSL. And look at that massive 100mm bore; there’s 80 percent of torque from just 2000rpm. Cop that!

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JT: Whatever. Sure, the GT3’s got the wood on paper, but it’s out here that counts. Fire up the CSL’s highly strung 3.2-litre straight six and there’s more snaps, crackles and pops than in Rice Bubbles. Blip the loud pedal twice for the hell of it and all your hairs stand to attention. The CSL’s also got 80 percent of its twist on the boil from two grand and peak torque arrives at 4900rpm – 100 revs lower than the GT3. And with max power wrung out at 7900rpm, the CSL’s got a bigger useable rev range.

Once the tacho needle breaches 6400, the six kicks like a VTEC Honda and piles on revs at a frightening pace. Under load the engine note is anvil hard, with an evil induction roar from the gaping 90mm carbon fibre intake trumpet. At the other end of the combustion process, a wall of noise blares from the quad exhausts. Observers in the pits reckon you could pinpoint its location thanks to the blood-curdling wail. Every downshift, hard throttle application and trace of wheelspin echoed across the track. The Porsche? Can’t hear it until it’s upon you.

DE: Or passing you! For an air-breathing six, the GT3’s a rocket in a straight line. While the CSL is stuffing around with traction control, DSC, Sport buttons and SMG levers held forward to activate the launch control, the Porsche just dials up six grand, drops the clutch and blazes up both rears as it belts out a 0-100km/h time half a second faster than the Beemer and stretches the gap down the quarter. After just 400 metres, it’s going 5km/h quicker and taken just 13.0 seconds! How far back was the BM?

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JT: But we’re not here for drag racing. The CSL, and the Porsche, are built for hot lapping. And for all the extra urge and crispness of throttle response, it’s the almost unbelievable levels of turn-in bite and mid-corner grip in the CSL that’s so addictive. The grip from the semi-slick Cups is incredible. You’re exiting a corner realising the CSL could have carried another 10 or 15 kays. So next lap you swallow the brave pill, sink the slipper and tip into the same corner with another 15 kliks on board. And still the Bimmer shrugs its broad and talented shoulders at the timidity of the mug behind the wheel. Up to that point, the CSL allows you to take liberties that would have you flinching in the Porsche.

DE: There’s a Porsche logo on my wheel, but I’m finding it damned hard to keep up, especially out of turn three, where the BMW simply powers away and the Porsche is yawing and fidgeting, on the verge of oversteer. At 9/10ths the GT3’s edge is very ragged, whereas the BMW’s edge at the same point seems polished and chamfered!

We could have stiffened up the 911’s adjustable sway bars in 15 minutes, but it was still a handful. Relatively. Under brakes it wants to swing around if there’s any steering on board, and it’s twitchy through the turns; you soon get used to that, though. But under power it pushes if you jump on it too soon, and if you’re too aggressive it wants to break the rear free. Then after a lap or two the rear tyres seem to lose grip and you’re squeezing the power on later and later, trying to limit the power oversteer. It’s hard work! You find yourself relying on its brakes to make up time, and thankfully they’re gold; use ’em like you’re trying to fade them and they stubbornly refuse, allowing you to go in deeper and press harder. I could make up at almost 50 metres under brakes into turn two.

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JT: Yep, the CSL could do with better brakes, despite the larger rotors and recalibrated ABS. Disappointingly for the $210,000 ask, the cross-drilled discs are still clamped by single-piston slider-type calipers. But with the excellent front engine/rear drive balance (51:49 front to rear weight distribution) and the mind-blowing grip of the Cups, you can drive around the downfall of the anchors.

But for all the ground the Porsche bites out of the CSL under brakes, the M3 takes it back with interest on turn-in and through mid-corner. It’s simply a matter of trusting the grip and faithful feedback sent through the chunky suede steering wheel and quick rack. I’m picking up the throttle harder and earlier until the front end pushes a fraction on exit or the rear starts to wander wide at mid-corner. And the CSL is leaving me plenty in reserve for adjustment.

Of all the corners at Eastern Creek, the 911 is only making real ground exiting the change of direction at turns 6/7, and this is down to both cars’ gearing in the second-to-third change rather than grip. Still, I’d be curious to try the GT3 on these tyres.

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DE: Yep, gimme those Cups. I reckon there’s at least a second or two around here in the tyres alone. It’s clear the Porsche is working hard to keep up. After three hot laps, it was pretty obvious which one was easier and more consistent to drive fast. The GT3 felt faster in a straight line, but it was losing so much through the corners! I thought the Porsche’s best lap time, for a road car on semi-road tyres, with two people aboard, was pretty damned impressive. A lap around Eastern Creek in 1min 49.84sec is not hanging around. And it backed it up with a 1:49.86!

JT: Shame it’s slow compared with the BMW! Its quickest lap was 1.8sec faster with a 1min 48.51sec, then a 1:48.00! Down the main straight, that’s an average gap of 65.5 metres or 14.5 car lengths (based on average lap speeds of 128.77km/h for the GT3 and 130.99km/h for the CSL). But the GT3’s chasing the M3 down by the end of the straight. Which is pretty impressive as it’s giving up a few car lengths onto the straight.

DE: The GT3’s constantly playing catch-up. It’s almost 10km/h slower onto the main straight, but it grabs fifth gear about 100 metres earlier, rounds up and blasts by the BMW and is 4km/h quicker before braking. The 911 loses out through the turns, but makes it up on the straights, both accelerating and braking. I do like the BMW’s paddle shift, though. As sharp and solid as the Porsche shift is, the ability to keep both hands on the wheel is a bonus.

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JT: Yeah, despite what Morley reckons, SMG II works well enough, particularly with the sharper shifting revisions in the CSL. And you’ve gotta love the bigger (than M3) blips on downshifts.

A couple of UK magazines have questioned whether the CSL has stepped up the game over a regular M3. As an unashamed M3 fan, I can tell you it’s a huge leap for M-kind. Whether it’s worth an extra $70,000 is another matter entirely.

DE: Yeah, next to an M3 the CSL is questionable value, but it’s clearly a better track tool. I’d like to see how fast a regular M3 SMG would be with the CSL’s Cup tyres, quick rack, airbox and exhaust bolted on. I think it’d be close to flat 1:50s.

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The GT3, on its own, is a performance bargain considering it’s the same price as an NSX or Viper. But then you realise it’s just been beaten by a cheaper BMW. I know the Cups would help the 911’s lap times, but it wouldn’t change the way it’s a more demanding drive. After a 20-lapper in the Porsche, you’d be both slower and sweatier. Today the CSL beat it easy and it’s 30 grand cheaper.

In fact, I’ve changed my mind. I still love the Porsche for its styling, performance and handling, and I’m sure it’d be as fast, if not faster than the CSL on equal tyres and with a bit of sway bar tuning. But for its chassis balance and that angry rasp of induction and exhaust note, I’d pocket the 30 grand and take the CSL.

JT: Tough luck, it’s already spoken for.

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