Getting a chance to drive a BMW 3.0 CSL would be incredibly rare. It's one of BMW's most iconic race cars, and they do not come up for sale often, since only 1,265 were built to satisfy the homologation rules. BMW even created an homage to the CSL based on a modern M4 and limited to just 50 units. Thanks to its rarity, the car has already doubled in value from the original $780,000 starting price.
Clearly, anything even remotely related to the iconic CSL garners admiration from BMW enthusiasts, so when Pathfinder Motorsports in Melbourne, Florida, reached out to have us drive a special project called the CSR, we had to say, "Yes." BMW never built a car called the "CSR," so you may be wondering what this project is all about. Buckle up, because it gets pretty strange.
A Bizarre Project
Alan Petersen of Pathfinder Motorsports set out to build a car for a Hollywood spy series, where a British MI5 agent would drive a 1970 BMW 3.0 CS. After using it in the show, the car would undergo a second transformation into a race car for the seven-day Mexican La Carrera Panamericana, one of the most dangerous road races in the world.
The 1970 2800 CS we used had a clean body, but both the frame and the suspension were in very poor condition, rendering it unsafe for the streets and the rough road conditions the Mexican roads would present during the seven-day rally. We soon realized we had only two options: sell it for parts, or give it a second life.
That's when my brother and I decided to create the perfect Panamericana BMW CSR: designed to be reliable, easy to service, quick to source parts while in Mexico, and, of course, be superfast.
- Peterson explained
The Perfect Solution (Make It A Corvette)
Only the roof, doors, windows, hood, and trunk of the original 3.0 CS were saved. Peterson and his brother had to find a new chassis, engine, and transmission that could work underneath a 1970 BMW body, the rest of which would need to be fabricated from scratch. Despite being built decades apart in different countries and having completely unrelated dimensions, a C5 Chevrolet Corvette turned out to be the perfect donor car.
Peterson wanted his CSR Concept (Club Sport Race) to be a hypothetical version of what the 3.0 CSL might have been if it arrived a few years earlier for the 1967 FIA Group 6 racing class. That series did not have any limits on engine capacity or a production requirement for homologation. In this hypothetical, BMW may have used a V8 with tuning from Alpina, which would not have been allowed in Group 6 following a rule change in 1968, limiting engines to 3.0 liters. Obviously, the Corvette's Detroit-born LS1 V8 and transaxle weren't exactly what BMW would have used, but this project was purely for fun.
A Convincing Clone
If you don't know this car is a Corvette underneath, the CSR passes for an extremely convincing BMW. The car doesn't exactly look like a CSL, but it's far from stock with those epic fender flares and wide tires. The bodywork is all metal (no fiberglass), and Peterson says the car has even been invited to BMW car shows and covered in editorials of BMW magazines. Pathfinder took three years to craft the hand-formed body sitting over the C5 Corvette chassis.
Inside, Peterson needed the CSR to meet the requirements of the La Carrera Panamericana, which included a roll cage and racing seats. We just wish he had picked a more period-correct fabric, as the red looks more at home in a Corvette than a BMW.
The cabin looks like a BMW race car. The dashboard is from a CSL with CSL-style switches, Alpina gauges, an Alpina shifter, and rally instruments for the passenger. There's really only one telltale sign that would reveal this is a C5 from the driver's seat, and it requires folding down the plaque that reads "DON'T PANIC" in bold font: the original Corvette climate controls.
Even the LS1 engine is meticulously disguised with BMW valve covers, custom Alpina engine plates, and stickers and emblems to make it look like an older V8 with a Bosch mechanical fuel-injection system.
Race Ready
The C5 Corvette already served as a decent starting point for a race car, but Pathfinder Motorsport needed to improve it further to handle a seven-day endurance challenge in grueling Mexican heat. The 5.7-liter V8 engine was upgraded with stainless-steel headers, a cold-air intake, a C5-R Le Mans radiator, and more. It now produces over 400 horsepower reliably, up from the stock 345 hp. Power goes to the rear wheels via a Tremec T56 transaxle, giving the car a near 50-50 weight balance.
To address the Corvette's overheating transmission and differential issues, the CSR received custom oil coolers and cooling fans. The handling was improved with competition coilover springs and shocks, BMW Racing Dynamics competition-grade sway bars, and aluminum double A-arms at each of the four independent suspension corners. Other upgrades include a metal-matrix composite driveshaft and drilled-and-slotted competition brakes.
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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
