Manhart Will Give Your BMW M4 CSL More Power Than A McLaren P1

Things move fast in the world of cars. A decade ago, the 903bhp McLaren P1 sat at the pinnacle of the hypercar world, but now, a German tuning company will sell you something more powerful that, fundamentally, is still a BMW 3 Series when you peel back all its extra aggression.

That car is the Manhart MH4 900, the long-time BMW tuner’s take on the M4 CSL. That was already a fairly special car, a (slightly) lightened version of the existing G82 M4 with its power cranked up to 543bhp and sold in a run of just 1000 units.

Clearly, Manhart didn’t think it was special enough. To create the MH4 900, it’s fitted a pair of uprated turbochargers to the M4’s 3.0-litre straight-six, as well as a carbon intake, forged pistons and conrods and a reflashed ECU. All this ups the power to 909bhp and torque to 878lb ft, with the eight-speed automatic gearbox strengthened to stop that latter figure turning into a billion shards of metal all over the road.

Being based on the CSL, the MH4 900 remains rear-wheel drive only, so to give you even a hope of keeping all that power in check, there’s a set of adjustable H&R coilovers. The new Manhart rims are shod in wider tyres than the standard car, too – 285-section at the front, and a massive 305 at the back. Helping stiffen everything up is a half-cage in the interior, although something that’s been left alone is the brakes – they’re still the standard car’s carbon ceramic items.

As is the done thing with a tuned car, much carbon fibre has been lobbed at the exterior, with (deep breath) new air intakes, grilles, a front spoiler, canards, mirror caps, side skirts, side louvres, rear diffuser and lip spoiler all made from the stuff.

It’s finished off with Manhart’s signature champagne gold accents, while complementing all this new visual loudness is some actual noise in the form of a crackly new Remus stainless steel exhaust system.

As usual, there’s no word on how much going the whole hog will cost, or what sort of changes giving an M4 hypercar power brings to its performance numbers. Is it your cup of tea, or is the M4 CSL too rare to be mucking about with like this?