BMW has wowed the crowds at this year’s Monterey Speed Week with the unveiling of two concept cars at the Pebble Beach Concours. A near-production concept of the M4 GTS has been revealed at the event, and the stunning CSL Hommage also made its debut.
We’ve previously driven a BMW M4 MotoGP safety car that previewed the hotter powertrain for the forthcoming GTS. It uses the standard M4’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six, but adds water-injected turbochargers (tech previously banned in motorsport) to produce at least 460bhp.
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The exterior of the concept gets some dramatic tweaks over the standard car. There’s ‘Acid Orange’ detailing on the new adjustable front splitter and intricate forged alloys, 19-inch on the front and 20-inch at the rear.
The striking exposed carbon rear wing also stands out, indicating its track-biased status and harking back to the previous M3 GTS of 2011. Only 15 examples of that car were built in right-hand drive, and we’re expecting similarly slim quantities of the new one.
As we found out on the safety car drive, that estimated 460bhp figure (at least 35bhp more than the standard car) is pretty conservative. BMW M’s boss Frank van Meel claims the true figure could be as much as 500bhp, although we’ll have to wait for the official number.
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The M4 GTS also showcases new OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) lighting tech that will eventually debut on its series production models.
As well as the M4 GTS, Pebble Beach attendees were treated to the bold 3.0 CSL Hommage concept, previously shown at a prestigious event in Italy. The striking concept was built to hark back to the iconic CSL models of the Seventies.
