BMW M3 CS Touring spent several days crossing the United Kingdom under the hands of Chris Harris, who treated the car as both long-distance transport and circuit tool. His route began after a flight from Dubai and continued in a British Racing Green example loaded for a demanding schedule.
The first stage pointed toward Anglesey Circuit. Before reaching the track, Harris covered 489 motorway miles. Fuel use over that opening section settled at 28 mpg, and he noted no major effort linked to economy driving. The trip itself stretched across roughly 20 hours of travel before the circuit work even began.
His criticism during the long motorway section focused elsewhere. BMW removed cup holders when the Competition evolved into the CS version, and the center armrest also disappeared. Those details stood out more than fatigue, weather, or seat discomfort. In fact, the fixed bucket seats surprised him in the opposite direction. What looked severe at first turned out to work well over distance, and he rated them above the regular chairs once several hours passed.
At the circuit, Harris joined Mission Motorsport activity and stayed in passenger-lap duty until darkness took over. Lap after lap followed without a mechanical complaint. The estate weighs 1,800kg, yet repeated hard braking failed to upset the carbon ceramic setup. Brake discs glowed red during the session, though fade never arrived. Pedal feel stayed consistent. By 9pm, after hours of circuit work, the event closed and the car headed north again.
Five hours later, the same M3 CS Touring cruised beyond the Scottish border toward Edinburgh. Track driving changed the fuel number sharply, dropping average consumption to 14.5mpg, though Harris returned repeatedly to one point: the wagon handled circuit abuse and motorway distance in one uninterrupted sequence.
He also separated the chassis from simple power figures. In his view, an ordinary M3 engine remap reaches similar output, though the CS suspension setup sits elsewhere entirely. Steering response felt sharper, with fewer traces of headline-driven tuning. The rear compartment also earned praise. Heated floor sections for dogs, rear seats folding from the luggage area, a towing eye hidden inside a side compartment, and a small cubby suggested practical thinking survived the CS conversion.
Price remains the hardest number to ignore. In the UK, the M3 CS Touring sits at £140,000. A regular M3 Touring stays near £70,000. Harris still expects the CS to hold value, pointing to what happened with E46 M3 prices and arguing BMW M is unlikely to repeat a non-hybrid estate like this soon.
