Riverti teases a BMW M2 restyled like a 1970s 3.0 CSL
A small Italian coachbuilder called Riverti Automobili is teasing a new car, and the little we know is enough to make BMW fans pay attention: a modern M2 reimagined as a 1970s 3.0 CSL.
Details are deliberately scarce. Riverti Automobili's website is still just a “coming soon” splash page, and the car has not been officially revealed. But the picture emerging from the teaser and from sightings is a coachbuilt special based on the current BMW M2, the G87, restyled to evoke the legendary BMW 3.0 CSL of the early 1970s. One has already been spotted in the metal at the Tutto Benne hillclimb, so this is a real, running car rather than a render.
Treat everything below as an informed reading of a teaser, not confirmed fact.
The base: BMW's most divisive M car
Starting with the G87 M2 is a pointed choice. The current M2 is a brilliant driver's car, fast and rear-driven, but its slab-sided, boxy styling is the most controversial design in the M range. That makes it fertile ground for a coachbuilder: keep the mechanical talent, the roughly 480 hp straight-six of the current cars, and replace the look with something the M2's critics might actually love.
The look: 3.0 CSL, one of the most beautiful BMWs ever
And what a look to borrow. The BMW 3.0 CSL, the lightweight, big-winged “Batmobile” that dominated 1970s touring car racing, is one of the most revered shapes BMW has produced. Reinterpreting it on a modern M2 is ambitious, and if Riverti gets the proportions right, it could be spectacular. It also puts the company in fashionable company, because the restomod and coachbuilding world is booming, from Audi Sport quattro tributes like the HSR Type 859 to modern reinterpretations of design icons like the Autoforma Audi TTS.
What we do not know
Almost everything else is a blank. There is no confirmed power figure, no word on weight or how far the bodywork changes go, no production number, no price and no reveal date. Riverti itself is a new and little-known name, so its scale and ambitions are unclear too. The hillclimb sighting suggests development is well under way, but until the covers come off, the CSL homage is a promise rather than a product.
AutoNext Take
This is exactly the kind of project worth watching, precisely because it is risky. Taking BMW's most awkwardly-styled M car and dressing it as its most beautiful classic is a bold swing, and the restomod boom has proven there is real appetite, and real money, for cars that pair modern hardware with old magic. If Riverti nails the proportions, an M2 that looks like a 3.0 CSL could be one of the more desirable coachbuilt BMWs in years.
The caveat writes itself: this is still a teaser from an unknown company, and teasers are where ambition is cheapest. Plenty of promising coachbuild projects never get past the first show car. The fact that this one is already turning wheels at a hillclimb is a genuinely good sign, though, and now Riverti just has to build it.
