As a development engineer at BMW M, Jörg Weidinger is responsible for the overall set-up of the vehicles and as a racing driver well-known for his record lap times on the Nordschleife. Including the BMW M4 CSL. Optimized for the race track, the two-seater high-performance sports car with Weidinger at the wheel managed the best ever time for a BMW M series vehicle: 7:20.207 minutes. By chance, he then became an in-depth everyday suitability tester by undertaking a spontaneous road trip with the unique special edition to the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
IT ALL BEGAN WITH A MIX-UP.
This journey offered the rare opportunity to get a long-term impression of the finished product after the end of the adjustment phase and find out how this very sporty vehicle behaves over long distances. That’s why I chose a varied route and didn’t just drive all the way there on the motorway.
BMW M development engineer and racing driver
DEPARTURE. THE WEATHER GETS IN THE WAY.
At 2am on the Wednesday before the race meeting they set off in the BMW M4 CSL. In the passenger’s M Carbon full bucket seat beside Weidinger: his neighbour and friend Markus Krajnik. At a barbecue, the trucker had spontaneously taken up Jörg’s invitation to join the former racing driver on his 1,250 km trip from the BMW M HQ in Garching to the Festival of Speed. But shortly after they set off, the weather started playing up. "On the first 190 kilometres we had torrential rain, which put paid to our idea to quickly get a few fast kilometres under our belts," says Weidinger.
From Stuttgart onwards, the BMW M4 CSL could show off its talents away from the race track on almost dry roads. First on the autobahn, then between Karlsruhe and Landstuhl on long sections of main road, "which at 5:30am is really pretty cool and a lot of fun," as Weidinger puts it. The rest of the way to Goodwood, it was all about going as fast as possible so as to reach the start of the Festival of Speed in time. So the journey went via Karlsruhe, Brussels, Ghent, by train through the Eurotunnel and then on the quickest route to the event.
PURIST SUITABLE FOR EVERYDAY LIFE.
The result of the unplanned long-distance test turned out very well on arrival in Goodwood: Despite its purist character and the fact that the car was designed for use on the race track, the M4 CSL remains absolutely suitable for everyday use too. "The driving time to Goodwood was about 13.5 hours. Which we covered in absolute comfort," says Weidinger.
The nice thing about the BMW M4 CSL is that you can drive it to the race track – regardless of how far away that is – and then go straight from the pit lane onto the track without changing a thing.
BMW M development engineer and racing driver
FROM THE ROAD ONTO THE TRACK.
Already the next day, Thursday, there was a very different programme for car and driver. Jörg Weidinger and the BMW M4 CSL completed the legendary Goodwood hill climb, the icon hill race track outside Goodwood House, twice a day for four days. First as a high-speed taxi for journalists and Youtuber like Joe Achilles or Shmee150, on the last two days against the clock and competition: the sportiest vehicles from all the different epochs of motor racing history.
FROM THE LIMIT TO EVERYDAY MODE.
Jörg Weidinger and the M4 CSL covered almost 2,000km on the road. On well-built motorways, winding main roads and tracks full of potholes. He summed up the road trip thus: "Once again, I was able to see for myself the correctness of our adjustment philosophy of considering race track performance as an important part of the overall concept in our M vehicles, despite the focus on absolute suitability for everyday use!"
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