Evolve Automotive had the clever idea to make a BMW M3 Touring “CSL” by taking bone stock M3 Touring right from the factory and giving it a suite of mods to give it a similar look and feel to the M4 CSL. It was clearly a good idea because the car is blowing up all over the internet, YouTube, and social media. In this new video from AutoTopNL, we get to see it again but this time from behind the driver’s seat.

As always, this video is a POV video, so it’s the closes thing to driving the car that you can get without actually driving it. You get to see if from behind the wheel, hear its exhaust, and see what it can do on the German Autobahn. For the most part, it’s a stock BMW M3, mechanically. So it’s obviously incredibly fast. But you also get to see the mods that were made and what they bring to the car’s overall experience.

For example, the matte carbon fiber engine air intakes look fantastic and improve low rpm torque better. Even more than that, they improve the noise. The added induction noise of the M3 Touring thanks to those two intakes is delights. Especially all M3s sound kind of lame from the factory. The upgraded titanium Remus exhaust on this car helps, too. It might actually sound better than the M4 CSL.

However, a couple of air intakes does not a CSL make. So this M3 Touring has a CSL front end, with the grills and all other added components. So it still just looks like a normal front end, just with some lipstick, too.

To make it handle somewhat like an M4 CSL, this specific M3 Touring was given progressive lower springs, new wheels, stickier tires. It looks much better than before but any customers looking for something as loud and dramatic as the M4 CSL, will want to buy this car. It isn’t perfect, as its steel brakes really let it down the Autobahn, and its steering is a bit numb. According to this video, the steering is worse in the Touring model than it is in the standard M3, which doesn’t make much sense. It does, however, prove that some modding can completely transform its character. The M3 Touring is a bit more of an all-rounder than a proper performance machine and these mods help it come out of its shield a bit.