BMW's limited M4 CSL ran to 1,036 cars, and one is green

BMW's limited M4 CSL ran to 1,036 cars, and one is green

Factory VIN records show BMW built 36 more M4 CSLs than the 1,000 it announced, and 53 of the 50-car 3.0 CSL. They also show where the cars went, and which colours make one rare.

Written by Beau Ackx

26/09/2026

BMW promised 1,000 M4 CSLs, and the factory records count 36 more

BMW built 1,036 examples of the M4 CSL, a car it launched in 2022 as a 1,000-unit edition, and 53 of the 3.0 CSL it sold as a run of 50. The figures come from VIN-level factory records compiled by MDataWorks, a British firm with no link to BMW. They also show which colours, countries and chassis numbers make a CSL rare inside its own run.

BMW's limited M4 CSL ran to 1,036 cars, and one is green

The BMW M4 CSL ran to 1,036 cars, and 658 are Frozen Brooklyn Grey

Nearly two in three M4 CSLs, 658 cars or 63.5 percent, left the factory in the launch colour, Frozen Brooklyn Grey. Black Sapphire accounts for 251 and Alpine White for 126, which makes a white car twice as hard to find as a black one. Exactly one was painted Frozen Tampa Bay Green. The records do not show who ordered it or where it was delivered.

Three BMW 3.0 CSLs sit outside the numbered 001 to 050 run

Fifty 3.0 CSLs carry chassis numbers ending 001 to 050, and three more end in 086, 568 and 661, all delivered in Germany. They are not prototypes: all 53 share the same Alpine White paint, gold wheels, carbon-ceramic brakes and six-speed manual behind a 560 hp straight six. BMW revealed the car in 2022 to mark 50 years of BMW M, as a tribute to the 1970s 3.0 CSL, and charged €750,000 for each.

Germany and Switzerland took 21 of the 53 BMW 3.0 CSLs

Germany took 16 of the 53 3.0 CSLs and Switzerland 5, and Europe absorbed almost the whole run. France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom took 4 each, Belgium and Italy 2 each. The cars went to 22 countries, including one to Guernsey and two to Oman, and only one was officially sold in the United States. The M4 CSL split the other way: the US was its biggest market with 266 cars, ahead of Germany on 201, the UK on 98 and Switzerland on 64.

Germany bought 282 of the 932 BMW M3 CS Tourings

Germany took 282 of the 932 M3 CS Tourings, the fast wagon BMW never sold in North America, and every one is an automatic. That is more than the 242 M3 CS saloons Germany received, which makes it one of the few markets where the wagon outsold the saloon. British Racing Green, on 330 cars, finished within 36 of Black Sapphire. The saloon's own total, 1,727 automatics, will still grow until the manual M3 CS Handschalter run is complete.

BMW announced up to 150 M3 GTS cars in 2010 and built 138

BMW's limits have missed in the other direction too. The E92 M3 GTS was announced at up to 150 cars and ended at 138, none of them for North America. BMW kept none and later had to buy back GTS number 91, which now stands in BMW Welt, so for the 68-car E90 M3 CRT it held on to car 00. MDataWorks' main business is exposing cloned cars and blocked odometers on BMW M models, which is why a VIN list matters more than a brochure number.

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Thirty-six extra cars on a 1,000-car promise is a 3.6 percent overrun, and every one carries the same spec as the rest. That is a small sin next to what the list gives owners in return: proof that a 3.0 CSL ending 568 is genuine rather than cloned, and a colour count that makes a white M4 CSL a one-in-eight car. BMW could have published this itself. An independent register did it instead.

The first M4 CSLs turn five in 2027, the point where they start trading as collector cars rather than used ones. Expect the 126 white cars and the lone green one to be advertised by colour count before mileage, and the three off-sequence 3.0 CSLs to fetch the same money as the numbered fifty, now that the records prove what they are.

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